Malachi 2:1-9 - Chosen to Lead

So we are going through a series looking at the prophet Malachi

and what he has to say, what he had to say to the the Jewish

readers of his day and how that affects us now.

And I'm going to be reading today from Malachi chapter 2,

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

the 1st 9 lines. And so come up there.

But if you want to find that, we are going to get straight into

it. So, and now, you priests, this

warning is for you. If you do not listen and if you

do not resolve to honour my name, says the Lord Almighty, I

will send a curse on you and I will curse your blessed

blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them

because you have not resolved to honour me.

Because of you, I will rebuke your descendants.

I will smear on your faces the dung from your fest, festivals,

festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it, and

you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my

covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord Almighty.

My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and

I gave them to him. This called for reverence and he

revered me and stood in awe of my name.

True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was

found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and

uprightness and turned from from sin, so many from sin.

For the lips of a priest ought to be preserve, preserve

knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty

and and and people seek instruction from his mouth.

But you have turned from the ways and by your teaching have

caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant

with Levi, says the Lord Almighty.

So I have cursed you to I've cursed you to be despised and

humiliated before all peoples, because you have not followed my

ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I ask God that you

would, you would speak to us. Lord Jesus, I pray Lord God, if

there's any, including myself, they've got a bit of a cold.

Lord Jesus, that you would, you would, you'd heal us this

morning, God, you'd, you'd revitalise us this morning.

Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, that as as we talk about

Malachi, as we talk about the priesthood, Lord Jesus, you

would mould us and shape us into being the leaders of your people

to be the people that you have called us to be.

Amen, Amen. Right.

So over the last few weeks we've been looking at the book of

Malachi and we've looked at that Malachi calls us a chosen

people. And last week I showed you that

Malachi says that we are chosen in our chosen us as chosen

people. We are chosen to worship the law

that we are chosen to sacrifice, to lay down our rights, to lay

down our our our stuff for him. And this week we're looking at

that Malachi starts to talk about the priesthood and then

then the priests, they are the the leaders of the nation.

They're the spiritual leaders. And what we're going to look at

is actually that that Malachi is calling us to be a people who

are chosen, who worship him, him and lead that every single one

of us is called to lead. Then actually the Bible is going

to go on to say that we are not priests in the order of Levi,

but we are priests. We are royal priests in the

order of Christ. See the in the in the Old

Testament, the priests were there to bridge the gap between

your average person, your average is right and gods.

You see in we see that when God called Israel and God called

Jacob, Jacob had his twelve sons and from each of those sons

became a tribe. They became the head of a new

tribe and that tribe went into Egypt and was enslaved.

But then in coming out of Egypt, God promised each one of them a

an allotment of lands. Modern day.

This is what is now Israel, Jordan, that area of the world

God allotted to the tribes. He said each tribe, Benjamin,

you can have this tribe. Judah you can have, you can have

this area. Simon, you can have this area.

He went through all the tribes, but Levi, he did not give a

single piece of land. Instead, he said to Levi, I the

Lord gods, I am your portion. You're not getting Hill Country,

you're not getting fields, you're not getting whatever

you're getting me as your portion.

See, they were called to be the spiritual leaders of the

community. The Levis were the priests of

the community and they, they were to end the temple, the

Tabernacle, the presence of God on behalf of the people.

They, they, they were to represent the people to gods and

they got to represent God to the people.

They were to learn, as it says here, they were to learn, they

were to study the scriptures, what God had said to them and

they were to pass that on and to be teachers to the people.

So as we read in Leviticus that so the people knew what was holy

and what was common so that the people knew how to live as a

called out nation, have lived separately from everyone else.

And so they were to teach and correctly teach the people.

So when we've looked at sacrifices and what sacrifices

are accepted to God and which ones weren't, it was the Levi's

who not only did the sacrificing, but they were the

ones to teach the people, this is what you bring.

This is what God wants. God wants complete heartfelt

sacrifice. But as we've seen in chapter 1

already, the Levi's, the priests of Malachi's time, they've

failed. They failed.

They can make a complete mess of it.

They put their own interests above Yahweh.

They put their own interests above of reading and studying

and being with him and in his words.

And we see that actually 400 years later, not much has

changed. You go 400 years on from

Malachi, you get to Jesus and what's recorded in the Gospels.

And in that time you've got these group of guys who the

spiritual high standard called the Pharisees, but they're no

different to the priests of Malachi's time.

