MCC Podcasts
Theology Matters - Priesthood of All Believers
I want to say a little more quick prayer as we come to the Word. Our hands are out like this as we pray. Father God, speak for we do not want to miss what you have to say to us. We come to your Word which you inspired and shepherded through the ages that we could even study it today. The actual ancient documents that you've inspired to speak to your people for all time. And here we have it. So we're going to take it seriously and we're going to listen to the voice in and through it. So God, whatever you have for me my hands are outstretched as a symbol that I don't want to miss it. Speak God. Your servants are listening if this is your prayer. Amen. Amen. They were in this series called Theology Matters because theology matters because theology is the truth about God and the truth about life. Theology matters because then if we are going to look at truth in life then how we live matters. So we call it making big words and make a big difference. Again, we're almost done with this series. We don't have a whole lot more big words. It's as smart as we are and we run it out of things that we know about. So we're almost done with this series but I think it's been a great experience to dig in and then go, alright, so how does that make a difference in my life? My word this week is not a word a big word necessarily but it's a few words that have kind of a big meaning that a lot of us have maybe heard but are not that clear and it's called the priesthood of all believers. Have you heard of that phrase? The priesthood of all believers? See, this is why I decided to do it because four of us have heard this word before. The priesthood of all believers, it's a big deal in Christianity actually. When I talk about it, you go, oh, okay, yeah, I get that. We want to dive in and see what that's all about. It's a big word that I think is going to make a big difference. It is just what it sounds like that all believers are priests and ministers and that's going to bum you out, right? I'm not the only nerd in the crowd. You're ministers and priests and part when we go down this road it means some of us are going to feel a little uncomfortable like wow really because I'm just sort of a dude who slacker who hangs around the edge of the church thing but you, you guys up front, you guys are the real like priests and ministers and then we pay your salary to do that for us and then we kind of hang around the edge and you can tell that's not where I'm going to go with this talk, right? The truth is that the biblical concept highlights this idea that all of us are priests and ministers. You know it's a weird deal to be professional minister, you know that? Some of you know that because you've been around a ministry family, your parents were pastor or whatever. It is a weird dynamic and that's why most of you don't want to be priests and ministers because it's a weird thing. You go to a cocktail party in today's day and age and people you know the conversation, what do you do? And then you guys all have the conversation about what you do. Well I'm in systems analysis and people have no idea what that is. Oh great, okay you know. Well I'm an architect or I'm a this, I'm a that, you know then they get to me. What do you do? And I'm always tempted to lie. Not because I'm not proud of you people, well a little bit but because they don't know what to do with it. I don't know what to do with it. Our images of priests, of pastors and of priests and of ministers is so bizarre and so twisted by media and they don't, they just get uncomfortable, they don't know how to talk to you, they don't, they're like how are you, are you? See we use this phrase called into the ministry. Have you ever used that phrase? Put your hand up if you've used that phrase ever. Okay, now you're all rebuked by me. Never use that phrase again. You and me were done with that phrase, you understand me? Macarethe? We're done with that phrase. Because that whole called into the ministry, it's like we've slid down a rabbit hole that there's no recovering from and normal people aren't down there but we're called into the ministry. Well friends, I'm here to tell you right now that the Bible teaches that they're not nerds, just me and the rest of you. Everybody are priests and ministers and we're going to talk about what that means so it's just the nerd and the nerds is what it is all about and I know we may resist those terms and we don't know what that means but this is what the scriptures teach. It's a historically, before I read the scripture, I want you to know it's a really historically significant term because it was at the birth place of the Reformation. Martin Luther in 1520 started writing pretty significantly using this phraseology. I mean he said back then he said it is we are all consecrated priests, all of us, as St. Peter talks about in 1 Peter chapter 2 and then he quotes the verse that we're going to look at today. He said we're all consecrated priests. He was writing against the abuses of the clergy at that time who had a dichotomy between the super spiritual and the super spiritually authoritative and the rest of the lame people. You guys, we sometimes think that way about the ministry. There's people that get up front and are all fired up for God and they're supposed to do all the work about ministry and they're supposed to be all faithful to it and then there's the rest of us. And that is so far from the biblical truth. And I don't want to put down my ordination. I mean my ordination was a sweet experience. My ordination was a thing and the Roman Catholics, you know, if you think this is a