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["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Good morning and welcome. Let's find our seats, take our songbooks, turn to song 328. Three, two, eight. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] I want that mountain, 328. Let's go ahead and sing it out on the first. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Amen. We want to welcome you to Verity Baptist Church this morning. We're glad you're with us. And of course we'd like to begin the service with a word of prayer, so let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to gather together on a Sunday morning. Lord, we pray that you would bless the service. We pray that you'd bless the singing. Of course, the preaching of your word and the fellowship as well, Lord, that everything that's sent today would bring honor and glory to your name, and that we would draw closer to you as a result of what we hear, Lord, that we would be not only hearers of the word, but doers as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Turn to song 180. 180. 180. Sing it out on the first. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] For it is to be good to you. Amen. All right. Well, let's take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly. If you did not receive a bulletin on your way in, just raise your hand. And one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we'll get one for you. The verse this week, Psalm 37 for delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. And that's a good verse there. We like that if you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service times Sunday morning service 10 30 a.m. Of course, we're glad you're with us on Sunday morning on the Lord's Day for church Sunday evening service at 6 p.m. when we do invite you to be back tonight for the evening service. The evening service is different than the morning service. Different songs that are sung, different sermon that's preached. Just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people under the preaching of the word of God. And tonight, I want to encourage you to be here. Of course, we're not going to have a live stream tonight. I'm going to be preaching a sermon tonight that I'll actually be preaching in the UK later on this month. So I encourage you to be here for that. And then, of course, the Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. And we are studying the book of Galatians. We'll continue through that on Wednesday nights this week. If you look at our soul winning times, our main solar times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and then we have additional solar times on Thursdays and Fridays and Sundays at 2 p.m. I do want you to make note of the fact that there will be no soul winning on Friday this week. So please take just make a note of that. No soul winning on Friday this week due to a wedding. So please just be aware of that. There'll be soul winning on Thursday at 2 p.m. and then, of course, on Sunday at 2 p.m. But this coming Friday, no soul winning at 2 p.m. due to a wedding. If you're a first time guest, we are glad that you're with us. We have a special gift I'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building this morning. If you go out our main foyer or if you go out our secondary foyer, you'll see a little table set up. And on that table, you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest this morning. There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have. But the one I like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. It's very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it. And we want to give this to you as a gift. So please make sure you don't leave here this morning without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out. And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card, which is inserted in your bulletin if you need a pen, just raise your hand. And one of our ushers can bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen. You're welcome to keep the pen as a gift from us as well. And we're not going to do anything odd with your info. We would just like a record your attendance. We actually would like to send you a little gift, but we need your information to do that. So please take a moment to fill the card out when we're done with the announcements. We're going to sing a song when we're done singing. We're going to receive the offering. And as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate. If you notice there in the announcements, we are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother, baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All of the rooms have comfortable seating. They have monitors set up so you can watch the service and listen to it. So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service or if you need some privacy, we would encourage you to use those rooms as needed. If you're not sure where those rooms are at, you can look at the back of the bulletin and you'll see a layout of our church building or show you where the restrooms are. It'll show you where the where the mother baby rooms are, where the daddy room is. So please make sure you use that. If you need to be baptized, let us know. We'd love to baptize you. And the baptistry is filled. The water is warm. We've got a couple of baptisms scheduled for this morning. And if you've already spoken to somebody, you know, you need to be baptized. All you need to do at the end of the service, after the preaching, while we're singing the last song, if you step out that door, one of our staff guys will meet you there and we'll get you situated for baptism. If not, if you'd like to speak to someone, you can let us know on your communication card, check it off on the back, and we'll follow up with you and talk to you about baptism and answer whatever questions you have. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, we have our cleaning crew appreciation dinner and training on Friday, August 18th at 6 p.m.. If you're part of the cleaning crew, we want to, of course, appreciate you. And thank you. And we have a special dinner for you on that night. Please make sure you RSVP through your communication card. Let us know you're going to be there. And if you're interested in being part of our cleaning crew, we would love for you to come to this dinner as well. And we've got six different crews that clean that minister here. They they do every other week. And we've got two alternating groups on Mondays, two on Saturdays and two on Sundays. And if you could help us with that or if you're looking for a place to serve, then the cleaning crews are definitely a place where we could use your help, especially on Mondays. Monday mornings are the the toughest, of course, to get volunteers for. So if you are free on Mondays, we'd appreciate your help with that. And you can be part of the if you'd like more information, if you're interested, you can sign up for the dinner BBC choir. They've got practice today at 5 p.m. And of course, they're practicing for our family and friend day, which is our church's 13th anniversary ladies weight loss accountability group. They meet on Wednesdays at 615 p.m. in the mother baby room that is closest to the front entrance discipleship class. They've got class today at 5 p.m. So if you're part of that, don't forget. There's other things there for you to look at. Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service. They're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of August this week, we have Abigail Deacon's birthday on August 7th. Christian Groenberg's birthday on August 8th. Cristiano Pérez's birthday on August 9th. And Daniel Neltescu has a birthday on August 11th. Praise report, money matters. All of those things are there for you to look at. I think that's it for all of the announcements. So we're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week as we prepare to receive the offering this morning. And let's go ahead and sing. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian singing out on the first life has purpose now and never had before. There is meaning to each day and even more. For joy and peace, I can't explain is since I found new life in Christ, my Lord. The one. Oh, it is wonderful to be. Oh, it is wonderful to have your. Oh, it is wonderful to be. Justified forever. Good singing out on the second. I can go directly to the Lord. He has told me I may boldly enter there. And he listens as his promises I bear. I find mercy there and grace for every need. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. To be God's child. Oh, it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh, it is wonderful to be redeemed, justified forever. Good singing out on the last and the hope of heaven's glory. Where I'll live with Christ forever more, I know that is why the things of earth I loosely. I've eternal riches. Better more than. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh, it is wonderful to be God's child. Oh, it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh, it is wonderful to be redeemed, justified forever and inside. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to meet here this morning. Lord, we pray that you bless the offering, the gift and the giver. We pray that you bless the preaching of your word in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Turn your Bibles to Numbers, Chapter eight, Numbers, Chapter eight. If you do not have a Bible, raise your hands and an usher will bring you one. We will read the entire chapter as our custom Numbers, Chapter eight. Numbers, Chapter eight. Just keep your hands up and an usher will bring you a Bible. Numbers, Chapter eight. Numbers, Chapter eight, the Bible reads And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps, the southern lamps shall give light over against the candlestick. And Aaron did so. He lighted the lamps thereof over against the candlestick as the Lord commanded Moses. And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold unto the shaft thereof, unto the flowers thereof was beaten work, according unto the pattern which the Lord had showed Moses. So he made the candlestick. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them to cleanse them. Sprinkle water purifying upon them and let them shave all their flesh and let them wash their clothes and so make themselves clean. Then let them take a young bullock with his meat offering. Even fine flour mingled with oil. And another young bullock shall thou take for a sin offering. And thou shall bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation. And thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together. And thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord. And the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites. And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel that they may execute the service of the Lord. And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks. And thou shalt offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for the Levites. And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron and before his sons and offer them an offering unto the Lord. Thus shall thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel. And the Levites shall be mine. And after that, shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and thou shalt cleanse them and offer them for an offering. For they are wholly given unto me from among the children of Israel. Instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto me for all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast. On the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself. And I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel. And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle congregation and to make an atonement for the children of Israel, that there be no plague among the children of Israel. When the children of Israel come not into the sanctuary and Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites, according unto all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did the children of Israel and to them. And the Levites were purified and they washed their clothes. And Aaron offered them as an offering before the Lord. And Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them. And after that, when the Levites in to do their service in the tabernacle of congregation before Aaron and before his sons, as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This is it that belongeth to the Levites. From twenty and five years old and upward, they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. And from the age of 50 years, they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof and shall serve no more, but shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle congregation to keep the charge and shall do no service. Thus shall thou do unto the Levites touching their charge. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity to come together. Please bless Pastor in the message. Let it bring glory and honor to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I pray. Amen. Amen. All right. We're there in Numbers, chapter number eight. And of course, on Sunday nights, we've been going through a series called Wilderness Wanderings, and we've been going through a chapter by chapter study of the Book of Numbers. And of course, this is not Sunday night. But since tonight, I'm preaching a sermon that I'll be preaching when we go to the UK missions trip later on this month. I thought that I would preach my Sunday night sermon on Sunday morning, and we'd look at Numbers chapter eight this morning. So we are making our way through this book. And of course, the the the chapters we've been looking at have been pretty heavy chapters dealing with a lot of specific things. The Children of Israel, just to kind of remind you, they have been out of Egypt where we find ourselves in Numbers chapter eight. They've been out of Egypt for now a little bit over a year. They're at the base of Mount Sinai, and they are getting ready to begin their journey through the wilderness. And what they're supposed to do is they're supposed to take a journey that's supposed to take a few months through the wilderness and into the promised land when we get to chapter 11. And I want to encourage you to just hang in there with us through the Book of Numbers, because when we get to chapter 11, we'll end this phase of the book and we'll get into what the Book of Numbers is known for, which is the narratives of the Book of Numbers. The Book of Numbers deals with the stories, the narratives of the Children of Israel wandering through the wilderness for 40 years, and most of the things that you probably know about the Children of Israel in the desert and Moses are actually found in the Book of Numbers, a very interesting book. And we're going to see that they're supposed to journey through the wilderness over a few months and to the promised land. We'll see as soon as we get into chapter 11 that that doesn't last very long before they start rebelling against the Lord. And one of their punishments is that they wander in the wilderness for 40 years as a result. And we'll cover all of those amazing stories through the Book of Numbers. But we find ourselves here in chapter eight and we're dealing with Moses and really it's the Lord preparing Moses, preparing the people to take this journey. And in this chapter, in chapter number eight, there's kind of two major themes that we see, and it is the lamps and the Levites. In fact, I've entitled the sermon this morning Lamps and Levites. And what we're going to do is I'm going to we're going to I'm going to walk you through this chapter and teach you this chapter and apply it in three different headings or three different sections. And if you'd like, maybe you can write these down and if you're taking notes in the back, of course, on the back, of course, the week there's a place to write down some notes. The first section we're going to look at is called The Seven Lamps. I've entitled it The Seven Lamps. And we'll look at that through verses one through four. That'll honestly be more of an introduction. The second section I've entitled it The Selection of the Levites, and that'll be verses five to twenty two. That's going to be where we're going to spend most of our time this morning. And then the third section I've entitled The Seasons of Life, The Seasons of Life, and that'll cover verses twenty three to twenty six. And that'll kind of serve more as a conclusion for this morning as we look at this chapter. So we'll look at the seven lamps, the selection of the Levites and the seasons of life. Now, you notice there are numbers chapter eight and verse one. The Bible says this. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, speak unto Aaron and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick. And of course, the Moses and the children of Israel just got done building the tabernacle, creating all the furniture for the tabernacle. And in this chapter, we have a little bit of an emphasis here at the beginning on this one object in the tabernacle. And it is the seven lamps or the lampstand that has seven holdings for candles that shall give light. Speak unto Aaron, verse two, and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick. And I want to just run a couple of verses with you real quickly. And I want you to notice, first of all, that the seven lamps are a picture of the Lord's spirit or the spirit of the Lord. Keep in place there are numbers chapter eight. That's our text for this morning. But go with me if you want to the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation, Revelation Chapter three. Let me show you how this idea of these seven lamps comes up several times throughout the Bible. And it is a picture or a representation of the spirits of God. Obviously, we believe in the Trinity. The Bible teaches that there is one God that exists in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. But the Bible speaks about the Holy Spirit and references him in seven different ways as the seven spirits of God. Notice there in Revelation Chapter three and verse number one, Revelation Chapter three and verse one says this, And unto the angel of the church and Sardis write, These things saith he. And of course, we know that the he here is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is appearing to John on the isle of Patmos. And the Bible says here, These things saith he that hath, notice the phrase here, the seven spirits of God. These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works, that thou has a name, that thou liveth, and art dead. And of course, we know that there are seven churches that are going to be represented here. But we see that the seven spirits of God are correlated with these seven churches. Go to Revelation Chapter five and look at verse six. You're there in chapter three. Just flip over to chapter five. Revelation chapter five and verse six. The Bible says, And I beheld him low in the midst of the throne. This is John looking in a vision up to the throne room of God. He says, And I beheld him low in the midst of the throne of the four beasts and the midst of the elders to the lamb, as they had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes. Notice how the number keeps coming up. Seven horns, seven eyes, which are, notice what it says, the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. So I want you to notice here we see the lamb, which, of course, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ that has, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. We saw in Revelation 31 that he hath the seven spirits of God. Go to Isaiah towards the end of the Old Testament. You find the major books of the Old Testament. They're all at the end of the Old Testament. You've got these big books. