So this morning I'm going to start just a small short series on the character of Phineas
And the first thing I want to look at this morning is his heritage
And I'm going to forewarn you right now that I'm kind of laying some groundwork for another couple of sermons
I want to preach about this
This character Phineas, but this morning is going to be kind of heavy on the names
But I think there's some you know significant things that we can still pull out of this
Some application that we can make to our own lives if we'll sit up and pay attention
And and get through these lists of names and try to wrap our heads around
The heritage of Phineas, that's the first thing I want to look at is the heritage of Phineas
Not just where he came from but also
Where his heritage went but the first thing we want to look at when it comes to this topic of Phineas's heritage is
Those that preceded him those that came before him what led up
To Phineas and if you look there in Exodus chapter 6 it says there in verse 16
And these are the names of the sons of Levi according their generations
Gershon, Kohath, Merari, and the years of the life of Levi were in hundred and thirty and seven years
So you start out with Levi here, and then it goes down to his descendants
You get a verse 17 the sons of Gershon, Libni, Shimei
According to their families and the sons of Kohath, Amram, Ishar, Hebron, Uzziel
And the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred and thirty and three years and the sons of Merari,
Mahali, Mushai, these are the families of Levi according the generations and it says there in verse 20 and Amram took took him
Jacobet his father's sister to wife and she bare him Aaron and of course these are names that we're going to start to recognize
Other than Levi it says there Aaron and Moses two very prominent characters that I'm sure we all know
And it says that the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty seven years and the sons of
Ishar, Korah, and Nepheg, and Zikrai, and the sons of Uzziel, Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithrai
And it says there that in verse 23 and Aaron took to unto him Elishaba
daughter of Amenadab, sister of Nahashon to wife and she bare him Nadab, Abihu,
Eleazar, and Ithamar and these are very important characters
We know probably Nadab and Abihu as those that were slain before the Lord when they burned strange fire before the Lord
And we'll look at that briefly here in a minute
But the person I want to focus on is actually the third son of Aaron there
It says Eleazar and Ithamar. Eleazar specifically was the father of Phinehas
It says there in verse 25 and Eleazar Aaron's son took him one of the daughters of Potu'el
To wife and she bare him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers of Levites according to their families
So the first thing that we see about Phinehas when it comes to his heritage is that he is the son of Aaron
He is the third son of Aaron meaning that his
or excuse me Eleazar meaning that his
His grandfather would have been the first high priest Aaron. So who is Phinehas? Well, he's the grandson of
Levi he's the son of
Aaron and what that would mean to us is that he is in the descendant of
Those first initial high priests and we'll see that here in a minute
You can go ahead and turn from Exodus 6 and go over to Judges chapter 20 Judges chapter number 20
When it comes to Phinehas's
Heritage the first thing I want to point out is that godly men are what preceded him
I'm not sure about all these characters
I don't know that the scripture gives us a lot of detail about some of these men
But we certainly understand that men like Aaron and Eleazar
These were godly men and even Moses, you know would have been the uncle of Phinehas that these are very godly men that are in
His heritage, you know, we should be thankful for you know
The the godly heritage that we have it says in Numbers chapter 20 verse 28
I'll read to you Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them upon Eleazar his son and
Aaron died in the top of the mount and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountains of Eleazar being Phinehas
His father was the second high priest
It only stands to reason that Phineas would then proceed or would come after him would proceed
His father and serve as the high priest as well
Which is exactly what you see in Judges chapter 20 verse 27 towards the end of the book
It said the course is this is when the civil war is broken out with the Benjamites and they're harboring the Sodomites and that whole
story
but notice in verse 27 it says and the children of Israel inquired of the Lord for the Ark of the Covenant of God was there
in those days and
Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron stood before it in those days saying shall yet go out to battle against the children
of Benjamin my brother
So when they went to inquire of the Lord who was standing there before the Ark of God
Well, it was Phinehas Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron
it was a man who had a very godly heritage that led to where he was and
I want to make a quick application to point out the fact that you know
We have a godly heritage today and you might be sitting there and thinking well
You know
My father was no spiritual man and my grandfather wasn't some great spiritual person and maybe they were and praise God for that
But there might be some out there that are sitting there thinking, you know, what great godly heritage do I have?
