Sermon: Our Spiritual Career

Preparing for the Royal Priesthood
#1778A
Ryan McClure
Given 24-Aug-24; 34 minutes 2024-08-24

How many of us know what we want to do, what we want to be when we grow up? Now, perhaps that question is for those who are a bit younger. For those who are already grown up, are you what you wanted to be when you got here? What did you want to do with your life? What did you want to be?

We typically think about this subject in terms of a career. And I vividly recall when I was a wee bit younger, I believe, 14 or 15 years old growing up there in Southern California. My dad at the time was working independently on various construction projects and home improvement jobs that had come his way and I had the opportunity to work with him on many of those projects. And for that I am very much appreciative for the fond memories we made working together for those a couple of years before we moved to North Carolina in the early 90s.

Now, one project I happen to recall was a kitchen upgrade, I believe, for Brian Reid and family. And I helped my dad on certain days and remember a specific evening when we were traveling home from the Reid's after a long day of work. I recall it raining quite hard on the freeway and it must have been closing in on winter time because I believe it got dark early. During that time, I looked out the window of my dad's 1978 Ford F150 watching the rain beat down on the freeway. Street lights, building lights, and car lights cut through the darkness of early evening, highlighting the rain as it fell.

It probably was at least a 30 minute drive or or so home, which gave me plenty of time to think as a typical youngster does. That was back before cell phones. I actually had time to think, I had time to reflect on the day and actually ponder the future, and boy, did the future hit me like a ton of bricks.

At 14 or 15, my family had left the Worldwide Church of God and began attending with the Church of the Great God. I had already met new friends and my life was suddenly full of new things and new experiences. I began homeschooling, which is a big change, essentially leaving all of my Worldwide Church of God friends behind. And I started working with my dad occasionally because, of course, I had more free time. I met new friends, as I mentioned, and I even started to think about girls.

All of a sudden, a sense of fear struck me as I was looking out of the window of my dad's truck as we were driving home and I was pondering the future. I thought to myself, what am I going to do when I grow up? More specifically, what am I going to do for a living so that I can support a wife and a family? How am I going to buy a car or buy a home? What am I going to do?

Now, I would venture to say that I am not alone in asking this question, as I am pretty sure most have at some point in their lives, young or old, asked, what do I want to do when I grow up? Now, sometimes we might figure it out at a very young age. There are some that know, maybe even in their early teens or even before they actually grow up, that they want to be maybe a fireman or a police officer or even an astrophysicist. That is not to say that they will not change their mind, but some really do have this strong desire to do X, Y, or Z when they grow up.

Others, and there is certainly nothing wrong with this, may not know entirely what they want to do and head off to college and switch majors a few times before settling on a specific career path. And still others might major in psychology and end up being a project manager when they enter the working field. Nothing wrong with that.

Now, just to mention it, there are also trade fields that students can opt to go into: plumbing, carpentry, welding. There are all types of metalworking, artistry, crafts, you name it. There are specialized fields that people enter because that trade is something that they enjoy.

My point is that at some point in our lives we all reflect on what we want to do in life. We decide on what we want to do to make a living and then we pursue the proper education and training to support that decision. Sometimes in this process, we have in our minds where we think we want to go in life. But as we age, time and circumstances, and even God's direction, takes us down a different path. I will liken this to the example of majoring in one subject in school or college only to end up in a completely different field.

Again, not that I need to say it, but there is certainly nothing wrong when this happens since we are all trying to figure out how to best use the knowledge, skills, and abilities we have been given to support us through life.

When we finally find a job or career that we are interested in, we typically look at the job requirements to see if we have those knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform in that role, and to do so, we generally refer to the job description that is posted for the role or position. Now, the job description typically provides both the minimum qualifications for the role as well as the desired qualifications.

Many jobs require a certain number of years of college or an actual degree. Some require a minimum amount of years of experience and others seek certifications and certain disciplines. Part of the goal of the job posting is for the candidate to discern whether they have the qualifications for the role. And it also sets the standard for all applicants so that the company can fairly choose the best qualified candidate for the role. And just to say it, just because a person might not have the specific qualifications for a role, that person can certainly go out and take a course, a class, or get certified and become a strong candidate to fill that role.

Now, we might know what we want to be when we grow up or we might still be figuring it out. But regardless of whether we have chosen a profession or not, when God calls us there is typically a large inflection point at that point in time. And we might ask ourselves once again, what do I want to be when I grow up?

Pulling the thread a bit on this thought, we might know exactly what we want to be when we grow up, but when God calls us, that choice might change. How many of God's called once wanted to be or actually were policemen or firemen or even served in the armed forces? Many perhaps thought that they would retire in those fields, yet God called them to be something else, something different.