Roman anti-Roman Catholic sermon it's not. The Roman Catholics believe in the priesthood of all believers. They believe that all people, all of the spiritual authority, all of the access and all of the relationship with God that we can have this side of heaven, all of us have it. Roman Catholics believe that. I don't believe the priest has it. That's not what this is about. They actually just believe that there is a group of believers who have roles that are more authoritative in helping the church move along in its mission and its worship. That's not that far from what Protestants believe because you guys all hired us. Right? And my ordination was sweet. I mean my ordination and I'm not going to use the word call to ministry because me and Macquarie are done with that because we're all called to ministries where we're going today. But my ordination was pretty sweet actually. It was way beyond my comfort zone because this is my comfort zone. You people. And I mean I became a Christian when I was 13 years old out of a family was completely unchurched and didn't have any of that experience. I didn't know what was going on. I mean when I was 15 and I was trying to fall, Lord people were having to tell me, you know dude you can't do that anymore. When you're like, oh okay thanks. And then I stopped doing that or whatever it was. And then when I was 18 you know somebody said y'all just start going to church. I'm like there's church. I was a Jesus kid in the 70s. I was going to youth group. They were like come to big church and there was Oregon and there were hymns and there were people dressed up and I'm like wow that's cool. I mean like I had no clue about this kind of stuff. You know what I mean? When I went to seminary and they were teaching stories out of the Bible, I told you this before. There were stories that you, many of you guys grew up seeing on the flannel graph in Sunday school when you were five. There were stories that I was like that's in the, that is awesome. You know I'm all fired up. I've never seen it before. So this is not my element. I had to borrow a robe. I go to the ordination service. And ordination was a big deal. I mean it was four years of grad school. It was two years of internship. It was oral exams. It was, I mean it's a big deal. Man I could have been making some real money if that kind of education, you know, if I'd applied myself. So anyway, so we all line up to go to our ordination service. And it's at the annual meeting of our denomination and they say just before we file in, hey we're going to do this and we're going to do that and then you guys are going to recite the Apostles Creed. Guys, I don't know the Apostles Creed. I didn't know the Apostles Creed. Anybody know the Apostles Creed by heart? Like if I made you one, two, three. Okay, yeah, yeah. I didn't know it. It's my ordination service. So clearly I was out of my element. So I had to hide behind the dude. I was in the second row and I was good. I just hide behind his head and I'm like we believe in the father, Holy Spirit, Pontius Pilate. You know, I just mumbled. There's nothing fundamentally occasionally different between those people who are vocationally ordained and in ministry and those of us that sit every Sunday in church. We are all priests. We are all ministers. That's where we're going this morning to talk about it. I want you to look at the text with me. First Peter II, I'm losing my voice because everybody in our pastoral staff is sick. It's a requirement and I am not going down. Do you hear me? I am not going down. First Peter II, hear the word of the Lord, friends. As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by human beings, but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Christ. For in Scripture it says, "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." That's about Jesus. Now to you who believe this stone is precious, but to those who do not believe the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone that causes people to stumble on a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message that Jesus is the way, and that's what they were destined for then. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you were the people of God once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. The word of the Lord, and you say, "Thanks be to God." We'll try that again. The word of the Lord. They taught me that in seminary. Good job. Foundationally, this is a biblical term. It's historically significant, but it is a biblical term. A couple of basic facts. Go back to the, I want to go back to that first couple of verses, and there's some words highlighted in there about this, and then we're going to talk about what it means to be a priest. As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God, you also are living stones. Now it's interesting. Who's writing this again? Peter. What is the word in the name Peter mean? Stone, rock. That's right. He knows some stuff about stones. I love that. He's like, "Man, dude, this is what happened." He got to the place where he recognized that Jesus Christ was the son of God, and when he proclaimed that, Jesus goes, "That's it." And now your name is no longer Simon. Simon's a good Jewish name. He said, "Your name is no longer Simon. It will now be rock. It will be stone. It will be Peter." I'm going to call you Peter from now on. He goes, "It's the rock, because on that rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Peter goes, "I know some stuff about rock, and it's about Jesus being the foundation. It's about Jesus being the cornerstone." And Peter goes, "Now listen, here's how it goes. He makes us stones." Peter's