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. I'd like you to find the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 11. So we saw in Revelation, well, first we saw in Numbers chapter eight, these seven lamps. And then we saw in Revelation three that there are seven lamps which represent the seven spirits of God. We saw in Revelation five, six, again, a reference to seven spirits of God. What's interesting is that in Isaiah chapter 11, verse two, Isaiah 11 and verse two, we actually have set the seven spirits of God that are identified Isaiah. And I want you to understand that it's one Holy Spirit identified through seven different aspects. Isaiah chapter 11 and verse two, the Bible says this. And and I want you to notice I'll just count them out for you so you can notice them. Number one, the spirit of the Lord. So the first thing we have a reference here to the spirit of the Lord. Number one, shall rest upon him. But then I want you to notice there's another spirit of God that is referenced number two, the spirit of wisdom. And number three, understanding or we could say the spirit of understanding. And number four, the spirit of counsel and number five, might or the spirit of might. Number six, the spirit of knowledge. And number seven, the fear of the Lord or the spirit of the fear of the Lord. And these are all there's seven references here. The spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of the fear of the Lord. And again, these are all referring to the Holy Spirit of God that is referenced as seven spirits of God and seven different aspects of the spirits of God. So we see the seven lamps here referenced as picturing the seven spirits of God, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Now, people, you might be wondering or asking, why is it that the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as seven in different seven different ways or seven different aspects or the seven spirits of God? And honestly, your guess is probably as good as mine. But I'll give you my my take on it and my understanding of it is that the seven spirits of God is a reference to the fact that the Holy Spirit is the omnipresent of God. And of course, we believe in the attributes of God as spelled out in the word of God. God is omnipotent. God is omniscient. And God is omnipresent. Omnipresent means that he is everywhere at once. The word omnipresent, it's a Latin word that means all or everywhere. And presence obviously referring to being present, meaning that he's present everywhere and God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at once. That is one of his attributes. But specifically, I believe that it is the Holy Spirit of God that is the omnipresence of God. That's why we see the seven spirits of God at the seven churches referenced in the Book of Revelation. Why? Because what the Bible is telling us, not just that the seven spirits were at these specific seven churches, but that the spirit of God is at every local church and it is everywhere. It indwells every believer. This is why Jesus said that he had to go and that he would send the Comforter that would indwell us. We are indwelled with the Spirit of God. We have the Spirit of God living inside of us. And it is the Spirit of God that is the omnipresence. If you know anything about biblical numbers, you know that the number seven throughout the Bible represents perfection or completeness. And the fact that you have seven spirits tells us that the Spirit of God is completely everywhere, omnipresent. Let me just give you another thought. Well, in Revelation 5, 6, first of all, it says, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And in Genesis, you don't have to go there, but in Genesis, chapter one and verse two, when God created the heavens and the earth, the Bible says that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. So I believe that the seven spirits are a reference to the omnipresence of God and to the fact that it is the Spirit of God, that it is the omnipresence of God. So we see the Lord's Spirit there. Go back to Numbers chapter eight, if you would, and look at verse number three. Not only do we see the Lord's Spirit, but we also see the Lord's sanctuary. Numbers chapter eight and verse three. And again, this first point is kind of more of an introduction to the chapter and just some interesting doctrinal things that we should cover. In the second section, we'll get into something a little more applicable. But we saw the Lord's Spirit in verses one and two. And then in verses three and four, we see the Lord's sanctuary. Notice Numbers chapter eight and verse three. And Aaron did so. He lighted the lamps thereof over against the candlesticks as the Lord commanded Moses. And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold unto the shaft thereof, unto the flowers thereof, was beaten work. I want you to notice this little phrase, according unto the pattern, which the Lord had showed Moses. So he made the candlesticks. This is actually a phrase that is quoted in the New Testament. I'm going to show it to you here in a minute. And the Bible says that Moses did and Aaron followed the instructions according unto the pattern, which the Lord had showed Moses as he made the candlestick. And what I want you to understand is that when Moses went up to Mount Sinai, if you remember, he spent 40 days and 40 nights there, came back down, broke the tablets and then went back up a second time, spent another 40 days and 40 nights at the top of Mount Sinai while he was there. One of the things that the Bible tells us that happened was that God showed him, He showed Moses. And how this happened, we don't know. Probably through a vision like John saw on the isle of Patmos. But he opened up heaven and God showed him the sanctuary in heaven. God showed him the throne of God, the mercy seat in heaven. God showed him these different things in heaven. And then God instructed Moses to then create this on earth, this sanctuary that would be patterned after what the Lord, last part of verse four there, according unto the pattern, which the Lord had showed Moses, so he made the candlestick. Go to Hebrews, if you would, in the New Testament. Keep in place third numbers, go to Hebrews chapter eight. If you start at the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and you go backwards, you'll go past the book of Jude, past the books of third, second and first John, past the books of second and first Peter, past the book of James, into the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter eight, Revelation, Jude, third, second and first John, second and first Peter, James, and then the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter eight, do me a favor, when you get to Hebrews, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there, because we're gonna leave it and we're gonna come right back to that part of the Bible, so I'd like you to be able to get there quickly. Hebrews chapter eight and verse five, the Bible says this, who serve unto the example and shadow. By the way, the book of Hebrews, the reason it's called the book of Hebrews is because it is a book, a New Testament book, that is supposed to teach us how to correlate the Old Testament Hebrew belief system with the New Testament Christianity. And here's what Hebrews chapter eight is quoting from Numbers chapter four saying, who serve unto the example and the shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. That's the timeframe that we're in in the book of Numbers, what Moses just got done doing. The early part of the book of Numbers was establishing and going about to make the tabernacle, foresee, notice verse five, last part of verse five, saith he that thou shalt make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. According to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. So I want you to notice that's a quote from Numbers chapter eight and verse four. According unto the pattern which the Lord had showed Moses, Numbers eight, four, according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount, Hebrews eight, five. You can go back to Numbers chapter eight. Let me just make this quick point. And here's what you need to understand. We often tell people, and this is true, the Bible teaches this, that the Old Testament, the Levitical priesthood and all the things associated with the Levitical priesthood, the sanctuary, the Ark of the Covenant, the lambs, the shewbread, the sacrifices, all those things were a shadow. They were a pattern of things to come in the New Testament. They represented something that was to come in the New Testament. But what you also need to understand is that all of those things in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, the sanctuary, the lambs, the sacrifices, the Levitical priesthood, all that was a pattern or a shadow of what Moses saw in heaven. And what we need to understand when we read the Old Testament and we see these Levitical practices, when you see these sacrifices being made, when you see the high priest taking the blood of atonement, walking into the Holy of Holies, sprinkling it seven times on the mercy seat and atoning for the sins of the people, when he does that in the Old Testament, that is actually a shadow of what Moses saw in the New Testament, where in reality, that was all a picture of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ would be the lamb of God, which taken away the sins of the world, that after his resurrection, he would then take on the role of the high priest and he would take his own blood and actually physically enter into the Holy of Holies in heaven and sprinkle his blood seven times, remember the number of perfection, on the mercy seat in heaven to bring atonement to all of mankind. This is why the Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. So it is good for us to read and study and learn. You might think, why do we have to study numbers? Why do we have to study these books? Look, these were given to us as a pattern, as a picture, as a shadow of the great things and the best things to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see this picture of the Lord's spirit and then we see this pattern of the Lord's sanctuary. Go back to Numbers chapter eight. In verse five, we get into the second section of this chapter, the first section dealt with the seven lambs, verses one through