Now, for those who might have no idea what they wanted to be when they grew up, or when they grow up, we have plenty of examples of people whom God chose from the womb to perform a specific function and role in this world, and more specifically, in God's plan. Have we contemplated what we will be, not when we grow up, but what will we be in God's Kingdom? What role are we being called into and what are the qualifications for those roles?

Let us start out with what God is calling us to be in His Kingdom. I think we all know this, but I want to dive into the study and lay some groundwork as we progress. So let us go over to I Peter 2 for our first scripture. We will capture a glimpse of what God is calling us into. Now in Peter's opening salutations and greetings (chapter 1) to the pilgrims of the dispersion and incidentally, I remember this quite well. I think it was our Bible teacher, Mr. Robin Webber, in ninth grade Bible class. He talked about the Jews of the Diaspora and for some reason, I just remember that.

Anyway, Peter is speaking to the dispersed Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithnyia. And he tells them,

I Peter 2:1-5 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

I Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Peter is telling them, and by extension us today, that we are a chosen generation. God has chosen us specifically and all those whom He calls are being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, as Peter says in chapter 2, verse 5. Now these are two references in Peter. So let us jump quickly over to Revelation, which is probably the scripture you had in mind. We will go to Revelation and we will read chapter 1, verses 4 through 6.

Revelation 1:4-6 John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Now, from these scriptures in Peter and Revelation, it appears that God is calling us to be priests and serve in such a capacity in His Kingdom. And that is quite a tremendous opportunity. Now, the next logical question that popped in my mind was, you know, I never chose to be a priest. How can I be one? And what are the qualifications of being a good priest? How can we prepare to be successful in the role that God is calling us into?

This is an interesting question and probably a mystery to many. You see, there are stark differences in a career that we might choose and what God is calling us into. Often, we are not looking for a lifetime career in God's Family, but He removes the veil in order for us to even see that that is an option.

God does provide us with the minimum qualifications that He looks for in those whom He calls. In our metaphor or comparison here this set of verses will reveal to us the minimum qualifications of the position. So if you will please turn with me to I Corinthians 1 and we will read some of those, what God is looking for.

I Corinthians 1:26-29 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Here we see quite plainly that God does not call those who are wise, mighty, or even noble. God has chosen the weak things, the base things, even the things which are despised. And yes, the things which are not. God has reached down to the bottom of the barrel for us, brethren. And this actually is a huge blessing for all of those whom He calls. For if He did not, what hope would there be for all of us that meet these minimum qualifications? There would be no hope.

God's qualifications for a position in His Family are much different than man's qualifications for a role within an organization. Can you imagine a company saying we do not want or need you to have a degree or certification. It is okay if you literally have no experience being successful in this type of role. In fact, just because you know nothing about our company or the business sector that we operate in, the clients we serve, our mission statement, or how we make money, do not worry about any of that. We cannot wait for you to join the team. And no, I am not talking about the United States government.

In society, man wants you to come forward and join the team having all of the necessary skills, abilities, and knowledge, even the experience, to be successful, which should translate into the success of the company. And yet God's process is to call the weak, the base, and the things which are nothing. To call them and reveal a better way of living and show them His truth to provide the overview of how to live successfully in His Son's image as training in this life in preparation for the next.

Now, for the purposes of this message, I am going to highlight very quickly three examples that we can read in the Bible that shows us God does in fact call the base and gives us what we need to be successful in the role that He is molding us into.

Let us start in Exodus 3, verse 11. I am just going to go through it quickly. Now this is where God appears to Moses in the burning bush and He gives Moses the instruction on how he will go into Egypt, speak with Pharaoh, and then subsequently lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. We will just hit the one verse because we know it well.

Exodus 3:11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

Suffice it to say, at least it seems that Moses is humble as he ponders this request from God. Perhaps he did not want to go to Egypt, perhaps he did not want to take on this task. But there is also the possibility that he truly felt like he was the wrong guy for the job, which takes us to chapter 4, which I affectionately call the "you got the wrong person" chapter. Now, of course, I say this a bit tongue in cheek. You see, there are three times here, similar to how the rest of us might do, Moses attempts to come up with really any excuse as to why God has found the wrong guy for the job. And each time that Moses comes up with an excuse, a random possibility, God tells him that He will work things out and that His will will be done. Similar to how we might feel, Moses did not feel qualified for this particular job, this job description, if you will. In chapter 4, he did a lot to try to get out of what God was commissioning him to do. Is this something that we can relate to?

