Discover the divine design for your life as Pastor Brandon takes you on an inspirational exploration of the Levites' sacred duties from 1 Chronicles chapter 23. Unearth the significance behind temple service, music, governance, and gatekeeping, and how these ancient roles mirror our modern callings within God's master plan. Feel embraced by the concept that not one of us is without purpose, as we each contribute to a symphony of worship and service that resonates through the ages.
Embark on a journey to find your place within the church family, as we navigate the transformative experience of deep commitment to a local congregation. Together, we'll confront the barriers that might be holding you back from full participation in the life of your church, seeking healing and a fresh sense of purpose. It's a heartfelt conversation rooted in the wisdom of 1 Chronicles 29, where integrity and dedication intertwine to guide you towards discovering your unique ministry and purpose in the body of Christ.
Discover the divine design for your life as Pastor Brandon takes you on an inspirational exploration of the Levites' sacred duties from 1 Chronicles chapter 23. Unearth the significance behind temple service, music, governance, and gatekeeping, and how these ancient roles mirror our modern callings within God's master plan. Feel embraced by the concept that not one of us is without purpose, as we each contribute to a symphony of worship and service that resonates through the ages.
Embark on a journey to find your place within the church family, as we navigate the transformative experience of deep commitment to a local congregation. Together, we'll confront the barriers that might be holding you back from full participation in the life of your church, seeking healing and a fresh sense of purpose. It's a heartfelt conversation rooted in the wisdom of 1 Chronicles 29, where integrity and dedication intertwine to guide you towards discovering your unique ministry and purpose in the body of Christ.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. 1 Chronicles, chapter 23,. And today's title is God has a ministry for everyone. God has a ministry for everyone. We're going to be reading about the duties of the priest, and, if you remember a guy named Ezra, who was a priest and really one of the ones who helped compile a lot of the Old Testament together, he is the one that is most likely writing down this chronicling of the nation of Israel, and so he is very invested in the fact that God's house has so many different people and there's so many opportunities for them to serve in various ways, and so we're going to get into that in just a moment, and I can't wait to talk to you about that. But, of course, as always, before we do anything else, make sure you are like sharing and subscribing to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Leave me some comments on the YouTube channel. I get a chance to read most of them and I love interacting with all of you.
Speaker 1:
Also on the Bible breakdown discussion. Make sure that you are liking it. Make sure you're sharing different ones. They are just throwing out some gold every single day, and I wish so bad. Every one of you had a chance to read what they are writing. It's better than what I'm saying, to be honest with you. So make sure you are going there and reading because, man, I'm going to tell you, the more we dig, the more we find. And so, if you have your Bibles, I want to open up with me to 1 Chronicles, chapter 23. Remember, the overall theme is when God is with you, there's always hope. And that's the whole point of this is they're reestablishing worship, and what they're doing is they're remembering that worship didn't start with them, but generations before, when David first set up the temple, the worship of God was important and that everybody had a ministry, everybody had an opportunity. Let's read this together. It's going to be a lot of names, a lot of numbers. That's just kind of the way Chronicles is, but at the end of it we're gonna see if God has something to say to us today. Here we go.
Speaker 1:
1 Chronicles 23, verse 1, says this when David was an old man, he appointed his son Solomon to be king over Israel. David summoned all the leaders of Israel, together with the priests and Levites. All the Levites who are 30 years old or older were counted, and the total came out to 38,000. Then David said From all the Levites, 24,000 will supervise the work of the temple of the Lord, another 6,000 will serve as officials and judges, another 4,000 will work as gatekeepers and 4,000 will praise the Lord with musical instruments I have made. Then David divided the Levites into divisions and they were named after the clans and descendants from the three sons of Levi, gershon, kohath and Mererai.
