Trials in Ministry - Exodus 5:22-6:27

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It's good to see all of you this morning and we again love to welcome you to faith

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Bible Church and We pray that today might be a blessing to you as we remember the reason for the season right

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It's because what Christ has done for each of us and providing the plan of salvation.

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It's it's a blessing I was thinking you ever lay it wake at night

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None of you do that do you and and think and I was

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Trying to rehearse sometimes I try to rehearse Portions of scripture that I've memorized, you know, and I was thinking about Psalm where it said

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About the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want He makes me to lie down and green pastures and he restores my soul

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I was just thinking, you know, he restores my soul. So the holidays are great

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But for us old people it can wear us down. I would like to pray he restores my body too, but That's that's going a little beyond but he does restore our soul and he gives us a reason to live and I thank the

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Lord for that. I Wanted to just bring a couple of announcements and remember men

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This coming Saturday is also New Year's Day. So there will be no Men's Bible study as normal also,

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I just want to mention that Coming the 15th of January. The ladies are having their regular

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Bible study Although it's going to be a special a little special Time do

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I say there's going to be food there? okay, and so we just wanted it's going to since we cancelled the

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Christmas tea They're going to try to make up for that a little bit in in having a special time on the 15th

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So remember that and put that on your calendar that you would be there so as we

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Also go into singing following the prayer just I I remind myself think about the words

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If you're like me, sometimes I get to sing in and enjoy the music and I'm not thinking about the words but as we sing this morning, let's praise the

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Lord and think about the words that we are saying to our Lord and Let's make it a blessed time of refreshing where the

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Lord can restore our soul even while we're singing. Okay? Let's go before the

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Lord in prayer Thank you. Heavenly Father for bringing us together as a church family as brothers and sisters in Christ We thank you heavenly father for the fellowship that you give us together we especially pray for the

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Shimmerhorn family as they're In the loss of their mother or wife and we would pray heavenly father that you would just be near to them and comfort them

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During this time and we would thank you for that be with the service and be with the singing and help us

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Lord to as we lift up our voice to think about the things that we are singing and saying and May it be a real blessing

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Lord to us during even this holiday weekend Be with pastor as he brings your word

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We pray that you might touch each of our lives with the things that we learn in here today

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And we'll thank you for it and we pray in Jesus name. Amen good morning and Thank God for for people being here of all ages and let's stand and sing together be exalted.

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Oh God 14 through 16

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Romans 1 verses 14 through 16

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I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians both to wise and to unwise

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So as much as is in me I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also

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For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Christ For it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes for the

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Jew first and Also for the Greek thank the Lord for his salvation that he provides us.

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Amen We can be calm because Jesus is with us and let's stand and sing be still my soul

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Be still my soul

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Words from my mouth or please turn with me But I have a thank -you letter.

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I would like to read to the church Dear faith

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Bible family Thank you so much for your generous surprise

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Christmas gift Lauren and I have been extremely blessed and loved by all of you since we visited here in April We appreciate your genuine love for us and faithful hunger for God's Word We're pleased to call you and consider you our family and we're excited to grow closer to Christ together

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We continue to thank God for providentially directing us to faith

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Bible Church There is no other place we'd rather call home than here

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In Christ alone Iljin and Lauren PS.

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I hope you had a blessed Christmas Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 5

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Verses 22 Through chapter 6

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Verse 27 5 22 5 22 5 22 to 6 27 a large chunk, but Very worth it so Moses Returned to the

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Lord and said Lord. Why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it you have sent me?

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For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name He has done evil to this people neither.

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Have you delivered your people at all? Then the Lord said to Moses now you shall see what

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I will do to Pharaoh for with a strong hand he will let them go and with a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land and God spoke to Moses and said to him.

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I am the Lord I appeared to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty But by my name

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Lord, I was not known to them I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers and I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the

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Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered my covenant Therefore say to the children of Israel.

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I am the Lord. I will bring you out From under the burdens of the

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Egyptians I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments

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I will take you as my people and I will be your God then you shall know that I am the

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Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you into the land which

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I swore to give Abraham Isaac and Jacob and I will give it to you as a heritage.

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I am the Lord So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel but they did not heed

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Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage and the

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Lord spoke to Moses saying go in tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land and Moses spoke before the

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Lord saying the children of Israel have not heeded me How then shall Pharaoh heed me for I am out of?