four. The second section, and this is where we'll spend most of our time this morning and this is probably the most applicable and practical part for us this morning, we see the selection of the Levites in verses five through 22. Now again, let me begin by saying, I just got done explaining to you, all these things in the Old Testament are a picture or a foul shadow of the things in the New Testament. The Levitical priesthood is done away with, but yet the Bible tells us in the New Testament that we are kings and priests to God and his father, that we are made kings and priests through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So these things can be applied as a shadow or a foreshadowing of things that can apply to us. And what we see in these verses, verses five through 22, is the selection of the Levites. The Levites are going to have a special, this is really their ordination service, just like we ordain people into the ministry. Over the years, we've started several churches and we've taken a service to ordain a man of God into the ministry and send him out. The Levites are being ordained here in Numbers chapter eight. That's what's literally happening, but I want you to notice that there are some spiritual applications for us. In this ordination service, we see three different phases. And what I would submit to you this morning is that these three different phases actually serve as a picture of what should be the three different phases of the Christian life. Now, not every Christian goes through these three phases, but this is what God desires and this is what God wants. The first phase is found here in verses five through seven. And it is a phase that I've entitled it or I've outlined it as the word sanctification, but you could call it also cleansing. Notice Numbers chapter eight and verse five. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, take the Levites. Remember, the Levites are a tribe of the children of Israel made up of three different families. And the Lord is telling Moses to take the Levites from among the children of Israel. So you have the 12 tribes of Israel, millions of people being represented here, and he has to take an entire tribe, one of the 12 tribes, take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them. The word cleanse literally just means to clean them. And there's a spiritual application here, but literally they're just washing up. Look at verse seven. And thus shalt thou do unto them to cleanse them, sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. And remember again, we as New Testament believers are kings and priests. So these things can be applied to us as a spiritual application. And this is the first phase. As they took the Levites and began this three-phase process to bring them into the work of God, they began with this first phase of sanctification. They began with this phase one of cleansing. Now if you kept your place, keep your place there in Numbers 8. If you kept your place in Hebrews, I'd like you to go to the book of James. Right after Hebrews, you have the book of James, so it should be fairly easy to find. If you kept your place in Hebrews, right after that you have the book of James. Now do me a favor. When you get there, just keep your place in James because we're going to leave James and we're going to come back to it. So if you're in Hebrews, just flip over to James, James chapter four and verse eight. I want you to understand this. This phase of sanctification, this phase one of cleansing, is where all Christians begin. And again, I'm not talking about salvation. Salvation is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. But when a Christian who is saved, then begins the process of discipleship, begins to be used of God, the first place they begin is in this phase of cleansing or this phase of sanctification. Are you there in James chapter four? Look at verse eight. James chapter four, verse eight. The Bible says, draw nigh to God. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Remember, salvation is not you knowing God. Salvation is God knowing you. You got saved and he saved you. He knows who you are. That's what salvation is. Sanctification is you getting to know God. In life, God should know us as salvation. We should know God in sanctification. And then we should make God known through evangelism or soul winning. Those are the things that, the way in which it's supposed to work. And this first phase, as a Christian, when if they, because not all Christians do, but if they begin to take steps towards God, they begin with this phase of sanctification. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. And notice what the Bible says and look at the context. James four, verse eight. Draw nigh to God. When people begin to get close to God, when they begin to maybe go to a church service, begin to go to church, begin to hear preaching, begin to read the Bible, they're gonna try to draw nigh to God. What's gonna happen? Well, he's gonna draw nigh to you and notice here's what's gonna happen and here's what they're commanded. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded. When someone begins to draw close to God, because God is the light, Jesus is the light. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. He said, I am the light of the world. As we begin to come out of the shadows, the Bible says that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. As we begin to come out of the shadows and begin to draw towards the light, and the Bible says when we draw nigh to God, he begins to draw nigh to us. As we draw closer to the light, what becomes first clear to us is how dirty we are. You begin to take steps towards God, towards the light. You were living in darkness. You were saved out of darkness. You're living in darkness. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And as we draw close to the light, the first thing we realize is how dirty we are. This is why so many of you, even sitting in this room today, so many of you have testified to me. And whenever people say, you know, they say it differently and they say it in different ways, but they all kind of say the same thing. And I always think, you know, just chuckle when I hear it because it's a good thing. But people, they'll say, man, I started coming to church like very back to church, and I just, I felt so dirty. I just, I began to hear the Bible. I began to hear what the Bible said, and I began to realize like, whoa, I'm not clean. And people begin to realize, because the Bible says, be holy for I am holy. And if you're actually gonna draw an eye to God, you're going to have to start cleaning some things up. Now some Christians never even take that step. They come to a church like this. We shine the light of the word of God on their lives, and they say, I don't want that. I want to live in darkness. I want to live in wickedness. But when someone begins to live the life of discipleship and sanctification, as they draw an eye to God, they begin to realize, I need to clean some things up. The Bible says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. It is the word of God and the preaching of the word of God that'll help you get cleaned up. Ephesians mentions the washing of the water by the word. You start coming to a church like this, and people often feel like, man, you know, every time I come to church, I feel guilty, or I feel this, or I feel that. And look, the way that, I remember, the way it was explained to me as a young man is when you take a rock out of the dirt, which is what Psalm says, that we were taken out of the miry clay. And when you take a rock out of the dirt, and you begin to, you put it in a stream, and begin to allow water to wash over it, like the washing of the water of the word, as you look behind you, you see all that mud and grit and grumminess and dirt being washed up. You think, ah, man, I'm so dirty. Realize that that is the first step of sanctification. As you draw nigh to God, you begin to realize, I gotta clean some things up. Phase one is cleansing. People often draw nigh to God. And look, let me say it this way. People often draw nigh to God. They don't even realize it, but the reason they even come to church is because of sin, because their life is a mess, because their life isn't working, because their life is not going the way they think it should be going. Their marriage is falling apart. Their personal life is falling apart. They're addicted or whatever it might be, and life isn't going well, so they come to church because of sin, not even maybe realizing that when they're gonna come here, the first thing we're gonna deal with is that dirty sin. It needs to be cleansed. Say, how do I clean it? You let the word of God cleanse you. You say, I need to be cleansed. Then come back to nigh, 6 p.m. We're gonna have another washing for you. I mean, the Levites, most of us are told to cleanse them, to cleanse them, to sprinkle water of purifying upon them, let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes. So make themselves clean. We're gonna preach the word of God, and we're gonna try to clean you up. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. So we see this first phase of cleansing. People often draw nigh to God because of sin problems in their lives, and then they realize that they need to cleanse themselves from those sins in order to get close to God. Now let me just say this, and I don't mean this in any sort of rude way or anything, it's just, it is what it is, it is the truth. Most Christians don't ever even get to this first phase in their discipleship. We're talking about people that are actually saved, they might have believed on, somebody knocked on their door, preached the gospel to them, they believed on Christ, they got saved, but they never even came to church, not even once. They never even start here. And even, you know, I would say that people who come to church in any sort of semi-regular basis are probably, to some degree or another, in this sanctification phase where they realize, okay, there's some things I need to work on, and maybe the preaching of God's word is helping them clean some things up. That's phase one, cleansing. But then there's a second phase. It's found in verses eight through 14. And it is the phase of separation. Notice Numbers chapter, or we could call it phase two, consecration. Numbers eight and verse eight, then let them take a young bullock and his meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil, and another young bullock shall thou take for a sin offering. And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacles. So, they've already washed them at this point. They're clean. Now they bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation, verse nine, and thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together, and thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord, and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites, and Aaron shall offer, they're putting their hands, this is like an ordination service in the New Testament. This is the Old Testament version of an ordination service. They're ordaining them into the ministry. Verse 11, and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering. He's offering the Levites as an offering, a living sacrifice, they're not gonna kill the Levites. And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord, and the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks, and thou shalt offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, unto the Lord to make an atonement for the Levites, and thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them, offer who? The Levites for an offering unto the Lord. They're offering the Levites. Now, literally, practically what's happening here is the Levites are being set aside for the use and the consecration of the tabernacle. They're going to work in the tabernacle. They're being ordained for that ministry. But I want you to notice here in verse 13, and thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering unto the Lord. Verse 14, thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites, notice these words, this is God speaking, shall be mine. So what's the next phase in this Christian life, in the life of a disciple? The first phase is that of sanctification, or we could call it cleansing. The second phase is that of separation, or we could call it consecration. Go back to James, James chapter four. And look at verse number four. See, in James, we see this idea that when you first begin to draw nigh to God, and he begins to draw nigh to you, the closer you get to light, you begin to realize, whoa, I'm dirty. I gotta clean this thing up. And as you begin to cleanse yourself, if you begin to cleanse yourself, if you begin to go down that road, depending on how far down that road you actually go, you will come to, and again, most Christians don't ever come to this. Even church-going Christians, a lot of them never come to this phase. But if you go down that road of cleansing enough, you begin to realize, this is a bigger problem than I realize. Because in the Christian life, you get to church, and you got all these big, major problems. You're addicted to meth or whatever, and it's like, yeah, let us help you with that. Let us clean that. Let us cleanse that. But you know, the more you clean, the more you realize, I've got more to clean. And you know, we've got the big deals of like drunkenness, fornication, adultery, the big ones to deal with when you first get here, but you know, there's other, more subtle sins that we begin to deal with, and this is where we spend a lot of time eventually, because you get all church-stopped. You realize how church people are supposed to dress, and how they're supposed to cut their hair, and how they're supposed to look, and how they're supposed to look. You start talking like a churchgoer, and you walk into church, you're like, hey, brother. And you get all cleaned up. But we still got some issues to deal with, like pride, like covetousness, like the fact that you have idols in your heart as Ezekiel says, and things that you've placed even still before God. And as we deal with those, and you realize, whoa, this is a bigger deal than I realize, for those that actually go to phase two, something becomes clear to them, that if they're going to actually have a walk with God, and a relationship with God, it's not just enough to kind of clean themselves a little bit. They're gonna have to separate themselves completely from that which is making them dirty. Amen. James 4, look at verse four. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? The Bible says, look, if you're gonna be a friend of the world, you're gonna be at odds with God. Enmity means you're at odds with, you're the enemy of God. Know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. This is where phase two comes in. See, when people draw, go to 2 Corinthians, if you go to 2 Corinthians chapter six, in the New Testament you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter six, and do me a favor, you can lose your place in James and Hebrews, keep your place now in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter six, put a ribbon or a bookmark there, go to 2 Corinthians six, and let me say this, when people draw nigh to God, and begin to clean up the sin out of their lives, they often begin to see sin for what it really is, and they realize that they're going to, if they're going to continue in this journey of discipleship, that they're going to have to separate themselves from worldliness altogether. The doctrine of separation. The doctrine of separation is this, because people oftentimes do not understand separation, but it is this, from the world unto God. Now here's what the liberals will teach you. You go to the liberal rock concert church, and here's what they're going to tell you, is that you can draw nigh to God, while still being a drunkard. You can draw nigh to God, while still living in fornication. You can draw nigh to God, while still being on drugs. You can draw, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you, but you're going to have to cleanse your hands, you sinners. Because God is holy, and if we're going to approach a holy God, we must approach a holy God, and try to be cleansed and holy, so we begin to clean ourselves, and we realize, man, if I'm going to draw nigh to God, it's not just a cleanse, it's not just this deep, shallow cleansing. I'm going to have to separate myself from that, which makes me unclean. So we separate from the world, but please understand this. The liberals will say, or just get close to God, while being worldly. The hyper-conservatives will say, it's just to get away from the world, right? That's where we have the Amish. We just need to get away from the world. But here's what the Bible teaches. We separate from the world unto God. We don't separate from the world just for the sake of separation. You don't have to go get a buggy and stop driving your car. We separate from the world, and specifically from the things that draws away from God. Do you understand that? Now if your car is driving you away from God, some of you literally driving away from God, then you may need to get rid of your car. But if your car's just a tool, and you can use it to drive yourself to church, then you don't need to get a buggy and become Amish. You understand that? But what we have to separate from, what we have to leave behind, is that which is distracting us from God. Why? Because to be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God. You can't have it both ways. This is again, this is why most Christians, the average Christian, does not make it to phase two. This is a sold-out Christian. This is someone, when you start separating yourself from the world, when you start saying, no, I'm not gonna show up to the drunk fest, I don't want my children around a bunch of drunken people. I don't care that you're my relative. They're gonna start saying like, ah, you're a little too radical. Second Corinthians chapter six, look at verse 14. Second Corinthians six, 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Say why, here's why. For what fellowship with righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What conquered, the word conquered means agreement or harmony, hath Christ with Belial? Belial is the devil. Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. Remember, you're indwelled by the Spirit of God. You're the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. God says, look, because of the seven lamps, because of the fact that there's the seven spirits of God that have gone unto all the earth, because God indwells you, because when you got saved, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Because the Bible says, because God said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. For that reason, verse 17, wherefore? See that word wherefore? Wherefore means for that reason, for what reason? Because God said, I will dwell in them. Because God said, I will walk in them. Because God said, I will be their God. Because God said, they shall be my people. Because God said, I wanna draw nigh to them and I want them to draw nigh to me. And because God said, I want to have a relationship with them, I want to be their God and I want them to be my people. He says, because of that, verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, that's the cleansing, and I will receive you, that's the fellowship. Most Christians never make it here. Most Christians never make it here. Most Christians can never actually cut ties with worldliness. They've gotta have their pet sin. They've gotta have their pet affection, the thing that draws them away from God. You say, well how will I know? If you do that instead of going to church, you gotta get rid of it. If it keeps you from reading the Bible, you gotta get rid of it. If it keeps you from living a clean life, you gotta get rid of it. So it's kinda radical, I know, I know. That's why there's a small percentage of Christians that'll actually make it to this place in life when they say, I want God so much. I want God's favor. I got the relationship with God. I