How about David? Let us turn to this one, I Samuel 16. How about David in his selection as the new king of Israel? We will read verses 5 through 7. And I believe that I mentioned before that sometimes we look for a specific role or job that we feel like we will be successful in. And other times we might even pursue an education for a particular role only to find out that God has called us or perhaps has us or wants us to do something entirely different. Now, I think that happened in Moses' case and I can see how it potentially happened here in David's case as well.

I Samuel 16:5-7 And he said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice. So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and he said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him!" But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Now, it is interesting in this set of scriptures that Samuel thought that he had found the right person for the job in Eliab. However, as we see in the subsequent scriptures, God says that He does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. For this reason, God chose David over Eliab. And even though David seemed potentially unqualified for the role from man's perspective, he was the one that God chose to fulfill the role, the job description of the next king of Israel.

Finally, let us go over to Jeremiah, the last example here, and we will see something similar to what we saw in Moses.

Jeremiah 1:4-8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you," says the Lord.

To me, Jeremiah is yet another fantastic example of how God took someone who is lowly, perhaps even the base, and He said, "Hey, I formed you in the womb and I knew you." God had a specific purpose for Jeremiah. And when Jeremiah said to God, "I can't speak because I'm a youth, I'm young. They won't believe me. They won't hear me." God said, "Don't say that, because I'm going to give you what you need to be effective in the role and the position that I have not only created you for but that I have made you fit to fulfill." And that is pretty fantastic.

Now, there are certainly many other examples that we could go to see where God chose someone who was not the apparent rock star or top pick of the litter, so to speak. We can even see with Solomon that God gave him the gift so that he, and so many others throughout the Bible, could be effective in the specific roles that God had placed them in.

I am hoping that this gives each and every one of us some type of hope for the future, knowing that God is working with each and every one of us individually and collectively to bring us into the Body of Christ and ultimately into His spiritual Family—the Family of God. You might feel ill-equipped, you might feel like you do not matter. You might feel like you do not have what it takes. You might feel like God chose the wrong person. But I think that what we have seen is that God has indeed chosen who He wills. And for those that He has chosen, He also will provide what it takes to be successful.

Through this study, we have seen that God is indeed calling the base, the insignificant, so to speak, the lowly. Put another way, that is such a blessing because if He was not, there is the strong, almost definite possibility that each and every one of us would not have the opportunity to be part of His Family. And so for that, His calling is such a huge blessing.

Now that God has called us, what does He want us to do? I will not spend a lot of time here because I know others have spoken on this recently on how we need to be learning and growing, focusing on the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, and the rest. These are the least of the things that we can do to prepare for a position in God's Family and in His Kingdom.

As I was preparing this message, I had to ask myself, am I truly preparing to be a priest in God's Kingdom? This got me to to thinking a bit. Now, what if I introduced, say, myself or we were somewhere and I introduced one of you to someone else in this world. And I said, hi, this is so-and-so. This is a future priest of the Most High God, the God of heaven and earth, who inhabits eternity. How would you present and conduct yourself to those people? When we meet new people there is generally some small talk, you know, where do you live? What do you do for a living? That type of thing. We might say, I am a carpenter, a computer programmer, a housewife. The list can go on, of course. Do we ever think that while we might do these things for our physical living, what we are preparing for is to be a spiritual priest?

Now, what if we all had permanent bumper stickers or, let us just say, stickers on all four or five sides of your car if you want to account for an occasional plane or helicopter flying over. What if it said "member of the priesthood of God" in big bold letters. Would that have any effect on how you drive? Would you text and drive? Would you speed, perhaps cut others off, speak to others using the universal sign language of not love, or would you do all of these at once?

In addition to putting on the beatitudes and putting off sin, we can read in the Bible things like the qualifications of a king, the virtues of a good wife that we find in Proverbs 31, the qualifications of bishops and deacons, and the qualifications of lay members in I Timothy chapters 2 and 3 and Titus chapters 1 and 2. These are all our job descriptions, the things we should be aspiring to attain, the things that will prepare us for the role that God will give us in His Kingdom. And whether or not we we actually hold the title of king or bishop or deacon or a layperson, we can still conduct ourselves accordingly.

Let us take a look at what God and Christ are preparing for us even now. So for our next scripture, please turn with me over to John 14.

John 14:1-4 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know."

Jesus told His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them. He tells them that in His Father's house there are many mansions. Now you might see in your margin the word dwellings. To me, this is a lot different than say, tents or a temporary dwelling, and it signals a permanent dwelling place. Now, this is not from the Hebrew or Greek, but I do think it is interesting that at least in the terms that we can understand as humans, Jesus says in My Father's house there are many mansions or dwellings. But what would we typically say from a human perspective? We might say, in my father's house or in my father's mansion, there are many rooms, at least that is how I would interpret it.