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uncircumcised lips then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a command for the children of Israel and For Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt These are the heads of the father's houses the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were

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Hanukkah Palu has run and car me These are the families of Reuben and the sons of Simeon were

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Jamuel Jamin Oh had Jachin Johar and Shaul the son of the

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Canaanite woman These are the families of Simeon These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations

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Gershon Kohath and Morari and the years of the life of Levi were 137 years

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The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimei according to their families and the sons of Kohath were

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Amram, Esar, Hebron and Uziel and the years of the life of Kohath were 133 the sons of Morari were

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Mali and Mushi These are the families of Levi according to their generations now

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Amram took for himself Jochebed his father's sister as wife and she bore him

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Aaron and Moses and the years of the life of Amram were 137 the sons of Esar were

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Korah, Nepheg and Zichri and the sons of Uziel were Mishael Elzaphon and Zithri Aaron took to himself

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Elisheva daughter of Amiddath Sister of Nashon as wife and she bore him

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Nadab and Abihu and Eleazar and Ithamar The sons of Korah were

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Asir, Alcanna and Abiasaf. These are the families of Korahites Eleazar Aaron's son took for himself one of the daughters of Putiel as wife and she bore him

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Phinehas These are the heads of the father's houses of the Levites according to their families

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These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies

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These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring out the children of Israel From Egypt.

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These are the same Moses and Aaron This is the Word of the Lord Let us pray

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Father we are so thankful that we have access to your word and we have grown so much in learning about Exodus and Found comfort in your character of your mercy and your steadfast love

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That we can even see in Exodus that we see in Christ Father, we pray that you would open all of our hearts and that your spirit would fill us

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To move us to follow your will and to experience your love forever in Jesus name

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Amen So recall earlier in Moses's ministry

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Moses experienced a wide acceptance and Excitement from his own people knowing that God will deliver his people out of Egypt For the

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Israelites who were enslaved by the Egyptian king This was a welcoming news and they worshipped they celebrated together

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However here we see the difficult portion of Moses's ministry

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We see the difficulties and trials that God's people face when obeying

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God Although God's promise of deliverance has not changed at all

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The pathway to his promise is often rough This is true for Christians as well

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Receiving Christ does not guarantee a trouble -free life Right Christ doesn't promise an easy life

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Christ promises a new life Christ promises a life because before him we were all dead in sin in fact if you have read

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John Bunyan's the pilgrims progress of very beautifully written book that stands the test of time

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We see just the opposite a young man named

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Christian Is saved he starts to believe in Jesus who died for his sin?

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and He has to leave everything behind his family behind because they don't want to do anything to do with Christ and What's on the road there is a road the road that leads to the heavenly city

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Where Christ is? But the road is not always Smooth and easy, but the road is there and it leads him to Christ, but during that journey

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He meets deceivers. He meets guilt false shame

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He meets a giant who wants to devour him and get him off the road

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He meets people who betray him The life of a

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Christian is full of difficulties but the promise of God's deliverance is still sure and This is what we see here this morning

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Moses after this triumphant worship with God's people is met with rejections and Discouragement and what we need to ask this morning is what does ministry truly entail?

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What does ministry look like? Which leads to my main point

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Despite the difficulties in ministry. God does not change his plan of deliverance

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Despite the difficulties in ministry. God does not change his plan of deliverance

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First Chapter 5 verse 22 through chapter 6 verse 8.

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The first point is despite the trials in ministry God is committed to delivering his covenant people

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Despite the trials in ministry. God is still committed to delivering his covenant people

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Recall a few weeks ago that God's people faced their first setback God's message to Pharaoh only made the enslavement worse for the

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Israelites Not only that the officers of the children of Israel flat -out blame

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Moses and Aaron for this hardship Now disheartened and discouraged

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Moses goes to God and he says Lord Why have you brought trouble on this people?

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Why is it you have sent me for since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name? He has done evil to this people

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Neither have you delivered your people at all? Although Moses knew

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Pharaoh would reject God's message right God predicted that and he warned

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Moses Moses was not expecting an increased suffering for God's people

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Although Moses knew Pharaoh would not let his people go at first Moses thought the deliverance would come soon that it would be immediate and This is relevant for us today because we often view

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Christian life this way either explicitly or implicitly When we start following Christ, we we kind of expect life to be smooth

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And many false teachers grab on to that and promise all these Lies, right?