Well, you have a godly heritage in Christ
We have a godly heritage in the Lord
The Bible says in Romans chapter 8 the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God
You know, we have that witness in ourselves
Reminding us the spirit tells us that we are God's children if we're born again that we're the children of God and if children then
Heirs heirs of God, it's not just that God
Saved us and adopted us through the blood of Jesus Christ his son
But he's also made us an heir meaning he's given us an inheritance
There's there's a an inheritance to look forward to look you have a godly heritage in Christ
Regardless of whatever kind of a heritage you might have on this earth. You have one in Christ
It says there what were joint heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be glorified with him
If you would go to Leviticus chapter 10
You'd say well, I don't have a godly heritage. How can I relate to a man like Phinehas?
You have a godly heritage in Christ. You say I'm no priest. I'm no great servant of God
How can I relate to a person like Phinehas?
You are a priest unto God the New Testament tells us that in 1st Peter 2 it says
You are lively stones built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ that we are that chosen generation
We are a royal priesthood the Bible says in Christ
Look, we have more in common with Phinehas than you might think this morning
Maybe we can't relate to him in some earthly way and saying well, I have this great earthly
Heritage in the sense that I have, you know godly forefathers that came before me my flesh and blood that preceded me
They were godly men. Maybe we don't have that but we we have godly
forefathers spiritual forefathers
other men of God that have who have
Who are also joint heirs with Christ who are named of the family of God who have preached the Word of God who have served
God and we are heirs today of that faith that same faith
We have that in relation with them and what else that we are also
Priests unto what made been made priests unto our God. We are that chosen generation. We are that royal priesthood
We are a holy nation. We are a peculiar people
On the flip side, however, and this is something I'm sure we can all relate to as well
Is that there were also ungodly men that were that preceded Phinehas, you know, and this is something that
We need to think about as well
And of course, you know, there's probably others I could cite but probably the most prominent would be Phinehas
Phinehas's uncles Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron the first two sons
It says there in Leviticus chapter 10 verse 1 at Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took either of them censer and put fire
They're in and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not
So Nadab and Abihu, you know, they were the heirs apparent
Phinehas the third son, you know, he's just he's he's obviously the coethites
He's gonna serve but you know, maybe he's not in line to be you know, the next high priest
Maybe he's not gonna have that, you know that that recognition
But the fact is, you know, he's the man that had it first initially they blew it
They blew it. They they were gonna be you know, the next line
They were gonna be high priests in all likelihood and you know what? They got lifted up
They got puffed up and they blew the opportunity that they had they messed up
You know, we might be able to relate a little bit more with that
You know, I I pray and I hope that there's many people in the room and there's future generations that can relate to Phineas
You know on the side of having a godly heritage
But the fact is, you know many of us today could probably relate to Phineas a little bit more by saying yeah
You know, I've got I've got some drunks in my family too, you know
And I believe that's what's going on here with Nadab and Abihu. These guys are just drunk
I mean what possesses them to burn the strange fire?
Well, if you look at verse 8 the Bible says and Lord spake on Aaron saying do not drink wine nor strong drink
Thou nor thy sons with thee when you go into the tabernacle the congregation
It's the same chapter. We know how the story goes. The fire comes out of the Lord and devours them in verse 2 and
Then he had this explanation in verse 8 verse 9
And I don't believe those things are unrelated, you know, that's my opinion
That's what I believe is that the God's giving the strong warning of the Lord to the people of the world
God's giving the strong warning about not drinking wine or strong drink not going in there with a buzz
Don't go into church high
Don't go to church drunk. You know, God doesn't doesn't doesn't like that
I'm not saying if you do that got fire is gonna come out but you know, it's still not a good idea to do
Well, maybe we can relate a little bit more to Phineas because Phineas had some men that were you know
Directly related to him his uncles that were you know, I believe drunks
At the very least they definitely had their own ideas about how to serve God you say well, I don't agree
I think those were I think verse 9 is divorced from the rest of the passage. That's fine
We don't have to agree with on that
But in verse 1 you gotta at least admit that these guys had some different ideas about serving God
It says they put fire there in when they're censors and they put incense there on an offered strange fire before the Lord
Meaning fire that was not appropriate. There was a very
Specific incense that was only to be burned before God and they just felt like well, we're just gonna offer whatever we want
And we know the result verse 2 fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord God was not
Pleased with these men look you might be like Phineas this morning and you want to look we start looking at your heritage
Maybe there isn't a long line of godly descendants there, you know
but and maybe it's more a little bit more like you got some nadab and a by who's in your life and
Truth be told probably most of us. It's a bit of a mix like Phineas. You got a little bit of both