You see in the the the Pharisees, they repeatedly, they

repeatedly are addressed by Jesus as have you not read?

Do you not know the Bible? Now these are people who could

recite whole scrolls of scripture.

You've had to say, what does it say in the book of Isaiah?

And they'd say which bit and just start repeating it.

Just start by rote say. But so these weren't people who

hadn't read it, who hadn't studied it, but Jesus saying you

don't understand it, you'd have don't see that.

It leads to me that it's pointing to me.

And that's the same thing for the priests of Malachi's time.

There were people who had refused to humble themselves

that their hearts had drifted away from gods.

And as we looked at last week, at best their worship was

pretending it was plastic, it was fake.

And we see this in the in the in the Pharisees day that they were

hypocrites. They would make long walks and

pray out loud so everyone could hear them.

But inside they were dead. Paul would say you're a white

washed tomb. Outside you look amazing, but

inside there's nothing but dead bones.

There's no spirit, there's no life there.

They turn worship, they turn leading God's people into a

business. They, they, they, they, they

used it as a profit thing that you know, we're going to

sacrifice the, the, the least expensive animals.

We're going to, we're going to, we're going to make money.

We're going to use our position. We're going to use our power to

make much of ourselves, even if it's at the expense of the poor

and lonely. And in Jesus day, exactly the

same thing was happening. This is what made Jesus mad.

He it made him furious. He, you know, he went into the

temple, the place where the common person wanted to come and

worship their gods. But the common person, if they

came to worship their gods, they might bring a lamb that might be

their best lamb that they've ever had and they're going to

bring it to sacrifice to God. But they've been met with people

saying that's not good enough. It's not good enough for this.

You're going to have to buy one of our special lambs, which

costs about 10 times the amount of your lamb.

But you can't use your money because your money is is

polluted. You have to use temple money.

So you're going to have to go buy our you're going to have to

exchange your money at an extortionate rate to, to to get

temple money, which then you can buy the lamb with.

And then obviously the temple and the priests got rich of the

average person who just wanted to to praise and worship God.

And that's why Jesus goes ballistic in all in the gospels

you read about and making a whip and starting shooing people and

letting animals out cages and, and going crazy in the temple

courts. You see, they had ignored gods.

They were hypocrites. They had they had they, they

positioned themselves, they put themselves in a position where

they were gaining at the expense of others.

But she also, what they were doing is they were making it

harder for everyday people to exit to come into contact with

gods, the priests through their, their port, through their poor

teaching. But the Pharisees in there,

they, they did a similar thing. They would put up barriers

because of their pride, saying, well, not everyone should be

able to come to God. You need to be like me.

You need to jump over these hurdles.

And rather than than teaching the people a way to come to God,

they placed barrier after barrier after barrier to stop

people coming to him in the 1st place, finding his grace and

mercy. And we looked at last week that

the one of the reasons why the the priests of Malachi's day

were doing this wasn't because they were evil people.

It wasn't because it was because it says they were tired, they

were weary. God says I've been good to you.

And they're like when where we've been here for 100 years.

We've been back from Exxon for over 100 years now.

And we expected things to be different.

We thought the Messiah would come.

We thought that, that, that, that people would no longer be

getting sick. We thought that the, the, the

oppressive ruling nations, they'd be defeated.

We thought that things would be better by now.

And they hadn't. So they've become weary.

Who's feeling weary? You don't need to put your hands

up. But who's feeling weary today?

Who's being weary? Maybe you're feeling weary

because of disappointment, just like the priests.

Maybe you're you're feeling weary because of constant

trials. It just feels like you're

hitting one thing after another after another after another.

It doesn't seem to stop. Maybe you're feeling weary

because of things that have happened to you or maybe things

that you've done. Maybe you're feeling weary

because really you're just a bit jealous of everyone else.

You're seeing what they've got. You're seeing their images on

Instagram. You're like, I should have that.

And living in that constant jealousy, that constant,

constant desiring is building up resentment which is just

wearying you and waiting you down.

Maybe you're feeling weary because you're lonely.

Maybe it's very real. Maybe you've lost someone and

who you confided in, who was so close to you, and now you've not

got them anymore. Maybe someone who was close to

you betrayed you, and now you've not got them.

They're still around, but you don't have them anymore.