want to know God, and I want to know the fellowship with God so much that I'm willing to leave it all behind. Very few Christians make it there, but if I could encourage you to get there, I'm telling you, it'd be worth it. Marriage would get better. Your child rearing would be better. Your personal life would be better. If you had God on your side. So we see phase two, the consecration. When people draw an eye to God, begin to clean up the sin out of their lives, they often begin to see sin for what it really is. They realize that they need to separate themselves from the worldliness altogether, and they separate themselves from the world unto God. Then we have the third phase. Here's the third phase. If you go back to Numbers, keep your place there in 2 Corinthians, go back to Numbers chapter eight. Phase one, sanctification, or we could call it cleansing. Phase two, separation, or we could call it consecration. Phase three, service, or we could call it consuming. See, notice what the Bible says in Numbers chapter eight and verse 15. We saw their sanctification, their cleansing. We saw their separation. They were separated and consecrated. What happens next, verse 15? And after that, here's what happens next, after that, shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tabernacle. Do you realize that God did not save you to sit? He saved you to serve. Now, why is it that the average Christian goes to church and sits, and very few ever actually get up and serve? I'll tell you why. Because very few Christians ever make it to this third phase. After that, shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tabernacle, of the congregation? And thou shalt cleanse them, we've talked about that, and offer them for an offering. I want you to notice here the wording, offer them for an offering, for they are holy, notice it, don't miss it, they are holy given unto me. You see that word holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y? Not holy like H-O-L-Y, holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, that means completely. That means that, look, and there's very few Christians that ever get to this place where they say, I am completely going to give myself unto God, there is nothing else that I want, there is nothing else that's distracting me, there's nothing else that's pulling me back or holding me back, I am holy given unto him. Look at verse 16, for they are holy given unto me. For among the children of Israel, instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto me. And of course, the practical sense here is, of course, that the children of Israel, that everyone was to give their firstborn unto God, but God didn't want to take all the firstborn of the children of Israel, so he said, I'll take the Levites. We talked about this earlier in a chapter of Numbers, he said, I'll take the Levites instead. Look at verse 17, for all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast. On the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself, and I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel, and I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons, from among the children of Israel to do the service of the children of Israel and the tabernacle of the congregation and to make an atonement for the children of Israel, and that there be no plague among the children of Israel when the children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary. We've talked about that in a different chapter. Look at verse 20, and Moses and Aaron and the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites according unto all the Lord, commanded Moses, commanded the Levites, so did the children of Israel unto them, and the Levites, by the way, that's a good thing that should be said about all of us in our lives, that we just did according unto all that the Lord commanded. Look at verse 21, and the Levites were purified, and they washed their clothes, and Aaron offered them as an offering before the Lord, and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them, verse 22, and after that, don't miss it, after that went the Levites in to do their service, and the tabernacle of the congregation before Aaron, and before his sons, as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they unto them. Go to Romans chapter 12 if you would. If you kept your place in 2 Corinthians, right before 2 Corinthians, you have 1 Corinthians. Right before 1 Corinthians, you have Romans, Romans chapter number 12. Can I be very honest with you? Most Christians never get here. Are you talking about the liberal fund-centered churches? Oh, yeah, but I'm talking about even good churches, even Verity Baptist Church. I'm talking about this church right here right now. I think Verity Baptist Church is the greatest church in the country, and I think it's filled with the greatest Christians in the country, but even here, very few in this room will ever experience this. Romans 12 and verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present, means to offer, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, that's separation, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that's cleansing, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, and if we were honest with ourselves, we would realize that it is a rare Christian, it is a rare believer, it is a rare follower of Christ, it is a rare believer and follower and disciple of Christ that says, I will give my whole life to God. I will stop caring about anything. Here's how Paul said, Paul said that, he said that I may know him. He said, I don't want to know, he said, I count everything but done. I'm like, I realize we gotta work, and we have to do things in this life, but it is a rare Christian that says, I don't care about the car I drive. I don't care about the house I live in. I don't care about what side of town I live in. I don't care about my job. My job is a tool, I will work my job so that I can serve him. My house is a tool, I will live in a house so that I can serve him. My vehicle is a tool, I will use it as a tool so that I can serve him. It is a rare Christian that sees everything in this world is a tool simply given to us by God to serve him. It's a rare Christian that gets to the place in their lives where they hold the things of this earth loosely. And say, all these things that God has given me, they're just tools to be used in the service of God. See, the average Christian is like, oh, I like God, and my house, I like God, and my clothes, I like God, and this, and that. It's a rare Christian that ever gets to the place where they say, I present my body a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable to God. And you say, all right, am I in a cult? I'm gonna preach a sermon, not tonight, but soon. I'm gonna preach a sermon about why we're not a cult. But let me tell you something. The Bible says, which is your reasonable service. What's reasonable? Sunday morning? It's a question people ask. How much church has done to his reasonable service? You think Sunday morning, Sunday morning every other week? Okay, how about every Sunday morning? How about Sunday morning, Wednesday night? How about Sunday morning and Sunday night? How about this? You give your whole body, your whole life, everything to God, and when you give him everything, that's reasonable. Because he saved you, because he sent his son to die on the cross for you, because he shed his blood for your sins and kept you from going to hell. It's reasonable to give him all of it. All to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give. It's my reasonable service to say, God, you can have it all. And when I've given it all to God, you know what God looks down and says? He says, you are still an unprofitable servant. You say, oh, that's kinda mean. That's not meant as a job. What he's saying is this. When we have given everything to God, we've still not made him a prophet. We've still not. So excuse me if we don't pat you on the back and give you a golden star for whatever it is you think you're doing and sacrificing for God. Hey, giving him it all is reasonable. It's a rare Christian. It's a rare Christian that can get to the place like Paul said in Colossians 3, 4. I just love this little phrase. You don't have to turn that. I just love this little phrase Colossians 3, 4. When Christ who is our life. See, for the average Christian, Christ is your Sunday morning. Christ is your Sunday morning, and then, of course, Easter and Christmas and maybe Mother's Day if your mom nags you about it. But for some people, Christ is our life. He's everything. I don't want anything. I'm satisfied in him. I just heard a quote. I thought it was an amazing little quote. Actually, my wife and I went and picked up our son from a Christian camp, and the young men quoted this, and they said, God is most glorified when we are satisfied in him. And unfortunately, I don't think most Christians will ever experience that. Go back to Numbers chapter 8. Let me give you the third phase. Try to give it to you quickly. We saw verses one through four of the seven lamps. We saw verses five through 22, the selection of the Levites. We saw, I want you to notice here, verses 23 to 26. The seasons of life. Well, notice here in these chapters, that there's, in these verses, that there's three distinct seasons of life that are talked about in the book of Numbers. Numbers 8 and verse 23, again, we're talking about the Levites. I want you to notice the first season of life is a time for preparation. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, this is that belongeth unto the Levites. From 20 and five years old and upward, they shall go into wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. The Bible teaches that a man is an adult at the age of 20, that an adult is an adult at the age of 20. Our country says 18, but our country is stupid. According to the Bible, you're an adult when you're 20. The Bible teaches here that a man should be into his career at 25 years old. This is a time of preparation. Now, I don't think that a 20, but between 20 and 25 years old, they need to be playing video games all day, either. But the Bible says that you should be set in your time of going into your career and work at the age of 20 and five years old. And let me just say this. I am not of the persuasion that a 16-year-old needs to be working 40 hours a week in a career, either. The Bible teaches they're an adult when they're 20. The Bible teaches that they should be between 20 and 25, figuring out what they want to do. And at around 25 years old, God expected them to be fully in their career in that direction. Verse 24, this is it that belongeth unto the Levites. From 20 and five years old and upward, they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, here specifically, the Levites are being told this is what you're gonna do. And they started at 25 years old. Now, we talked about this when we're in Numbers 4. I'm gonna point it out to you real quickly, because people want to say that there's a contradiction here. The Bible says 20 and five years old in Numbers 8 and verse 24. Go back to Numbers chapter 4 and verse 47 real quickly. Numbers 4, 47 says this, from 30 years old and upward. So Numbers 4, 47 says, from 30 years old and upward, even unto 50 years old, every one of them came to do service in the ministry and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation. And people say, well, here's the contradiction of the Bible because Numbers 4, 47 says from 30 years old and upward and Numbers 8, 24 says from 25, 20 and five years old and upward. But what people don't understand, there's no contradiction here. God is talking about different phases of life. From 25 years old until 30, God expected that to be a time of preparation. They were already down the road of their career, what they were gonna do with their life, but they were preparing for that. They were being trained, they were an apprentice, if you will, from 25 to 30 years old. You say, well, then what is Numbers 4, 47 talking about? From 30 years old and upward is when they were to transition, they were no longer an apprentice as a Levite, they were no longer in a preparation phase, but now they were in a time of productivity. Why don't you understand, there are phases of life. The first phase we can say is the young phase where young people are to be in a time of preparation. They are to be preparing for the work that they will be doing with their lives. For young men, that might be learning and being an apprentice in work. For young ladies, they should be learning to be keepers at home and to educate their children, to do the things that God has called them to do. But there is a time of preparation. And then the Bible indicates that there is a time of productivity. You say, when is that? Well, according to the Bible, it's from 30 years old and upward, even up to 50 years old. And from 30 to 50 years old, they were expected to produce. And if you think about it, aren't really those the most productive years of your life, 30 to 50 years old? Man, I know in the United States of America, we've got 30-year-olds that are playing video games and that's just a different thing. But 30 to 50 years old, that's when you should be raising your children. That's when you should be working hard. That's when you should be building whatever it is that you're supposed to build, whatever business you're supposed to build, whatever ministry you're supposed to build. That's when you should be producing the productivity of your life. There's no contradiction here between numbers four, 30 years old and upward, and numbers eight, 25 years old and upward. It's just talking about the fact that in life, there is a time of preparation and then there is a time of productivity. And you young people, look, I often tell young people, don't fall into this thing where, oh, I'm 17 years old, I'm gonna work 60 hours a week. You haven't even graduated yet. You're in a time, graduate. I tell young men all the time, look, you're gonna work for the rest of your life. Okay, I know it's exciting when you're 16. Oh, you think you're a man? Look at all the money I have. You have a lot of money because you don't pay rent. That's why you have a lot of money. Look at my fancy car and my fancy clothes. Hey, I'll be impressed when you have the fancy car and the fancy clothes and a wife and six kids. Then I'll be impressed. So now I'm not impressed. You live at home. It's a time of preparation. Look, I'm not down on you. I'm trying to stay humble. Prepare, prepare. You'll have your whole life, you'll have the rest of your life to work, trust me. Just enjoy your youth and prepare. But from 30 to 50 years old, and I'm not saying these are exact numbers, I'm just saying in this range of life, you should be producing, you should be productive, you should be building, you should be battling, you should be working, you should be at it, you should be hitting the road, hit the ground running. Look, you don't have to be 17 years old hitting the ground running, but you need to be, when you're 37 years old like I am, my wife and I, we've got notes and things of things that we need to do every day and right on top of my daily tasks I need to do, I have this note that I stole from my wife, which she read in a book somewhere, but I just have, and obviously you know the phrase, but it's a book she read from a pastor's wife, but it said, a very successful pastor and his wife said, they looked at this every day right before they started, and it was just simply this, hit the ground running. And as soon as our eyes open, we come out of bed and we just try to hit the ground running. You say, why, because we got lots to do. It's our time of productivity. But I want you to notice there's another phase, and it is a time for reproducing. Look at verse 25. And from the age of 50 years, they shall cease. This is retirement. Waiting upon the service thereof and shall serve no more. Verse 26, but shall move to Florida and spend the rest of their life golfing. Is that what it says? Is that what it says? You say, but they're not gonna serve anymore. Yeah, they're not gonna labor anymore because being a Levite was a laborious job. They had to physically carry the tabernacle and all the furniture physically through the wilderness, through the heat of the wilderness of the Middle East. And when they did set down the tent, then they performed sacrifices, which we like to spiritualize and we should spiritualize, but they're literally butchers. They're cutting up cows and cutting up animals. It was a laborious job. So at 50 years old, they were to be done with the labor aspect, but they weren't just supposed to go and sit and do nothing for the rest of their life. Notice verse 25, and from age 50 years, they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof and shall serve no more, but shall minister with their brethren and the tabernacle of the congregation. You say, what is that? Well, so the 50-year-olds were ministering with their brethren. You say, but how does that work? They're ministering with their brethren, but they're not laboring. Well, then what are they doing? I'll tell you what they're doing. They're training. They're not cutting up. They're not cutting animals. They're not butchering animals. They're not taking down the tabernacle, but they're explaining and saying, oh, do it this way. No, do that first and let me teach you this. And they're training. What are they doing? Look, there is a time of life called preparation. There is a time of life called production and productivity, but there's another time of life called reproduction. Where you invest in others. You minister to others. You don't have to turn and let me just read these verses to you. Second Timothy 2, two, and the things, this is Paul, an old man, getting ready to die. He said, and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Titus 2, four, that they, referring to the age of women, may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. You know what the Bible says that people should be doing at the end of their lives? It doesn't say they should be sitting around playing golf, doing nothing all day, it doesn't say that. And I'm not talking about you're 90 and you're to where your body is unable. I'm talking about, you know, 60 to 70 to 80, depending on the health that God has given you, you can still do a lot. You may not be in the production phase of your life where you're building and aggressively growing and building a business and building a ministry, you may not be there, but you can still accomplish a lot. Your body might be slowing down a little bit, but your mind is so sharp. And you know what you should be doing is investing in the next generation. Brother Vijay and Miss Joyce served as pastors in India, pastor and pastor's wife. Miss Joyce, I've brought this up before, but she, every week she gives my wife a little tidbit of knowledge and things. I just thought it was interesting, and my wife shares them with me. Last week, they were talking about something different, but when they were talking about something, and she just made the statement, this observation, she was talking about the fact that as she's grown older and her and her husband have grown older, they've had so much time to be able to spend in the word of God and to reflect upon their lives and to think about the things they've done, that it's really because wisdom is really, you know, experience plus reflection. Experience is not necessarily valuable unless you reflect upon it and you realize that we did that right, and maybe we could have done that better, and then you could help the younger generation. And she was saying this to my wife. She was saying, you know, people in your phase of life, she was looking at my wife, and specifically she was talking about my wife and I, and we have six kids. I pastor a church. My wife helps me as a pastor's wife of a church with 220 people in it. We have six children that are being homeschooled. I'm 37 years old. She's 37 years old. We're right in the midst of the production phase of our life. And here's what Ms. Joyce said to my wife. She said, people in your phase of life don't