And what I want to get across this morning is the fact that
You know, we can only control the things that are within our immediate sphere of influence
people get so caught up in their life trying to control everybody else or
Letting things that happen in their past or things that you know that are external that they have no control over affect them
things that other people did
But here's the thing you can't control those that came before you, you know for good or bad
Moses and Aaron, you know, they were godly men on their own
Eleazar was a godly man on his own Phineas his father and his uncle and his grants and his grandfather
They were you know, they were godly men on their own right that had nothing to do with Phineas
they were godly men long before Phineas came along and
After Phineas came along, you know those wicked uncles that he had nadab and a by who they there was nothing
He could have done about that. It's beyond his control
You know other people might take their heritage for granted like a nadab and a by who but you know, we shouldn't
It might be beyond our control, but if we can at least sit back and say hey
There's some good godly examples in my past and maybe you don't have that in your in your personal life
but there's plenty of them right here and
You are heirs with these same Saints
You know, we are all going to inherit the same thing as all the saints of old
We're all we're all going to be made heirs together with Christ
You have some great godly examples right here and you know, we have some bad examples, too
Maybe we can look around in our life and say well, I know not what not to do
Look, these these people are beyond your control. There's nothing you can do about
The only thing you can really do is learn from their example whether it's good or bad
That's the really the only thing that you can do. I believe that's what Phineas did
He learned from their bad example. He learned from the good example. Yes of Moses
He learned from the great example of his father Eliea Eleazar
He learned from Aaron, you know his and he learned all the the good things that they ought to have done
He learned how to serve as a high priest. He learned what it take to serve God
You know, we also had some bad examples
We know what Phineas didn't do. He didn't just sit there and say well, you know, I just I don't have that
I know I have a wicked family. I can't serve God
You know, my family's got a bunch of drug addicts and drunks in it or my family's a bunch of heathen
My family's you know, doesn't believe in God my family's a bunch of atheists or agnostics
They mock the things of God there. What am I supposed to do?
Why don't you learn from their bad example?
Why don't you learn from the good examples that you have and use your opportunity to serve God to do well?
I mean, that's what God is telling Aaron at this point
You look there again in verse 8. He said the Lord spake on Aaron saying, oh, sorry about that. Oh
Whoops. Oh, did I do that, huh?
God offers no apology
In fact Moses warns and says keep your mouth shut don't complain about this. They did wrong
God says don't drink wine or strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee when you go into the tabernacle the congregation lest you die
It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations
You're saying you see that bad example
Phineas of your uncle's your family you see that bad example don't be like them
Verse 10 that you may put a difference between holy and unholy between unclean and clean
That's what we need to do if we have bad examples in our life. Look at it and say I'm gonna be different
That's unholy I'm gonna be holy that's unclean I'm gonna be clean
Why verse 11 that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes, which the Lord had spoken unto them by the hands of Moses
You know if you have bad examples
If you don't have all these great godly examples in your life and then like I said in all likelihood. It's a mixture of both
learn from the bad
To not be like them to be different why that you can what teach the children teach the generations that are coming after you
You say well, I I you know, I've got a pretty
gnarly family tree
Well, you know what it's time for you to be that that good branch that fruitful branch
Teach those that are gonna come after you and that's what I want to talk about next when it comes to this idea of Phineas's
Heritage we looked at what preceded Phineas. Yes, good godly men
Yes, some ungodly men but Phineas, you know
I believe is we'll see in the next couple weeks with somebody that was able to look at all of that and still serve God
in a great way
And he was able to understand that it's about who's coming after him
That's what we need to be more concerned with is the those that are coming after us. Look we can't do anything about the past
It's over
We can't do anything about you know
The divorce we can't do anything about the adultery. We can't do anything about the drunkenness
We can't do anything about the ungodliness the unholyness and the uncleanness in our past. It's over
All we can do is be different always you can say I'm not going to be like that. I'm gonna be different
All I can do is have an influence on those that come after me
All I can do is teach the children of Israel the statutes that the Lord has spoken go to first chronicles
chapter number six first chronicles chapter number six
we'll see also that as
You know, we should learn from these examples both good and bad to be an influence on the future and do our best
But even then this is beyond our control as well
It says in first chronicles, I'll just be green reading a verse six
Or chapter six. Excuse me a verse one
It says the sons of Levi. So it's another litany of names here Gershon Kohath and Mariah and the sons of Kohath
Amram, Ishar, Hebron, and Uzziel and the children of Amram, Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons also of Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eliezer, and Ithamar