Are you weary? Well, if you are, that's good

news, because Jesus said in Matthew 11, Come to me, all who

are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Notices. I will give you not.

I might give you not. I could give you it's I will

give you. Come to me and I will give you

rest. My yoke.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I for I am gentle

and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

And I don't know if anyone's ever put this connected this in

your head because we like to just kind of this is sort of

verse we might put on a mug or write in a card.

It's just like a nice thing to say.

But the context of this verse, if you go back a few lines, we

see we've got John the Baptist. He's in prison.

He is, he's cold, he's hungry. He's he's, he's uncomfortable

and he's starting to doubt Jesus.

Are you really the Messiah? And so he sends some of his his

disciples to Jesus and they come to Jesus and they, they ask him

his questions. And John wants to know, are you

the Christ? Are you the one?

Because because life doesn't seem to be going how I thought

it would go. I thought you'd come and you'd

deal with everything. But you know, I saw this Holy

Spirit come on you. I, I proclaimed it that you were

the, the Lamb of God that was going to going to sort out the

world. Was I wrong?

And if, if, if, if, if you are Jesus, you need to give me

something, you need to give me strength so that I can endure

till the end because I want to stay faithful.

And Jesus, his response is lean on me, find rest in me, take on

my yoke and you will find rest. You will find peace.

See, this is not just a nice quote, like I said, actually

this isn't just like something that you get to send in a text

message to someone. This is, this is life, church.

This is life. It's not about just having a

nice time, though that's amazing on a Sunday where we can just

soak in and rest in God's presence.

We need to practise daily, a daily routine of resting in

God's presence, of being with him, of letting him wash over

us, because actually the difference between doing it and

not can actually be the difference between finishing

strong and hearing Jesus Christ proclaim over you well done,

good and faithful, servant, servant, and shipwrecking your

whole faith. See the priests, they failed.

They didn't do what what God had called them to do.

And, and, and the reason why they didn't do it is because

they failed to rest in the Lord. You see, being the priest, being

the spiritual leader of the nation, it, it required first

encountering God on a daily basis, finding rest in him, and

then with that rest, the strength from that rest going

into the world. For them it meant leading the

people. For us it means leading

ourselves, leading the people around us.

So he says in verse 5, he said my covenant was with him.

That's him. Is Levi, a covenant of life and

peace? And I gave them to him.

So God, God made a covenant. He made an agreement with with

Levi, the people of Levi. And that covenant was a covenant

of life and peace, a covenant that brings peace, a covenant

that brings life. And he said this call for

reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.

True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was

found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and

uprightness and turned many from their sin.

So this is what the priesthood was meant to be like.

This is who Levi the tribal leaver.

This is who they were meant to be like.

But they failed over and over and over again.

Every single one of them. I mean, you look back in Genesis

and you've got the real, you know, the, the, the, the man

Levi, who the tribe is named after.

I mean, he was a complete failure to this.

We really, he wasn't a man of peace or uprightness.

He was a man who was violent, impulsive.

He was responsible for the massacre of an entire entire,

entire people. And and he was one of the key P

conspirators who wanted to kill his brother Joseph.

Remember that story, all the brothers who wanted to kill him

until one of the brothers decided, no, no, we can't kill

him. Let's just sell him into

slavery. And that that did that.

That was OK. That's the sort of person he

was. And on on his father's deathbed,

Jacob said over him. He said cursed be your anger,

cursed be your not a man of peace, not a man who reflected

this wonderful person that that that God is is is proclaiming in

Malachi. But actually, you don't have to

look too far. If you read through the Old

Testament and you read the about the different priests, about the

priesthood, None of them lived up to this standard.

They all failed. They all failed every single one

of them. That the first proper true high

priest of Israel, Aaron, he's proclaimed you're high priest of

Israel. You're the one, you're the one

that is going to lead God's people.

You turn over the page, He's leading them all right.

He's leading them to worship a golden calf, not God himself.

He's he's completely foolish. He's an idiot.

See, Malachi is describing not a physical person in the tribe of

Levi, but he is describing the perfect high priest, the perfect

leader of God's people. And that perfect leader is

fulfilled in the man, in the God man, Christ Jesus.

See where human priests, human leaders fail, Jesus succeeded.

Jesus is the only one who succeeded.

Jesus is the true perfect priest of Levi, God's chosen leader of

his people. See it says true instruction was

it was in his mouth. Jesus spoke only what the Father

said. He it says he walked with me in

peace and uprightness. Jesus LED from a place of

perfect rest and intimacy with the Father.