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You'll be wealthy. You'll be healthy Right, your relationships will be fine when you're a

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Christian however That's not the case

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When we start following Christ Just because we belong to God Does not mean we will be completely free from our trials and temptations when we belong to God God God delivers us through the trials and It shapes us to become more like Jesus Through these trials and suffering we learn to depend on God more than ever

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We learn to be more patient We learn to surrender control and outcome when we go through these trials with God Let me tell you my prayer life

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Dramatically increases when my life gets harder right, I Call out to God louder when my life is more difficult so life often does not get easier or materialistically better for Christians and Even consider our brothers and sisters in in the

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Middle East at the moment. They believe in Christ They expect

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They expect to be disowned or to be executed Following God does not make life easier

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But it does make your life better Second we often expect

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Christian ministry to unfold according to our schedule Look at what

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Moses says in at the end of verse 23. Neither. Have you delivered your people at all? When did

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God ever reveal a timeline for Moses Yet Moses expected the deliverance to be quick God revealed

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Pharaoh's hardened heart and The ultimate success of his redemptive plan to Moses, but God never promised

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Moses that it would be quick Yet in Christian ministry, we often think deliverance their deliverance would be immediate

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When I was in college, I was a young Christian I thought that okay if I just share the gospel with everyone,

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I know then everyone will be saved right and however over time

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I learned that God does not follow my timeline God does not follow my schedule but his

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God is not bound to our plans but he follows his and Our job is to be faithful to whatever he has called us to do and Leave the outcome to him.

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Let him handle it Just be faithful in your daily life

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His time and his way now, how does

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God respond to Moses's complaints? Does he scorn Moses and choose another more faithful servant?

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Or does he argue with Moses to justify his plan? I never told you that this would be quick, right?

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No God graciously reaffirms God graciously reaffirms his plan of deliverance with Moses Verse 2 through 8 are flanked by the phrase.

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I am the Lord This is not because Moses forgot God's name but it is to emphasize

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God's covenantal relationship with his people a covenant is a promise that a king would make with his people and He would offer something like protection provision and Then the people would offer

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Loyalty so that's the covenant that that we see in the ancient world and similarly in The ancient world the king who makes the covenant would start the document with his name

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Right for so when God starts out his his words to Moses reaffirmation of his covenant when he starts with I am the

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Lord and when he ends with I am the Lord, it's to identify himself as Israel's covenant

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King The Lord is Israel's covenant God No other

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God the Lord is their God Second I am the

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Lord involves his people in a personal relationship with him

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The message from Moses is not from just any deity, right? Egypt had

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Many deities they were pagans But the Lord their

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God is their deity The same Lord who made a covenant with his people centuries before The same

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Lord who is faithful to the relationship. He started with Abraham Isaac and Jacob The same

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Lord who is faithful to the promise of protection and provision. He made to Abraham is still speaking to God's people

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Centuries later verses 3 through 5 serve as the basis for God's redemption of Israel So the question is why is

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God still holding tightly to Israel, even though they're complaining and they're rejecting

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Moses first verses 3 through 4 share God's covenant made to their ancestors

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I Appear to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name

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Lord, I was not known to them. I Have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers the covenant that God made to Abraham is that their future children

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Will inherit the land of Canaan after all Abraham had a nomadic life

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He just had to move from place to place. He didn't own the land of Canaan. He borrowed he rented and Although Abraham Isaac and Jacob did not get to fully enjoy the land did not get to fully see the fulfillment of God's covenant with them

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They looked forward to the day that God will fulfill his promise to their future children the second reason for God's redemption of Israel is shared in verse 5 and I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the

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Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered my covenant

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While the first basis look to the past God's past promises to his people

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The second basis is based upon the present situation of God's covenant people

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God will deliver his people Because his covenant people are suffering when

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God's people are in pain God will step up and How will

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God deliver his covenant people? This is described in much detail in verses 6 through 8.

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I Am the Lord I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians I will rescue you from the bondage

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I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great judgments I will take you as my people and I will be your

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God then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from the under the burdens of the

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Egyptians and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and I will give it to you as a heritage.

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I Am the Lord The message is enveloped by the reminder of God's faithful Covenant to his people.