We just read about these men Eliezer begat Phinehas
Phinehas begat Abishua and Abishua begat Bucai, Bucai begat Uzzai, and Uzzai begat Zeruiah
And Zeruiah begat Marioth and Marioth begat Amoriah and Amoriah begat Ahitub and Ahitub begat Zadok and Zadok
But get Ahimeas and Ahimeas begat Azariah and Azariah begat
Jehonan and Jehonan begat Azariah. Now pay attention
It says of Azariah in verse 10
He it is that executed the priest's office in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem
And look, you know, I hope I'm right about this
But to me when I'm when I look at the scripture and what I can see is that you know
This looks like a litany of course. These are the descendants, you know with Phinehas
Beginning there in verse 5 it starts, you know
Actually the end of verse 4 Phinehas begat Abishua and then it just goes down all the descendants that came after him
But I don't believe that these were necessarily all high priests that came after him
You know and there's debate out there and you can you know read people scholars who draw from other sources different texts and things like that
I really don't want to go down that hole. I really don't want to chase that
You know, I believe we have enough right here in the scripture to at least have an opinion about what took place
Maybe it's not the most important thing
But if you notice there you have this lineage of people that come from Phinehas
But notice again in verse 10 when it gets back to Azariah who is a descendant of Phinehas
It says that he it is that executed the priest's office in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem
you have to remember that
Azariah was somebody that had to be reinstated into the priesthood
Because in first Kings chapter 2 before Solomon built the temple it says that he thrust out Abiathar from being priests under the Lord
So it's something you know in Abiathar. He's not he's not listed here
So at some point and that lineage coming down there was that that that priesthood got shifted to another
line of descendants probably from Ithamar and
It probably in my opinion began with Eli who came after Phinehas
So the point is this is that you know
We want to learn from the good and bad examples in our past so that we can be an influence on those that come after
Us but even then there that's beyond our control
Just like Phinehas, you know, he said I'm gonna keep serving God
I'm gonna do the best that I can you know
what eventually it appears to me from reading the Bible that that priesthood was taken from him and
Got diverted whether it was because of some sin or who knows what?
But it was something that had to come back to him meaning this that Phinehas had no control over the future either
Look, you can't control the past. You can't control what's going to come after you
All you can do is serve God in the here and now and this is really the point of this series that I want to
Get across is you have to learn to serve God here and now quit worrying about what took or has already taken place
Quit worrying so much about what's going to happen and serve God now with your life
You have no control of what your great-grandson your great-great-grandson what kind of a man he's going to be
The only person you have any control over is you
the only person that you can make serve God is you and
It's just funny because you you know people obviously it's a very good thing to want your children to serve God. I
Mean that's something I want for my family
I'm sure everyone in the room anyone, you know anyone with or without children would say of their descendants
I hope that I have a long lineage of Bible reading soul-winning Baptists that come after me
You know what? That's beyond our control
and
If you want that the best way to try to get that for yourself is for you to serve God
You can't sit there and say I want my son to be a soul winner when you're not a soul winner
Can't sit there and say I want my children to know the Bible. You don't read the Bible
You can't sit there and say I want my family to be faithful to church when you're not faithful to church
Because here's the thing when it comes to our descendants our children they follow our example
We could sit there and preach at them and lectured them until we're blue in the face
But what they're really gonna watch is how you behave what you do because your actions I know it's cliche what speak louder than words
You know why it's cliche because it's true
You know why I get said so often because it's true your actions speak louder than your words
And I believe this is something that Phineas understood
He said I can't do anything about my godly heritage or my ungodly heritage. I'm glad for what I had
I appreciate what I had I you know, I can learn from my bad examples
I would love for my family to go on and have a long line of high priests
But you know what? I can't control that either. But what I can do in this life is serve God with some zeal and
Phineas as we'll see in the coming weeks is one of the most zealous men that we read about in the scripture
But even he you know had
Ungodly people that kind of get mixed up in
His in his you know in the people that came after him
Ungodly men
You know Eli wasn't a high priest we read about him in in in beginning of first Samuel chapter 2
And he raised his two sons
And doesn't anyone remember their names
Phineas was one of them, right
Phineas and you know if we say the name Phineas that might be the one that we think about
Maybe when I get up say I'm gonna preach about Phineas your mind immediately goes to all you're talking about
that wicked son of Eli the Bible calls him a
Son of Belial that did not know the Lord was a wicked man half nine Phineas wicked sons
You know in Phineas of old that the the the the high priest Eliezer son the grandson of Aaron
It's having that great name just being drug through the mud
And you know what it's beyond his control. There's nothing you can do about it. I
Can I feel like I can relate a little bit to to Phineas?