Speaker 1:
The Gershonite family units were defined by the lines of descendants of Libni and Shemni, the sons of Gershon. Three of the descendants of Libni were Jahil, the family leader, zethem and Joel. These were the leaders of the family of Libni. The three descendants of Shemni were Shalemoth, hezel and Haran. Four other descendants of Shemni were Jahath, ziza, jerush and Beriah. Jahath was the family leader and Ziza was next. Jerush and Beriah was counted as a single family because neither had many sons. Four of the descendants of Kohath were Amram, izjar, hebron and Uziel. The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. Aaron and his descendants were set apart to dedicate the most holy things and to offer sacrifices in the Lord's presence, and to serve the Lord and to pronounce blessings in his name forever. As for Moses, the man of God, his sons were included in the tribe of Levi.
Speaker 1:
The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eleazar. The descendants of Gershom was Zerubbel, the family leader, and Eleazar had only one son, rehobiah, and the family leader, rehobiah, had numerous descendants. The descendants of Izhar included Sheremeth in the family and it was the family leader. The descendants of Hebron included Jeriah, the family leader, amariah II, jehazel III and Jechamim IV. The descendants of Uzel included Micah, the family leader, and Ishaah II.
Speaker 1:
The descendants of Mererai included Mahali and Mushi. The sons of Mahali were Eleazar and Kish. Eleazar died with no sons, only daughters. His daughters married their cousins, the sons of Kish. Three of the descendants of Mushi were Mahali, edar and Jeremoth. Three of the descendants of Mushi were Mahali, idar and Jeremoth.
Speaker 1:
These were the descendants of Levi by clans. The leaders of the family groups registered carefully by each name. Each had to be 20 years old or older to qualify for service in the Lord's house. David said the Lord, the God of Israel, has given us peace and he will always live in Jerusalem. Now the Levites will no longer need to carry the tabernacle and its furnishings from place to place. In accordance with David's final instructions, all the Levites 20 years old or older were registered for service.
Speaker 1:
The work of the Levites was to assist the priests, the descendants of Aaron, as they served at the house of the Lord. They also took care of the courtyards and side rooms, helped perform the ceremonial purifications and served in many other ways in the house of God. They were in charge of the sacred bread that was set out on the table, the choice flour for the grain offerings and the wafers made without yeast, the cakes cooked with olive oil and the other mixed breads. They were also responsible to check all the weights and measures, and each morning and evening they stood before the Lord to sing songs of thanks and to praise Him. They assisted with the burnt offerings that were presented to the Lord on the Sabbath days, at the new moon celebrations and at all the appointed festivals.
Speaker 1:
The required number of Levites that served in the Lord's presence at all times, following all the procedures that had been given, and so under the supervision of the priest, the Levites watched over the tabernacle and the temple and faithfully carried out the duties of service. So, as you can see, what happened was is when they were in the wilderness. They needed all these different people to carry the tabernacle. The tabernacle was basically this glorified tent, and so you had people that would carry the tent poles and things. You had people that would carry the outer skins and things that would cover it over. Then you had people that would carry the furniture, the holy furniture, and then you had people who would serve in the tabernacle, so you had all this going on. Well, david is saying the time of wandering is over, but you still have ministry to do, and so we gave them all something to do.
Speaker 1:
You know, one of the things I love about being part of a local body of believers is that we all have an opportunity to take part. One of the things I'm so passionate about because I've seen both how wonderful it is and also the destructive power of not having it is that, as a Christ follower, we should always look to be a contributor, not a consumer. If we're not careful, we can treat church like McDonald's we go in, we order what we want If we like it, we throw a tip when we get it and we walk out and we let other people clean up the mess. Right, that's a restaurant. That's what you're supposed to do at a restaurant. Right, you're supposed to go, do all those kinds of things. This is not my deal, this is your deal. You're just here to serve me and I give you money, and that's how it works.
Speaker 1:
Well, if we're not careful, we look at church that way we come in, we sit down, you know the music better be the right level, can't be too loud, you better be good, but coffee better be hot, all this kind of stuff, and if I like it I'll throw you a tip as I walk out the door. And then church becomes a consumeristic product. And then we wonder why our relationship with God is so shallow and and not quote unquote meeting our needs and you know we want. We always hop from church to church to church because we're treating the family of God and we're preaching treating that's the word I'm trying to say, treating all those things like a consumeristic product. But now, when it comes to our family at home, I don't think and I hope we don't treat our family like that. We don't come into the afternoon and as long as everybody serves us right and everything is perfect, we kind of throw a tip at the door and we walk out the next day.