It says he turned many from sins.

Jesus wasn't coercive or controlling, but because of his

leadership, billions of people have had their lives

transformed. So Jesus is the blueprint.

He's the blueprint of life. He's the blueprint of how we are

to be a leader. And that's why when we, when we

look at scripture, you know, last week, we, we appointed our

first diaconate team. And when we look at people to be

elders or deacons or oversee different types of ministry,

what we don't do is put an advert out there and say who can

do a job. It's not how we do it actually,

because in Scripture, you look at Acts chapter 6, they need,

Acts 6 · chapter mention

they had a load of people who are hungry and needed to be fed.

The, the, the apostles didn't go right.

OK, who's good? We're feeding people.

No, no, no, it said. Let's find people who are filled

with the Spirit of God, who love Jesus, who do what he does, who

are servants. That's what we are called to do.

That's what we're called to be. See, the reason why the, the,

the, the, the Levitical priests failed to be like Jesus, to lead

like him, is because actually to lead like Jesus, to live like

Jesus is completely countercultural to the world.

That's why repentance means that you were going this way and you

don't just say sorry, you turn and go that way.

Everything about what you do is different to the world.

That's what Jesus says, you know.

You know how the rulers of the Gentiles, it's the nations Lord

over them and their high officials execute authority over

them. Not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your

servant, and whoever wants to be the first must be your slave,

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve

and give his life as a ransom for many.

See Jesus. Whose song about this already?

Jesus. There is no name above His name.

He deserves the highest honour. He is the King of kings, the

Lord of Lords. He is the Creator of the

universe. He chose to take the lowliest

position. He chose to serve.

He chose to give himself. That's what it means to be a

leader. That means what it looks like to

lead ourselves is to give of yourself the benefit of others.

See, some of you, you may have heard the word leader and you've

kind of switched off because you're like, well, I'm not a

leader and I'm never going to be a leader.

But actually what we see in Scripture is that leaders aren't

just the Levis, They're not just the ministry leaders.

They're not just the elders, the deacons.

And some of you may have been brought up in traditions which

taught that there were special people.

There's special people in life. You know, we might call them a

priest, we might call them an apostle, or we might call them

Father Whoever, or we might call them them a prophet or

evangelist. And they're special people in

heaven. They've got a special stage set

aside for them right next to Jesus.

The rest of us are just minions who kind of just get by.

And that's, that's not just false, that's evil.

That is completely countercultural to what

Scripture teaches us. See, one Peter 2 tells us that

every single one of us, if you have been born again, if you

have been washed in the blood of Christ, if you're a Christian,

you are a priest, you are a royal priest.

Not just any priest, you are a royal priest.

That means you're a leader. You are called to lead.

You are called to rule and reign and that is your identity.

That's not something that once you are a Christian for so long

or you've ticked so many things, you've got so many badges as a

Christian. Then you get to, you get to say

I'm a royal priest. No, no, no, you just haven't.

That's who you are. You are a royal priest.

And one day Jesus says that we will all, all who are in his

name, all who bear his name, all who have bowed the knee to him,

will rule with him over heaven and earth.

You see, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus has works for us to do church.

He has stuff for us to lead in. He has given you gifts and

talents that he is calling you to step up, lead and do.

Every single one of us is called to lead ourselves in discipline

and good works. Every single one of us is called

to lead others in acts of service.

Terry Virgo, who founded our movements back in the 70s, one

of the things he's renowned to saying is that the Reformation,

the, the, the reclaiming of biblical truth, if you will,

isn't over until every single church member has become a

church minister. And that doesn't mean that you

all go to university and get a so you can put a doctor or

reverend before your name. No, no, no.

What he's saying is, is that the the Reformation isn't complete

until every single one of us realises that there's not doers

and receivers that we are all called to do and we're all

called to receive. Actually, we're all called to

do. We're all called to serve.

We're all called to leads. See, God has given each one of

us gifts. You have gifts.

You have been given special gifts from Christ, spiritual

gifts, natural gifts, strength, intelligence.

You know, some of you may be really good at making money.

That's great. That's a gift.

Others of you may be amazing at just putting people at ease and

making them feel at home. You've got a great hospitality

gift. Some of you are brilliant at

fixing heating systems. That's a spiritual gift.

Some of you are really good at putting together broken lives.