You know, I'm Corbin John Russell the second. My son is Corbin John Russell the third
You know and I hope that you know that name Corbin John
Russell
You know continues on that there's other Corbin John's just like there's other Phineas's but I hope that it's never associated with the son of Belial
I hope that it's always associated with
Godliness and righteousness and holiness and soul winning and loving the Lord
I hope it's associated with all those things, but you know what there's a chance that it won't be
There's a chance that you know, one of my descendants is going to turn into some ungodly
Reprobate it's possible
You say well, I don't want that to happen what should I do what can you do besides serve God
You know, I can I guarantee you one thing not serving God not living for the Lord that's not gonna help things
That's that's one surefire way to produce, you know, some ungodly generation is to forsake the Lord
I mean, that's what Eli did Eli Eli raised some wicked sons
Eli Eli raised some wicked sons, you know, one of them happened to be named Phineas
You know, hopefully by the end of the series when I say when you hear the name Phineas
Or Phinehas, you know, I say Phineas I don't care how anybody else says it
You know, that's how i've been saying it. That's how i've heard other people with that same spelling in their names
They said Phineas. It's Phineas. All right
That's not how Scorby said it. Yeah. Well, whatever
Phinehas
You know what i'm talking about
Hopefully when you hear that name after this series you don't associate it with some
Wicked son of Belial hope you'll start to associate that name with a zealous
Servant of God who understood what that he can't do anything about the past
He can't do anything about the future. All he has is right now to serve God
And to be the influence that he can
You can't control the people that came before you you cannot control the people that come after you
The only thing you can control this life are the choices you make when it comes to serving God or not serving God
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. I'll wrap up
Ecclesiastes chapter number 10
The Bible says i'll read from Ecclesiastes 3 he says
Wherefore I perceive that there's nothing better that a man should rejoice in his own works for that is his portion
For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
He's saying look
You should rejoice in your own works. That's your portion life
The only thing you have any power over in this life is your works what you do and you should rejoice in that
For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him
Oh brother Corbin, aren't you worried about you know, one of your descendants, uh, you know forsaking the faith and and and maybe even being
An enemy of God I don't worry about it because it's beyond my control
Say you're gonna bite my nails over something that's completely out of my control
I just rejoice in the fact that you know
I have today to serve God that I'm saved that I have the Holy Spirit that I have the witness of God that I am
The child of God I rejoice in that and I just serve God now
You know, and hopefully that will be an influence on the generation to come
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 6 I'll read to you you're going to chapter 10
It says for who knoweth what is good for a man in this life all the days of his vain life
Which he spendeth as a shadow for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun
It's this thing that just keeps getting coming up over and over in Ecclesiastes
It's all beyond our control. The only thing you can control in this life is if you're going to serve God
Look at Ecclesiastes 10 verse 14. It said a fool also is full of words
A man cannot tell what shall be and what shall be after him who can tell
The guy who just sits around and pontificates about how he's gonna do this and he's gonna do that and one day
I'll get around to doing this and one day I'll get around to doing that and oh, I'll serve God at some point
And oh, maybe I won't be able to do any great things for God. But you know, maybe the my children that come after me
You know what? That's a foolish thing to sit around and just talk about what you're going to do one day
Or what might come after you
He says a fool is full of words
Why what what's makes them foolish a man cannot tell what shall be the guy that just sits around and talks about
How it's going to be you don't know
It'd be just as foolish for me to get up and say I know that for you know after i'm dead and gone
There's there's going to be this great legacy of Corbin John wrestles that just go down through the ages one preacher after I don't know
It'd be foolish for me to say that it'd be foolish to get up there and say oh this church is going to live beyond my years
There's going to be generations of preachers. You know what that'd be a foolish thing because the pattern is is that churches come and go
And there's always people having to come up and start over again
It'd be a foolish thing to sit here and say what's going to be after him
I mean who could tell him how can how does anybody do that?