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I am the Lord it starts with I am the Lord it ends with I am the Lord His past promise is the basis for God's people's deliverance

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The first half of verse 6 shows the complete deliverance from the bondage of slavery

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God will bring them out from the burdens of the Egyptians and he will rescue them Then God will redeem them with an outstretched arm and with great judgments redemption means

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God will personally purchase the slaves from their slavery

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His people will be out of slavery because God will redeem them. He will purchase them

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He'll buy them back and God will handle the cost

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In fact, he will judge the slave masters because they have sinned against him

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Here's a thought a foreign God Judging Egypt that's a big statement coming from a foreign

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God Maybe this God is more than just the God of the Jews verses 7 through 8 reaffirm

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God's covenantal relationship with his people God will take them as his people and he will be their

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God the action to take is a very intimate action to take

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Out of all the peoples of the world. God will take Israel as his people to take them

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Israel will experience a special relationship with the Lord Not only that they will know that he is their

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God when God completely delivers them from Egypt and Give them the promised land that he promised to their ancestors

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To know in Hebrew is a very personal and intimate experiential

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Action, it's not just information. Although information is included in that but to know

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Requires a personal relationship and to these people to the slaves in Egypt God says you will be mine and you will know me

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What a promise God Encourages and reaffirms his promise of deliverance to the disheartened disheartened

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Discouraged people of Israel and this text answers an important question today

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What drives the Lord to save his people and the answer is his?

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Covenantal oath and the suffering of his covenant people This is important because God is not driven by feelings when he delivers his people

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You and I when we do a favor to someone Sometimes it's driven by feelings

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Right. We're happy with this person. Oh, we I'm happy to do this for you. Of course If the person is a jerk, it's like try again next time not so with God Right God these people

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Just now have rejected Moses and they were disheartened They didn't think they were gonna get delivered yet God reaffirms his promise of deliverance to his covenant people not because his people were obedient unfaithful

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No, because he promised His covenant people so when

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Moses even was discouraged and his people were disheartened about the future of their state

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God was not driven by anger or frustration But he just reaffirmed his promise of deliverance the same

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God Who sent his son to die for you for your sin on the cross

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Also does not change his mind about you Right.

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He does not change his mind about you depend on depending on his feelings, right?

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This is a continuous trait of God when he delivers

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It's based upon his promise When he delivers It's based upon the suffering of his people who cry out to him for God to change his mind about you

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Is to go against who he is For God to change his mind about you is for him to become no longer

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God His love for you is based upon his unchanging immutable solid covenant

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Toward you in Christ There's nothing you can do to change his mind

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There's nothing you can say to change his mind About his mind about his plan of deliverance for you

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That's why we can't have confidence We rely on who God is Rather than how good we are or what we've done next

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Despite the rejection from God's people God will use his chosen servant for his plan verses 9 through 13 shows us another setback

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So when Moses goes to the Israelites to share God's message to them It says plainly they did not heed

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Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage these Israelites were so So disheartened by the increased workload.

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They did not listen to Moses While the previous setback was an external persecution, right?

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It's done by the Egyptian King and his followers What Moses experienced in verse 9 is an internal rejection.

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It's by the very people of God They don't want it. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear it from Moses anymore

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While the external persecution can be expected an internal rejection cuts even deeper right despite this

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The Lord sends Moses to another mission The Lord has not given up on his people.

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The Lord has not changed his mind about his mission of deliverance Go in tell

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Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land This time

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God will send Moses to Pharaoh It's fine. I will still deliver even if my people don't listen to you

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My plan will go according to the plan However, this time even

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Moses is discouraged The children of Israel have not heeded me. They have not listened to me.

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How then shall Pharaoh heed me? For I am of uncircumcised lips

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Here the phrase uncircumcised lips means that Moses is inadequate to be

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God's spokesperson All the harsh words and passive responses

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Started to affect Moses' psyche. It started to affect him personally

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His fiery excitement at the beginning of his ministry has simmered down The heat has cooled

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The burning coal is turning gray Recall how he was rejected by Pharaoh the taskmasters and now

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Israel as a whole this is a response of a dejected minister a discouraged minister

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He is attributing the rejection from these people to his abilities or lack thereof

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He takes the lack of favorable outcome personally Now does

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God agree? Oh, yeah, it's true. Let me send someone else No, God does not agree with Moses is resigned of you but He also does not diminish

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Moses is dejected feeling either right? He doesn't say suck it up buttercup get up go

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I am God No instead God graciously sends Aaron his brother with him to support

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Moses Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a command for the children of Israel for Pharaoh King of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt God knows that ministry is hard and is better with a partner

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Right, even Jesus sends out his disciples in pairs and That continues in the first church as well.