Not everyone can do that. But God has given you that gift

to use to serve the body, to serve the people around you.

You see those who teach that there are special people and

then there's the rest of us. They would say that, you know,

those of us who are elders or whoever we are called because we

are very important and the rest of you are there to serve our

needs. But Jesus says that's worldly

thinking. That's worldly thinking.

And actually it comes from a false sense of identity.

See if you're there going, I'm something because people look at

me, because they listen to me, because I posted a stupid image

on Instagram and it got 1000 likes, I'm obviously something.

We're placing our identity in the wrong thing, you see.

Instead, our, our, our, our desire, our role to be servant

leaders should be rooted in the fact of who we are in Christ, of

who he declares you to be. See, This is why Jesus, Jesus,

as we said, who was king of heaven, was able to come and

serve. See, many of us who aren't as

aren't as secure in our identity, We would leave heaven,

come to earth, may not, but if we were we, we would come and we

would, we would make sure that the people who saw us serving,

you know, they were the kings, they were the emperors, because

that would make us feel good, because important people think

we're important. Jesus didn't care.

That's why Jesus was able to serve that the poorest of the

poor. That's why he was able to feed

the hungry. That's why he didn't care.

You know, when Herod invites him into his palace and asks him to

do some party tricks for him, Jesus, like, no, I could perform

for you and make you feel like I'm really important that what I

can do or I could. He doesn't know because he

doesn't care what Herod or anyone thinks.

He knew who he was and therefore out of that he was able to serve

church. Do you know who your identity

is? Do you know who Christ has

called you to be? So if you know that you are

loved by Christ, that you are his child, that you are called

royal, that you are called his priest, it is out of that.

You can do what Jesus did Jesus who met 10 lepers, 10 outcasts,

10 of the the least important people of his day and serve

them, heal them even when only one turned back and said thank

you, it didn't matter to him. Jesus who was able to when the

world was saying leave the children alone.

They're useless, they're worthless.

There's much more important people around for you to see

Jesus Jesus like no, I want to spend time with children.

I'm going to serve them. I'm going to love them.

I'm going to spend time with them because his identity came

from who the Father said he was. Therefore he was able to love

and serve the least of these. See, if you are a, you are a new

creation church. If you have put your faith in

Christ Jesus, if you have surrendered your need to him, if

you have bowed down before him and said you are my Lord, you

are a new creation. You're a child of God.

You're a royal priest and he has commissioned you, every single

one of you not important people. He's commissioned every single

one of you to be a leader, to go into the earth and administer

his race to all. And we all know that's true.

We all know that deep down. But you know what?

Knowing it isn't good enough because we forget.

We forget. We doubt ourselves, we believe

lies of the enemy. And that's why we are designed

to constantly be in community with one another so that through

each other, like yesterday, like on a Wednesday night, we can

talk to one another and the Holy Spirit can speak to us.

You know, as Jeff speaks, I can, I can, I can hear God through

his words. God speaks to me through the

words that Jeff uses and that encourages me and spurs me on to

again to be more like Jesus. You see, being a Christian, I

don't know if if you've seen the the chosen series.

I love it. Apparently, like Cody Gapo, it's

one of my favourite programmes that you can, you can watch.

And in the title sequence, for those of you who've watched it,

it's, it's these fish swimming. These, these, these silhouettes

of fish swimming. And, and wonderfully, what

happens is these fish are swimming and then to signify the

chosen, some of these fish, they change colour, but they don't

keep swimming the same way. They bend back on themselves and

they start turning the other way.

Because that's what happens when we become a Christian, we repent

and we start, we turn the other way, which means these fish,

they're swimming against the current, they're swimming

against the tide, they're swimming against the world.

And that's exactly what it means to live for Christ.

You see, we, when we get, we go on holiday quite often in the,

in the summer down to Dorset and our kids, they love to, to take

our canoes and go down the river.

And we've never, the boys. Actually they did take the

paddle board on the sea this year.

But I was going to say, we never usually take the canoes on the

on the sea because the sea can be treacherous, especially in an

inflatable canoe if the tide changes.

I mean, there's no, there's no worse.

Well, there is worse places, but it's an awful place to be, as my

uncle and his friend found out this summer.

They decided that they were going to go on a on a kayak

kayaking trip around Weymouth Bay on the South Coast.