I mean who could tell him how can how does anybody know? No one does go to matthew chapter six. We'll close there
The bible says in proverbs chapter 27. I know we know this verse
Boast not thyself of tomorrow
You know, it's people who want to sit there and just say oh they have all these grand schemes all these great plans
The bible says look you don't know what's good for thou know
It's not what a day may bring forth that could all change tomorrow. Look i'm not saying we just live our lives
From day to day without any direction. Obviously, we should have goals and things that we're aspiring to to and working towards
But you know what? Those should not be the things that we boast of what we're going to do one day
What we're working towards?
Well, we should you know if we're going to boast at anything let you know let him boast in the lord
If a man glory let him glory in the lord
It's great to have a direction it's great to have purpose but you know what what have you done for the lord lately?
What have you what are you going to do for god today?
Look at matthew chapter six verse 34. It says take no thought
There excuse me verse 34 take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself
Oh ecclesiastes, you know, that's just solomon. He was a bit of a skeptic
You know, he was a bit of a naysayer
You know, he was just kind of jaded
Well, these are the words of jesus and solomon was the wisest man outside of the lord that ever lived the bible says
So I think he knew what he was talking about but this is the lord saying what take therefore no thought for the morrow
You know and of course we always like to apply that to you're not worrying about things and not worrying about what's going on
Not worrying where our next meal or if god's going to take care of us. God always comes through
We know that but also what about this idea of boasting of tomorrow?
I'm saying well i'm not going to serve god
But you know the generations after me are going to where i'm serving god and every generation after me is going to you have no idea
The only thing that you can control is you
Your choices that you make right now when it comes to lord. That's it
He said take no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil
there of
We ought to be more concerned with the evil that's going to confront us today the temptations that we have to face today
Look, we all face them because we all have the flesh the foot, you know
The temptation to not serve god the temptation to uh, you know, give up on living for the lord. That's always there
Every day day in day out we have to decide day in day out today i'm going to serve god today
I'm going to serve god today. I'm going to get up i'm going to crucify the flesh
I'm going to kill that old man. Once again, i'm going to read my bible
I'm going to pray i'm going to meditate on the word of god. I'm going to go work hard
I'm going to raise my family for god
You know what and if it's sunday i'm going to go to church i'm going to be there for the preaching the word of god
I'm going to get out there
I'm going to do the work that god has given us to do in the soul winning. I'm going to serve god with my life today
Not tomorrow not next week
Not the next generation. Oh my children will make up for what I couldn't do wrong
And if that's our attitude the you know, the the the chances are they won't it's a greater likelihood that they're going to just follow your example
You know and I believe and i'm saying why are you preaching the word of god?
I'm going to be there for the preaching the word of god. I'm going to get out there
I'm going to do the work that god has given us to do and the soul winning i'm going to serve god with my life today
You know and I believe and i'm saying why are you preaching this about phineas because I think phineas understood this
And you know it's it's the rest of the series
Maybe a couple more sermons well we'll start to actually look at the actions of what phineas did
And how he served god and what his attitude of like what kind of a person phineas was
But I think it's worth taking the time this morning to look at his heritage
To understand because there's lessons to be gleaned from that
I mean we could jump right into all the great stories about phineas going out to war and sounding the trumpet
About him taking that javelin and going and running those fornicators through in their tent
All those great wonderful stories that we love to read about but you know what
That never would have happened if phineas didn't have the right perspective
If he didn't understand some things for himself about what it takes to serve god
And I believe when we start to look at his actions what we're going to see is that he's demonstrating his understanding
That all you have is this is this life for you to serve god
That's it you can't control the other people
You can't you know phineas didn't just sit there and ride on the coattails of Eliezer
His father he didn't ride well don't you know that you know my granddaddy is Aaron
You know my great uncle is a Moses
You know he he served god in his generation for himself in his day
He had his own walk with god he didn't try to ride on their coattails
And he didn't sit there and look at the other ungodly influences in his life and let that be a hindrance to him
And say well you know I got some drunks in my family you know I had these bad influences and I just I can't help myself
He didn't do either of those things
He served god and you know what he served god in his day and even after him there's you know it took a long time
But eventually that that priesthood came back didn't it
We can't control what's going to happen tomorrow we can't control what's already happened in the past
I believe Phineas understood that I believe you'll see that through his actions
That he understood that some things are just beyond his control his actions demonstrate that
Let's go ahead and pray