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We need each other in ministry No one has all the gifts right,

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I Like a lot of gifts that God has provided you and you provide that for the church

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I can't do this all by myself what

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Moses went through of His personal dejected feeling

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This is an important lesson in ministry Because this can happen to any of us

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Right when we first begin to share the gospel with others We're filled with excitement after all the gospel is the message of salvation.

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It has the power to save The gospel can save people's souls

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It has an eternal impact However, when we when our loved ones continuously reject the gospel

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There is a temptation to take it personally right Then this malicious lie seeps into our brain

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Maybe it's us. Maybe we're saying it wrongly. Maybe I'm not called to do this

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Maybe God will send someone else. However brothers and sisters,

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I encourage you to not blame yourself for the lack of immediate success in your

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Respective ministries doesn't have to be even sharing the gospel. It could be other things music teaching

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Right. Don't carry the false sense of shame and guilt on yourself

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That's not from God God will still use your faithfulness in His time

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Not yours Consider even Moses the greatest prophet among the

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Old Testament prophets was rejected by his very own people His life was threatened by his own people

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Yet God worked mightily mightily through him There are no

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Israelites enslaved in Egypt anymore It worked God delivered and we have to ask ourselves.

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Do we not worship the same God? Rejections by others do not define who you are or your ministry

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Right rejections by others do not define who you are or your ministries your identity is

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Solid solidly found in Christ alone what Christ has done for you

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He washed you clean with his blood. You're a Son or daughter in God's family.

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That's your identity That identity cannot shift based upon your ministry success or lack thereof

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We have to resist the temptation of attributing ministry success or failures to our own identity

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Your identity does not rest in what you do or what you fail to do

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But what Christ has accomplished on the cross? Nothing more nothing less your identity is not your ministry but your righteous position in Christ and When we have that there's no

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Rejection from this world from your family from your friends that can shake you inside You will just go on You'll still have hope because your identity is in God You'll you'll still stand up at the next moment.

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God sends you you will not be burnt out because your identity is in Christ who you are is how you're operating from How you're operating is not who you are third

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God chooses the qualifications of his ministers all of a sudden

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Moses shares his family history This may seem odd for many of us

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But it was a natural place for Moses to share more about his family background at this point

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After all, we're just at the beginning part of Moses's ministry We have reached the first conflict in Moses's ministry and we're about to see

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Moses and Aaron's further interactions and signs and miracles before Pharaoh and Egypt So before we go any further

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Moses tells us who he is and who Aaron is In the

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Hebrew culture the family they came from Painted a clearer picture of who they were

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So the genealogy actually narrates a story about the heroes

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Consider this as their about me portion of their website But more thorough when it comes to their family right about me oftentimes people talk about their family

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But it's a sentence But in the Hebrew culture They would spend paragraphs because their family was really important Just at a cursory glance we can see that this genealogy is tilted toward one tribe of Israel and one family

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Verse 14 starts with Reuben the firstborn of Jacob right Israel, but Moses only shares up to the second generation

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It's not that Reuben Reuben's tribe died out. It's that Moses wants to focus on something greater

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Verse 15 shares Simeon the second born's second born of Israel But again, it ends after the second generation

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However, Moses adds something extra in verse 15 the son of a

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Canaanite woman This is significant because it shows that the lineage of Israel Was not always pure and in the even and this is the beginning of the nation

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In fact, there was a matriarch who was a Canaanite descent Second this may be to contrast with Levi's lineage lineage

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Which does not have any Canaanites Maybe Moses is trying to say

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Well, the Levites they stayed purely Levi and we'll see more of that when we see that when

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Moses shares that his mom and dad were Levites Moses and Aaron are purely

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Levites So after the two verses for the other tribes

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Moses spends the rest of the ten verses narrating the tribe of Levi It is hard to miss which tribe

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Moses and Aaron belong to In this section there is much more detail

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We get to know the age of death for Levi the age of death wasn't shared for Reuben or Simeon Kolhath and Amram Moses and Aaron's father, right?

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Gershon Morari and Kolhath are important names to remember because their descendants

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Will have the privilege of carrying the separate parts of the tabernacle in the wilderness because they had to disassemble the tabernacle in order to move from one place to another and God did not let just anyone carry that Separate families of the tribe of Levi had a specific portion of the tabernacle to carry

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Otherwise death would ensue so By giving us more detail here.