like, "Get it? See what I did there with my name?" He makes us stones, and he builds up a spiritual house. We're living stones in a spiritual house. That's where life comes. That's how we are alive. Like Jesus is alive, because Jesus' spirit is living in us, and so we become this spiritual house. We become the temple of God. We become the house where the spirit lives. You hear this? We become the place where God dwells. This is super foundational to where we're going, friends. We are like living stones. Every one of us, every time somebody becomes a Christian, they become alive spiritually, because Christ's spirit comes in them, and then they're like a stone that gets added to this house, and all of us together become the place where God is dwelling on this earth. He goes, "I'm in you, and this is how I'm going to manifest myself in you, so that we could be a holy priesthood." This is where we're going. We've got God's spirit, we're alive, all of us together, we're God's place, and then we're going to be a holy priesthood. And that holy priesthood, that's that next phrase, girl, you can highlight that before we move on. That holy priesthood is our call, and we're going to offer spiritual sacrifices. I'm going to talk about what that means in a minute. We get to be priests and ministers of God because he has made us alive, made us the place where he dwells, and now he goes, "So now this is your job, you're the priests, for me, all of you together, every one of you, not the priests and the lady, not the ministers and you guys, not the spiritual and the lame dudes, it's everybody, our priests." Now, then, he begs the question, all right, so this is our job. We're going to be priests, then what do priests do? Now, don't think Catholic priests, don't think Episcopalianians, don't, we have to think back then, because he said you're priests, and they go, what are priests now? They're talking about Jewish priests. To oversimplify this in a 30 minute sermon, I'm going to give you two things. This is what priests do, and this is our, this is our job. Okay, number one, priests had access to God. Priests had access to God. Okay, this is what this big word, "priest of all believers" is about. Number one, priests had access to God. Now, we know that back then, because if you've read your old testimony, you're like, man, there's all kinds of really interesting stuff in there. Some of it I can't quite figure out, but there's some interesting stuff in there about these priests, and the rituals, and the sacrifices, and the ceremonies, and the worship, and all that stuff that they did. But one of the things we know is that they had access to God in the temple. See, the regular people didn't have access to God, they had all these courts and concentric circles kind of at the temple, the place where they worship. On the outside courts, even the Gentiles could come to that, and then he could go a little further, and there was a court of women, and that was as far as they could go, and then there was the court of all the believers and the Jewish men, and then there was the court, then there was the place where the sacrifices were done. They call it the holy place. And the priests could go to the holy place. Now think about it, they knew God dwelled in their temple. That was the place God lived. They wanted to be near God and have a relationship with God. Well, priests were the ones that had access to God, and priests could go not only to the court of the Gentiles, not only past where the women could go, not only past where the holy men could go, the righteous men could go, but into the place where the priests could go where all the sacrifices and all the rituals were performed on behalf of the people. The priests could go into the holy place, and then the priests could go even to the most holy place. Within the holy place where the priests could administer all their worship, there was a smaller place. Your Bible may call it the holy of holies. Have you heard that? And in that holy of holies, man, if all of that, God dwelled in the temple, and God really dwelled in the holy place, the terrifying, intimate presence of God was in the most holy place. And even most of the priests couldn't even get in there. But one guy, once a year, he had all the proper rituals done and all the cleansing and all of the sacrifices made, the high priest could enter in one time per year to offer sacrifices for the atonement of all of God's people. To see the metaphor that's happening here, God set all of that in place so that it would lead us to say, "Oh, that's Christ who could offer atonement for all people." And that's a holy God that we serve. And that's an amazingly intimate presence that we can't go into, but the priests can. And then in the New Testament he goes, "A year of living stone filled with a spirit to be priests for me." You have access to God. So in this holy of holies where the guy would go in once a year and offer the sacrifices and tradition tells us that, man, they were so, it was so intense, this intimacy, this immediacy with God in the holy of holies, that they would tie a rope around his waste and put a bell on him so that if he didn't do everything just right and God happened to smite him dead, they could pull his sorry tail out with the rope. I mean, that was the picture of, you know, mess around in the presence of God. But my friends, the priests had access. And then he says to us, "You are living stones built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood." And at the moment Jesus died on the cross, the curtain that separated the most holy place from the holy place in the temple, the curtain ripped from top