And they were doing great until the tide changed direction and

they're there doing the kayak, you know, as fast as they can,

as hard as they can, but they're just just just just just,

there's nothing they could do. And, you know, and they, they

could just keep going the whole time and, and eventually they

get weary and tied, tired out. I mean, they can push past that,

which actually my uncle did, he pushed past that and he broke

his all. So it was completely useless

once the tide did change. But that's that's, that's an

image of what it means to live for Christ.

You are going against the world and knowing what's right isn't

enough pure determination. It might be all right for a

while, but eventually you will get weary and tired out.

But Jesus hasn't designed us to swim against the tide of the

world on our own. He's in.

He's designed it that we would be filled with his spirits.

See, it is impossible to continually be rowing against

the current of this world. But actually, just like the

tribe of Levi, they were called to lead God's people not out of

their own strength. They were called to lead God's

people by being God's portion, by being by God, being theirs,

by spending time with God's. You see, and as the New

Testament church, we are now the new priesthood, every single one

of us. God is our portion.

So you have been commissioned, every single one of you to go

make disciples, use your gifts and talents for the benefit of

the church to build His Kingdom and the benefit of those out

there. And you cannot do that just by

putting on a positive front, good vibes.

It doesn't work. Eventually you are going to get

exhausted and burned out. You see, we must first dwell,

soak in the Holy Spirit. See the Levi's, they were called

to lead God's people, but first they were meant to be the people

that went in the Tabernacle, that went in the temple, that

spent time in God's presence and then LED God's people.

Even Jesus, the Son of God, He needed God's presence.

We read that Jesus doesn't start his earthly ministry until he is

filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

But actually that wasn't it. He didn't get filled with the

Holy Spirit that three-year, three years later, he still had

the strength to go to the cross. Actually, we read constantly

Jesus taking himself out, praying, speaking to the Father.

He's singing songs and hymns and psalms with his disciples.

Ones twos, all of them. He is constantly building a

rhythm and showing his disciples how to build a rhythm of

spending time with the Father, of being refreshed with the

Father so that they can go and do good works.

We see constantly the church, see the church, it wasn't

birthed out of good works, out of trying hards.

Now Jesus said, go to the nations, but first wait for my

promised Holy Spirit to fill you.

And then after that you read all the stories that you might that

we love to highlight in, in, in the book of Acts.

You know, the healings or the, the people being set free from

prison or the them being able to speak with boldness and, and in

front of the Sanhedrin and all those kind of stuff.

But if you read back a few verses, you see it says they

were praying filled with the Holy Spirit.

They went and did. It wasn't in their own shape.

They weren't paddling against the current on their own.

They were filled with the presence of gods.

Do you believe that you need the Holy Spirit?

Do you believe you need the Holy Spirit?

Yes. Do you believe that the only way

that you can live for Christ is by being filled with the Holy

Spirit? Yes.

Now you're all saying that you know what's coming.

What, Why, Why do we try on our own so often?

Why do we try and live for him so often?

I mean, here's here's here's an example.

Why when we get the text message on Wednesday afternoon saying

see you at Home group, we go. I think I'm a bit too tired to

go to Home group. I think I'm a bit too tired.

I'm a bit too tired to go to church this morning.

I'm a bit too tired to meet, to meet with them, but you know

what that's like and I'm not getting anyone, but you know

what that's like. That's like, OK, you, you are

you, you just noticed over the last few months that you've

become, you've become more and more tired.

You know, your body doesn't seem to be working how it was.

And so it's becoming a bit worrying to you.

So you know, you, you bring up the Jeep, you ring up the, the,

your, your, your GP and you go and see Doctor Ollie and, and

I'm sure he's got a brilliant, brilliant bedside manner or

whatever you call it. And, and you know, you tell him

your concerns, you tell him how tired you've been over the last

few months. And, and he, he, I'm sure he

wonderfully would just say to you, don't worry.

I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about, but I'm going

to book you in with the nurse. We're going to take some blood

and just just make sure there's nothing concerning.

And so you do, you take the, you take the bloods and then, then,

then whenever, whenever the bloods get back, you get a phone

call and it's, and it's, it's Doctor Ollie.

And he says, he says to you, right, good news, there's

nothing to worry about. But we have found actually that

you are your, your iron count is very, very low.

And that that can contribute to you being tired.

So it's OK, I'm going to prescribe to you some really

good iron supplements. And then within, within a few

weeks or months, you will feel much better.