So again, this is not spelled out here in Scripture, but I just found it kind of interesting. Jesus in a way was saying, you are not just going to get a small little room in My Father's house. You each will have a mansion in My Father's house, and again, this is just my thoughts. It is certainly not specifically spelled out here in Scripture. But I thought it was interesting. So it sounds pretty special, especially when we tie in I Corinthians 2.

I Corinthians 2:9 "Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

We have seen so far that God is training up those who are being called to be priests in His Kingdom. Knowing at least in part what we will be doing is helpful as we think about how we will we live our human lives today. God, in His Word, has shown us various qualifications of certain roles within His church and by extension, the spiritual body. For any role clarity that we think might not be covered, we have God's command to "be holy for I am holy," that we read in I Peter 1:16, which basically covers everything.

And as we think about what we will be in the Kingdom, I would like to further pull on this thread about how God is bringing us all together into the Body of Christ for specific purposes. And I would like to consider this by helping us to understand our role.

When someone applies for a job and is hired into a specific position, employers generally like go-getters and people that get in and do a fantastic job. Employers typically do not care for new hires that basically come in and show contempt for the the job or the role that they are in and that they were actually hired for, and instead set out to leapfrog above them or get a leadership or management position. So let us look at some other roles articulated in the Bible and we will chase this out a bit. Let us turn over to Matthew 19 for our next scripture.

Matthew 19:27-30 Then Peter answered and said to Him, "See, we have left all [he is speaking to Jesus] and followed You. Therefore, what shall we have?" [It is a very human question.] So Jesus said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

I wanted to show this example because it reveals that there are indeed various roles and positions in the Kingdom. And it would appear that the disciples will sit on 12 thrones in the Kingdom and judge the 12 tribes. That is their position. That is their reward.

Now in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea, the Lord refers to David as a prince and king, so he too has a role just like all of those who came before us. Another example of this that I thought was interesting is in Matthew 20, where you can read the account of Mama Zebedee, James' and John's mom. And she was asking Jesus to place her sons at His right and left hand in the Kingdom. This account starts in Matthew 20 and it goes through verse 20 through 28. And what is interesting in the exchange as it relates to this message is that Jesus seems to validate that there are in fact two positions or roles, we might say, in the Kingdom that will be at His right and left hands and that they are reserved for who the Father is preparing for them for it. And these are obviously some pretty special positions.

Finally, just some additional food for thought. We might call this "being happy with the job that we have been given." We can think about the example that Satan has provided for all of mankind. Now, God created Hillel for a purpose. He was a covering cherub, that was his job. God gave him a position and a rank within His creation and he was pretty high up there. He was beautiful and intelligent. That position, though, was not good enough for him and pride swelled up in him and he attempted to leave that position—and he fell a long way, something for us to consider and think about.

God is putting each one of us into the Body, into the Family, into His creation where He sees fit and we should be very thankful for the position and role that He is specifically creating for us.

I have heard this several times throughout my career. People have said, you know, we cannot all be—and you just insert the CEO's name here, business owner's name here that you would like. But the the point is we cannot all be in charge. We cannot all be at the top of the class. We cannot all be the the guy that is running the company. There is only one King David who has a specific role and position in God's Kingdom and we are not King David. There are 12 disciples that have one throne each waiting for them. And we are not those disciples.

I say this not to discourage us because, just as God prepared all of those who went before us for specific spiritual careers, He is likewise doing the same for us, His saints, those whom He is calling to be spiritual priests in His Kingdom. It is very exciting.

Let us bring all this together and begin to wrap up. As I thought about this topic, not that I did not have purpose before, but it really helped me to think about what am I preparing for in this life? We are preparing to fulfill these roles in the Kingdom and we are training for each one of them right now. This should give us great purpose and something to really look forward to, something to reach for, something to aspire to. Because God is working with each of us individually and collectively to fit us perfectly into His Family. And that is simply amazing.

Let us go to Colossians 1 for our final scripture. Now Colossians 1 is so eloquently written by Paul. He opens with a greeting to the Colossians, saying,

Colossians 1:2 To the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse.

And we could certainly add to all those who God will call or read these verses. We are going to break into verse 9. Paul is referencing the gospel of the truth. And he says,

Colossians 1:9-14 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

And we all at some point in life will have to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. We all have to figure out what we will do for a living to make money, to take care of ourselves, and God willing, to take care of a family. Regardless of the career or trade that we choose in our physical lives, once God calls us to know Him and our Savior, we are indeed preparing and being prepared for a much higher calling.

Knowing this, knowing that our future role and position can be in God's Kingdom should motivate us to grow and live our lives worthy of that calling. We are part of the saints of God set apart and in training to be priests in His Kingdom. Should we not be living our physical lives accordingly?

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