to bottom when Jesus died, showing that we have now opened the floodgates and access to God is free because of the death of Jesus. Is that not good news? Is that awesome? Priests have access to God. And so if Hebrew, the writer of Hebrew says therefore brothers and sisters, since we have now confidence to enter the holy of holies, can you believe me? If you said it, we have confidence now to enter the most holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened up for us through the curtain that is his body it says. So now then draw near to God in full assurance of faith. We have access. Priests have access and we are the priests of God. That's good news. The second thing that priests do, what do priests do? They're a bridge for people to God. They're a bridge for people to God. See, bridges go both ways. We, the priests would lead people to God and then the priests would become channels of God's blessing to them. Priests would, through all of their ministry, through all of the things that they did through their rituals, their sacrifices, their offerings, their prayers, their burnt offerings, their lambs, their dubs, through all of those things, they became a bridge to bring people to God because people didn't have access to God. The people who didn't have access to God couldn't get to God and the priests said we will be a bridge between you and God. They became then the sights and the sounds and the smells of who God is. They became revealers of the character of the heart and the message of God. You see where I'm going with this? This is what priests did. They were bridges for people to God. Now when their abuses, they were keeping people from God. And that's what Martin Luther was mad about and that's been going on since the time of Jesus. But priests who wanted to serve God who were true in their hearts, they were people who would bridge the gap between people and God, friends, that's who we are. Now how did they do that? They did that a couple of ways. First they led in worship. This is what they did. They led in worship. They said let me show you who God is so you can respond to him. That's what worship is. That's what these guys are doing. That's what we try to do on sunny mornings. Let's show you who God is through however we go about that. In their case through these symbols and these rituals and these songs. Let me show you who God is and then you can respond to it. That's what priests do. They lead in worship. In fact we know in verse 9 of this text that we looked at in verse 1 Peter chapter 2. In verse 9 of that text if you can go there, yeah there you go. Perfect. It says look you're a holy nation. You're a royal priesthood. A holy nation. God's special possession. Why? So that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. Part of our priestly duty is to lead in worship and to say oh he's worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our worship. He declared the praises of him who called us out of darkness and into his wonderful light. The priest did things that said look at how amazing God is. Look at what God has accomplished. Look at what God's nature is. Look at what God's grace is. Look at what God's message is and they showed people who God was so they could respond. That's what priests do. Now we'll come back to that with regard to us. That's what we get to do. Secondly they were mediators. They didn't just say let me show you who God is. They said let me show you the way to God. And that's what their worship was. That's what their rituals were. That's what their sacrifices were. They said to people, listen, this is the way to God. It's through repentance and confession and humility and receiving God's grace. You read through the Old Testament. You know we give the Old Testament a bad rap by saying well it's all these laws and this and that. The Old Testament has all of that truth in there. The Old Testament priests were showing the symbol that man we are at the mercy of a holy God. And his compassion is the only thing we can depend on. And so they said we'll do these sacrifices that God has instituted because I'm getting into a whole other sermon but read Hebrews they said you know this is what will happen for a time until the day when God can send a Savior for us. For we have no hope without God's compassion and salvation. And so they were mediators. They were saying listen I'll show you the way to God as it were during this time. And so they had these sacrifices and then they sacrificed lambs for the salvation of people or for the forgiveness of people, excuse me. They had the scapegoat who they put on the scapegoat symbolically all of the sins of all of the people and then released it into the wilderness so that it would carry the burden of sin and the wrath of God on it instead of us as people. They had these things that symbolized, I'm going to help you get to God. You're going to know how to get to God. I'm going to be a mediator, a bridge between you and God. They were letting worship said I'll show, I'm going to show you who God is so you can respond. They were mediators. Let me show you the way to God. And so because of that they were agents of God's blessing. Because of that then God's heart was revealed to people. Because of that people knew that God had power and compassion and mercy on them and that they were going to be able to receive that from God and that that was a good news story. This is what priests did. They basically said this is a good news story. The love and the mercy and the grace of God. Friends, that's the priesthood that we get to be. We get to minister the grace and the truth about God to people who don't know Him. That's what we