I’ve made it about halfway through Kelly Byrd’s “I am a Priest” sermon series. As I read about the priests in Leviticus, I need to be sure that I apply it to my own life, and this series is definitely helping me do that. Below are some nuggets of his messages.
1. The word for “priest” is cohan, which means “one who draws near to God.”
- “One who mediates the divine, passes along God, a human representative, a mirror, filled with God”… We are to show people what God is like.
- It is an intimacy with God that is hard to describe.
- As we draw near, we are able to connect others with Him.
- In order to connect others with God, we must know what He is really like.
- The problem? So many times we are at a distance from God. It’s hard to pass something on when you are on the fringe.
2. God is Love… “and having experienced that love, you model and give away that love to others.”
- The one thing broken people need desperately is the love of God.
- Love = give, let go, give ourselves away
- The love doesn’t come from us; it comes from Him. We simply pass it on.
3. God is Compassionate… and Just.
- Who are those in need?
- “Not everything is due to irresponsibility. It’s a broken world. There are people who are dying, because they don’t have anything to eat, because they couldn’t get an injection, because they couldn’t get a pill to swallow.”
- The compassion doesn’t come from us; it comes from God. We simply pass it on.
4. How were the disciples able to carry on His news and fulfill His plan? It happened because the presence and ways of Jesus were so strongly in their midst that they became the Good News to those on the “other side.”
- They turned culture upside down, and loved, served, and embraced the detestable and diminished.
- In the Old Testament, those that would live this way were often referred to as “righteous” = “those willing to disadvantage themselves in order to advantage others.”
The question is, Are you willing to live out your priestly responsibility?
Go ahead… Be a priest. Help people connect with God. And pass Him on.