have any time. And she's right. Oftentimes, I tell people, you know, I feel like my wife and I, we hit the ground running, and we're just trying to keep our head above water. There's so much to do. And then she said this. People in my phase of life, all we have is time. Their working time's over. Their children are raised. And all they have is time. Let me just help some of you in that season of life. Because something I've noticed is that sometimes as people get older, because they have a lot of time, because they maybe have retired from their physical job, and again, I'm not saying you should work a labor's job the rest of your life. You may retire from your physical job, but don't retire from life. Retire into the ministry. Retire into working for God. But you know, because people retire, because their kids are grown, they end up having a lot of time. Sometimes older people end up becoming very needy. And what they want is, they require a lot of time. So they look at their adult children. They look at, honestly, as a pastor and a pastor's wife, they look at people who are in the production age of their life, who are just doing everything in their power to just keep their heads above water, who literally have no time, are just hit the ground running. You get up in the morning till the moment you go to bed, you're just trying to do things and make phone calls and write sermons and homeschool children, just get, you're trying to get stuff done. And then they look at those people and they're like, oh, I wish they would invite me over. I wish they would just call me, or I wish they would, but listen to me, you know, you should shift your perspective and realize something. When you're older, maybe you should realize this, I'm the one with time. I'm the one with time. So maybe instead of expecting the mother with six children to clean up her whole house and make a meal and invite me over, maybe since I'm the one with time and my house is always clean, because it's only me and my husband, maybe I should make a meal and invite them over. Wouldn't that be a blessing? And look, and we invite people over and we've had people over and I'm just saying, you need to realize as you grow older and you have more time, don't get this attitude, I wish people would visit me, I wish people would call me, I wish people, why don't you realize, hey, you're the one with time, they're fighting, they're building, they're battling, they're doing everything in power to raise their children, build a church, build a business, build a, whatever they're doing in life, maybe since you're the one with time, you should reach out to them. Maybe since your house is always clean and you're just bored anyway, maybe you should make them a meal. It is a time, there is a time, young people, I'm 17 years old, I wanna get married. That's not the time to get married, that's the time to prepare for marriage. Prepare, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, prepare for marriage, prepare for child rearing, prepare to go into the ministry, prepare to start a business, prepare to go into a career. 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, build, hit the ground running, wake up every day, read your Bible, pray, work 12 hours a day, love your wife, love your children, do everything in your power to keep your head above water and try to do something great for God. And then 50, 60, 70, when those kids are grown, and you have some time, say, let me help these people. Let me invest in these people. Let me help them carry their burden. You know, I'll be honest, my goal in life one day is to be a 60 year old, 65 year old preacher who retires, quote unquote, from pastoring, maybe the daily grind of pastoring, but I'm not gonna be done. You say, what are you gonna do? I'm gonna try to help some young preachers along the way. When I'm 60 years old, I'm gonna look at the 30 year old and the 35 year old who's doing everything in his power to keep his head above water, and I'm gonna say, let me help you. I've been there, I know how hard that is, let me help you. Let me help you carry that burden. Let me not put more expectation on you, but let me relieve some of that expectation. These are the phases of life. We prepare, we produce, and we reproduce, because there is no success without succession. And listen, you young people, you need to be preparing for the future. You older people, you need to be investing in that generation. Stop complaining about them and help them, because if they're actually trying to do something for God, maybe they just need some help. And we should all be in our phase of life. People are always discontented. I always think it's funny. The 70 year old, like, I wish I could get married. Then they turn 18, get married, and they're like, I wish I had children. Then they get children, I wish I didn't have children. I wish I wasn't married. I wish I could retire. Then they retire, I wish I had children again. You know, why don't you just be content in the phase of life you're in? Just be content wherever God has you. Look at your phase of life and say, I'm gonna serve, you know, I'm enjoying my 30s. I'm enjoying getting up every day and trying to survive the day. I'm enjoying that. We went to Texas and picked up my son yesterday. My wife and I were talking last night. It's nice to just have all the kids in the house right now, all of them, all six of them, all the messiness and the running around and a dog. I'm enjoying it! But you know, when I'm 70 and they're grown by God's grace and married and serving God, I'll enjoy that too. Just enjoy the phase of life you find yourself in. And serve God with your life. Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. Lord, we thank you that you gave your son to die on the cross for our sins. Lord, I ask that you would help us. I ask that you would help us to go through those phases of Christian life, cleansing ourselves, consecrating ourselves, and then giving ourselves completely and being consumed by God. And then, Lord, I pray you'd help us to enjoy these phases of life. Help these young people not to rush their way out of the phase of preparation. Help them to prepare for their future, for their work, for their career, for their spouse, for their children. And then, Lord, I know there's so many of us that are just in this production phase. We're just, we're trying to make it. We're trying to get it done. Lord, I pray you'd help those individuals. I pray you'd strengthen them and give them grace. And then I pray for those in the third phase that they would realize, hey, I've got time. Let me invest in that next generation. Lord, we love you. We thank you for the instructions of the word of God. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray, amen. We're gonna have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. Just wanna remind you, actually, wanna remind you that we have baptisms. We're gonna prepare for baptisms. If the ushers could help us with that, we'll get a couple baptisms ready as we prepare to sing the last song. Turn to song 319. ["319"] Three, one, nine. 319, sing it out on the first. I am weak, but thou art strong. Jesus, keep me from the wrong. Love, you satisfied us all. As I walk, let me walk close to thee. Judge the place you want me free. Come, Jesus is my King. And we're walking close to thee. Let it be, dear, and let it be. Through this world of trial and error, If I come to God who cares, If I come to God who cares, Then let me be Lord of equity. Trust in Christ and honor thee. Let it be, dear, and let it be. Tell me, let me close to thee. Let it be, dear, and let it be. When my feet are wide as oil, Time for me will be no more. Let me gently serve the Lord To thy King, my church, and my soul. Let us come close to thee. Let Jesus, Jesus, come to thee. Let the Lord keep us to life. Let it be, dear, and let it be. 323, 343. 343 on the first. 343, sorry. I don't think I put more. On the first, Marty. We praise thee, O Lord, We praise thee, O God, For the Son of our love. For Jesus, who through him is love, love, love, Hallelujah, Lord of glory, Hallelujah, Lord of glory, Hallelujah, Lord of glory, Hallelujah, Lord of glory, Hallelujah, Lord of glory. All right, we have Christa Ersin coming for baptism this morning, and Christa's been coming with her mother Linda for a couple months now, several months, and we're excited to have them. And Christa, have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? All right, Christa, by your profession of faith, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in the witness of life. Thank you. Thank you. All right, I will just get a picture real quick. Okay, we have Brett Tolson coming for baptism, and Brett is friends with Christa. And Brett, have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Yes, I have. All right, Brett, by your profession of faith, I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in the witness of life. God bless you. All right, well, thank you very much for being here this morning, and I just want to, of course, encourage you to be back tonight, 6 p.m., for the evening service. And just so you're aware, we're not going to be livestreaming tonight because of the sermon I'm preaching tonight. I'm going to be preaching in the UK in a couple of weeks, but I want to encourage you to be here for that, just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people and the preaching of the word of God. And, of course, I want to invite you to be back with us on Sunday morning on the Lord's Day. Maybe invite someone with you, bring someone with you as we gather together and try to draw nigh to God. God bless you. Thanks for being here. And I want to ask Brother Matt if he would not mind dismissing us with a word of prayer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for our pastor in delivering that to us this morning. Please help us to apply these things to our lives. Lord, I pray that you would bless the rest of this day and be with the soul runners that go out. Lord, bring us all back to church safely this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.