get to do. Priests had access to God. We get access to the holy of holies. And priests become a bridge for people to God. And ministry that we get. That's why the text says that we offer spiritual sacrifices. We don't sacrifice the lamb anymore. We don't sacrifice the dove anymore. We don't have the burnt offering anymore. We do spiritual sacrifices. Meaning we live an obedience to the Holy Spirit and live that out in love and generosity and in prayer and in worship and in obedience and in intercession. We, out of the spirit, we minister in such a way that people know who God is and can see him and smell him and find him. You with me on that? That's what we get to do. And that is not what you pay me to do. That's what we do because we're a spiritual house to be a Holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices that are pleasing and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. All of us do that work. That's what we are in the world. Can you see the difference the big difference that this makes in our lives? This big word, priesthood believers, this is what priests do. Can you see the big difference if priests had access to God then we have access to God. Do you take it? The curtain was torn into from top to bottom the scripture says so that people could see we have access to be holy of holies and enter into a frighteningly intimate relationship with God himself. Have you stepped through the curtain and taken hold of that church? There are people who may be in this room this morning who have never answered the most significant question of every day will ever spend on earth and that is. Have you said yes to the relationship with God that Jesus provided by his death on the cross? That's what becoming a Christian means and somebody today is like I get that now I see what you're talking about because it's not about church attendance and it isn't about morals apparently. It's about a whole bunch more than that. It is about saying that the curtain has been torn and because of Jesus's forgiveness we have confidence to enter the most holy place so we draw near to God. Have you said yes to the gift of salvation through Christ? Yes to the forgiveness that he offers yes to a relationship with God himself have you said yes even if right now you're like I don't think so but man I want that that's you that's God meeting you right now and you have said you could become a Christian right this minute I just don't want to leave that I don't want to leave that for people who go man hanging around church kind of getting part of the message that's the message friends we have access have you taken it and then maybe for the rest of us we have like no I got that and I said yes to Jesus and I became a Christian when I was 15 years old or last year or whatever my question is do we live in it are we living in that access we have access to God I got to go to spring training a couple of few days ago at the beginning of the week I got to see a couple of baseball games hang out I was so not into spring training I thought spring training was gonna be kind of dumb people with the balls and the nerds going hey can you sign my fate you know I didn't know what that was about I didn't think it was gonna be all that cool so I kind of stepped back like this and I was with Greco and he's like dude did you bring some balls to get some signatures I'm like no what am I an eBay nerd I'm not gonna do that and so I sat back and I kind of watched this whole thing until one of my favorite players goes by and he's standing right here he's standing there at the practice field and I'm like dude this is not like when you pay eighty nine dollars for a giant's ticket and you see you're six hundred feet away from the guy he's right there and I'm standing there and I go grab a ball from Greco and I go and I go right to the rope and I'm like hey man I'm a big fan and my son is a fan of yours and can you give me a lot to us and he looks at me and I won't bore you with a conversation hung out with the dude and when he, when another player that I really respect over heard our conversation he's like what and he comes over and I'm patting him on the shoulders look at his guys we had access friends that was the point of spring training we, and I'm black here like this going well I don't want to bug the guys and the team they probably don't they do that's the point of it and I got to go and be with these guys and hang out and now they're my buddies hey what do you do after the game you want to go out for a beer you know and they're like okay now you're a nerd and you're scaring us we have access have you lived in it or do you come and visit at the great cost of Jesus's death on the cross and the pain the penalty for all of the world's sin where the temple the curtain was torn wide open so that we could have confidence to enter the most holy place at that great cost do we dabble in a relationship with Yahweh the creator of Evan and Earth do we dabble in it do we flirt in and out of it like we come to church sometimes and get back out again and then go to real life or friends do we live in a relationship in an access with the holy God all the time because that's what we've been given that would change our lives preset access so do we the other way it changes our lives is if priests were a bridge for people so are we through our ministry we help people see and smell and know and hear God himself that they might have a relationship with them that's our call friends we have access to God so let's take it but we got a ministry and we got to live it your life call is clear you're called excuse me rich you're called into ministry you're called into