I'm certain of it. So you go, you get the iron

tablets, you put them on your kitchen side, and then you go,

I'm too tired to take them. It's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous. You, you've got in front of you

on your kitchen side, what you've been told will make you

feel better, but you're refusing to take it because I feel too

tired. We do that every day when we say

I'm too tired to meet with God, I'm too tired to let him speak

to me through God's people. See church, we are called to

work hard, to be God's servants, to lead, but we're not called to

do that in our own strength. We're called to 1st be filled

with the Holy Spirit. You see, this is so important

because in the New Testament there is no such thing as a

spectator Christian. Everyone's involving, everyone's

giving, everyone's serving, everyone's speaking to people

about Jesus. That is what we're called to do,

not just watch everyone else do it.

If you're drenched in the blood of Christ Jesus, if you've been

saved, if you've not, I'd love to speak to you.

But if you've if you have been, then you are a royal priest of

God Most high. You have been commissioned as a

servant leader. And just one final thing as we

wrap up the priests of Malachi's day and the priests that one,

the Pharisees of Jesus day, they had another thing that they got

wrong and that was that the Pharisees, they set up these

these big roadblocks to stop people coming into the presence

of gods. And the priests, they did the

same thing. And it was all about trying to

separate themselves from the world, separate themselves from

the world because in my own strength, I'm going to get

contaminated by the world. I'm going to start doing what

they do. I'm going to start displeasing

God because I'm hanging around with people who don't love Gods

church. We are not separated from the

world so that we're not contaminated.

We are called out. We are a chosen people.

We have been separated. Every single one of you who have

called on the name of God, you've been separated from the

world for the world. That is who you are.

That is what has happened. You are a royal priest, a son

and daughter called to go into the world not in your own

strength, but the strength of the Holy Spirit, Malachi, 27,

says. The priests were called

messengers of the Lord of hosts. You are a messenger and when you

speak, you are leading. When you speak out, when you act

for Christ, you are leading. In your workplace, in your

school, in your neighbourhood, you are leading like Christ and

church. Don't wait for people to come

here. Go into the world.

As we say, we're here. We're called to bring the life

of Christ to this lost and broken world.

So I want to pray for us right now.

And there's two things I want to pray for us.

First thing is if you're weary, if you're tired, I'm going to

just ask for special grace right now from the Lord Jesus to fill

you so that you so that you don't feel so to the end of

yourself that you would be refreshed by God's Spirit.

And secondly, I'd, I want to pray that God would freshly

Commission us that some of you, you're thinking I'm new here.

I don't really know what to do where, where do I fit in?

As as I said at the beginning of the service, part of belonging

to this church means that you don't just turn up, but you

serve. Sometimes you serve in the ways

that you don't like, but you just do it because you want it

for the greatest body. And some sometimes you do things

actually, I've got a really good gift.

I can do XYZ and we'd love for you to be able to serve, release

you in that. So I want a fresh commissioning

to be able to use your gifts and talents for the Kingdom.

So let's pray, Lord Jesus, I pray right now that you would

come and you would fill us afresh.

Lord God, everyone listening right now will be filled afresh.

Lord God, that they will be refreshed by your spirits.

God, I pray for for those leading the children that they

be refreshed by your spirit. I pray for those leading the

crash that they be refreshed by your spirit.

I pray for the children that they be refreshed by your spirit

right now. The Jesus, I pray for those

listening to this online that they be refreshed by your

spirits. Lord Jesus, come refresh us

right now. And Lord God, I pray Jesus that

you would, you would come, you would reawaken dreams that

people have God and you would recommission some of us this

morning, God, you would show us the gifts and talents that we

have that you want to grab hold of for the building of your

Kingdom. Lord Jesus, I want to, I want

to, I want to especially ask that you would reveal those,

those gifts that people don't think are that important gifts

that they think, well, what what use does that have?

But Lord God, you would grab that and you'd say that is a

vital part of building my Kingdom.

I want to use you. I want to use your gifts more

than you've ever been used before for the glory of my

Kingdom, for the building of my church.

Lord Jesus, come do what you promised you would do as we've

been singing about you. You are a faithful God who

everything you say is true. And you say that those who come

to you will be refreshed, will not be weary.

Grown men will get weary, but Lord Jesus, those who trust in

the Lord will renew their strength.

Lord Jesus, renew our strength. Freshly commissioned us again

today. Amen.