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Moses wants us to focus on the tribe of Levi in verse 23

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We find out about Aaron's wife Elisheba It is important to know that Elisheba's father and brother are

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Judahites What does that mean? There's ancestors of Jesus Christ It is significant how

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God ties two important lineages of redemptive history

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The kingly and the priestly line intersect here in verse 24

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Korah is mentioned Korah is a cousin of Moses and Aaron and In fact, he will later lead a rebellion against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness

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The genealogy helps us to understand why Korah may have done this His cousins

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Moses and Aaron are tasked with special duties before God God actually spoke to them personally but cousin

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Korah was left out in Korah's mind we could imagine my cousins get to talk to the

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Lord personally, but why can't I? Right, it makes sense why

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Korah would rebel he was in a very privileged position under the tribe of Levites to be cousins to be a cousin of Moses and Aaron and He thought he was left out

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However, what's surprising is rather than Moses The genealogy fair follows

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Aaron's line It ends on Aaron's grandson Phineas Who will courageously deliver

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Israel out of cultic paganistic perverted worship? this genealogy looks forward to not only the

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Levitical ministry to the Lord, but more importantly the Aaronic priesthood

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Right, not every person from the tribe of Levi could serve as priests

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In fact only sons of Aaron were eligible to be priests and high priests

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This was distinct in the Old Testament If you wanted to make a sacrifice to God you had to go through the priest in Aaron's family

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If you sinned against God you had to go through the Aaronic priest in fact only hot only the high priest could stand before the presence of the

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Lord the Ark of the Covenant and that was only once a year and he could go in and He would be tied so that if he even fell dead

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They could drag him out because no one else could go in there except for the high priest and that's because the high priest represented

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God's people to God and The high priest represented God to God's people he was the intermediary and This genealogy anticipates the

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Old Covenant ministry in the end God decides how he is to be worshipped

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God decides who his ministers are and God decides how the ministry ought to be we don't

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Now, how is this relevant to us? The Old Covenant priesthood prepares us to receive the ultimate high priest

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Jesus The under the Old Covenant God required the

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Aaronic high priest to make a sacrifice of the of this for the sins of the people

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This was crucial because the Holy God could not have a relationship with sinful people unless the sin of the people were dealt with Right.

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So this was crucial because if God were to interact with his people

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And his people had sinned Then his people would die in the presence of God So God graciously provided a way for his people to temporarily deal with sin through the priesthood however under the

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New Covenant We have the ultimate high priest Jesus Christ who offered not the sacrifice of bulls and goats

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But sacrifice of himself to atone for the sins of his people and Because his blood was so pure and utterly acceptable to God the

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Father Jesus's sacrifice was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices and In fact when

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Jesus established the New Covenant with his blood He completely abolished the need for an

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Aaronic priesthood This means that those who believe in Christ no longer need a human priest to represent him or her

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But rather they have the Son of God representing us and Because you're in Christ and there's no longer

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Aaronic priesthood. You are the royal priesthood first Peter 2 9

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You get to represent God to the world you represent Christ to the world and You have direct access to God as priests did that's the important part you do not need another human to come before you and God and you have only one access point to God and that is

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Jesus Christ God himself and For those who are already saved in Christ You have no need to seek a priest

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Under the New Covenant the basis of ministry for Christians is not family lineage

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You don't have to be a son of a pastor to become a pastor. You don't have to be

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Evangelizing just because you came from a pastoral lineage There's none of that pastors are not the substitutes for Aaronic priests

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The only basis for ministry for Christians is faith in Christ alone

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All of you can minister to one another Evangelize to the world

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Just because you believe in Christ and because you're the royal priests in Christ Just as Aaron Aaronic priests represented

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God to their people Believers in Christ represent Christ through our actions and words to the world

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We represent Christ in whatever we do Just as Levites taught the

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Word of God to unbelieving Israelites, right? Not every Israel. I was a believer Christians can proclaim the gospel to unbelievers and Christians can teach younger and newer

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Christians We're not bound to a family lineage of the

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Old Covenant because we're in the New Covenant So even for qualifications of ministry, although it is different for the

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New Covenant people like us It is still based upon how God has chosen

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How God has set the qualifications for ministry and for us that is faith in Christ Let us pray

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Father we thank you that despite the trials despite our

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Hardened hearts that your plan of deliverance remains unchanged father soften our hearts

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Soft and quiet our complaining souls But that we would trust in you trust in your outcome and trust in your own time help us to remain still and Rely on you only in Jesus name.