the ministry you're called to be a holy priesthood you're called to be a living house where God dwells and then you do priest stuff and your priest stuff is that you help people worship by you declaring the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful life we we lead people we show them God just like the priesthood and worship and you go well how do I do that do I stand here do I lift my hands no where you're out in life you go out and you say look let me show you God this is what he's done in my life yeah we get all twisted around about how that looks and we knock on a door and we have a little track with bad illustrations and we say have you made the wonderful discovery of you know and people go you're freak and we get all twisted around about what it means to help people here and see God friends the Scripture says you're his priest so that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful life you live a life of gratefulness to what God has done that's all you have to do there's a story in John chapter 9 where that happened guys said man what happened to you a blind guy got healed by an encounter with Jesus and they go what happened to you goes I don't know they go but tell us what he did what happened I don't know all I know is I was blind and now I see they go what did you do what did you say and how did you and he's the guy said I don't oh I was blind and now I see I'm declaring the praises of him who called me out of darkness into his wonderful life and they said but but how in the end he said you need to go find this Jesus guy yourself because all I know is I was blind and now I see friends we lead in worship by declaring the praises of what God's done in our life we become mediators we help people not just show them about what God can do we lead them to God and we're able to say to people this is how you also can know Christ this is my priestly duty Paul called at that and when in Romans Paul said hey I've been called as a minister to do my pre he called at this my priestly duty of proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the whole world this is priestly duty and that's what we do here's how you find Christ we can tell people friends again how you do that how you communicate that in a way that our world can hear you know what do your homework prepare equip yourself figure out how people can understand the good news of Christ in our culture but don't be silent because you're called into the ministry you're going to help people know Christ so we show them God we show them how to get to God and so as a result of that we get to be agents of God's blessing we get to be agents of God's blessing everywhere we go this is what priests did they said here let me declare to you the character of God let me show you who God is let me so that you can see and to smell and to taste and to hear God everywhere we go and friends we get all freaked out about again how does that happen it happens in every way it happens in everything we do every place we go the good news of the character and the grace of God leaks out it reeks out of everything that we go to you get to be people that after every bus ride after every committee meeting after every Tupperware party after every Christmas party where after every encounter you get to be a place where people go man what does that smell that smells good to me that smells like a life to me and then we're able to help people understand that that's the grace of God in our lives that's the beauty of God in our lives that they're seeing and smelling and feeling are you a blessing every step of your day you get to be a blessing of the character of God every day everywhere you go friends it's not egotistical I don't want you to be oversensitive but I want you to be able to walk into a meeting and say I'm gonna bring it I'm bringing a blessing I'm gonna be a blessing to this today I'm a blessing to this company I'm a blessing to this this friend I'm a blessing to this boss I'm a blessing to this enemy I'm a blessing of God because I'm a royal and holy priest for my king what a joy to live that way we basically become the sights and the sounds and the smells of the good news and that's what you get to do priest had access so to wait they'll change our lives if we live in it and priests become a bridge for people to God and that's your ministry let you stand I'm gonna give you a blessing to go live that ministry friends I was goofing around about my ordination service but then it surprised me and if you could picture all of us being called every Sunday to ministry all of us being called every day of our lives to be set aside or dained consecrated to be priests I was joking about this service but I got in there they had us kneeling across the front it's not unlike you today and the elders of our denomination the bishops the pastors the president the they one by one walked past us grabbed my face and spoke private words every one of them was different to each of the ordinance and I was all this is dumb this is dumb and then floored by the power of that experience because they spoke the powerful call to holy priesthood into me I'm telling you right now that's a specific role that God has asked me to play as a pastor of a church but foundationally it is no different to you each one whispered some version of this you enter boldly to the very presence of our living God and you receive from him all that he has for you there for you are his priest you go and be a bridge you go smell and look and sound like the good news that our world would know Jesus and every knee will bow and declare him the Lord that's your ministry go friends as priests of our living God