Speaker 1:
That's not it. We're part of a family, everybody in. We all have chores we do, we all take part in this. We share in the victories, we share in the defeats. We grow old together. That's what a family does. That's what a spiritual family is supposed to do. We're supposed to be part of the body of Christ, not the drive-through of Christ, and everyone has a ministry to do.
Speaker 1:
Can I tell you that when I've seen people who struggle and they would self-admittedly say I'm just not content with my relationship with God, I just I don't feel, I feel shallow in my relationship with God when I look at their life. What I see a lot of times is I see that they have been taught to see church as a consumeristic product. They come in and they expect to see a show, a weekly concert, a weekly pep talk, and they don't serve, they don't do anything. They get a free cup of coffee, free child care for a couple of hours and then they go home. Well, yeah, because church is supposed to be a place where we do ministry with one another. We give and receive ministry.
Speaker 1:
So then we don't want to consume, we want to contribute. We come in and we have some skin in the game. We come in and we use our gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities to stand alongside our brothers and our sisters and we make a difference together, Because if we don't, we just end up becoming spoiled, and there's not a lot of use for a spoiled kid. But when we come in together, we make a difference. But when we come in together, we make a difference. And so I want to encourage you to think about for a moment if God has given you a ministry gifting and he has everybody's a 10 at something Like whatever it is. You might be great at cooking, you might be great at public speaking, you might be great at hosting people, you might be great at just love kids. You might be good with technology, you might be a musician, you might be really good at just acts of generosity, mercy, just all kinds of whatever it is that you just naturally do. Well, you can use that as ministry, and ministry is anything you do as an act of worship to serve somebody else.
Speaker 1:
Can I tell you your life would change. I know that's a big statement, but your life would change if you got off of the sideline and you got into the game and started serving someone else. I know there's people that listen to this all over the world at this point, and some of you don't have a church close to you where you can go which is why I love technology so much and I'm grateful that we get to do this together. But for some of us, we have 10 churches within walking distance of our house and we don't go to any of them. When we do, we go occasionally, and when we do, we sit down and we wait for someone else to serve us. Can I tell you there's times and seasons when you need that. There's times and seasons when you're just exhausted and you're going through a season and you just need a safe place to sit and rest. But can I tell you that should be a season, not a lifestyle. That there's something that you're missing if you never become part of a spiritual family. You never get on a team somewhere and serve somebody else and you say I am not here to be served, I am here to serve. Put me in the game. Put me wherever you want me, I'm here to serve. Put me in the game. Put me wherever you want me, I'm here to serve.
Speaker 1:
When you start honoring God and you start tithing to your local congregation, whether the music is good or the music is bad, whether the preaching is good or the preaching is bad, as long as it's not heretical. If they're preaching something against the Bible, then yeah, run, run as fast as you can. But if they're preaching, how about this? Let's just say that your preacher loves Jesus. Your pastor loves Jesus. He loves God's word, but he can't preach to save his life. That is not his fault. He's probably trying the best he can.
Speaker 1:
Can I tell you, I've never met a pastor yet who's not trying. He just may not be the best speaker in the world. God called him anyway and he's just trying to be faithful to what God's called me to do. That's me. I'm not a great public speaker, but I really love Jesus and I want to share what God is teaching me with other people. Can I tell you, those musicians on the stage, they're not always going to get it perfect, but you know what they're trying. None of them get up there and try to do bad. They're trying, but that's part of what a spiritual family was supposed to be.
Speaker 1:
Read the New Testament. It was never supposed to be a concert. It was never supposed to be a consumeristic product. It was supposed to be a spiritual family and we all served one another. And so God has a ministry for everyone and we're okay without you, but we'll never be as good as we could be with you.
Speaker 1:
And so your next step is are you currently serving at your local church? If not, start serving. Find a place where you can plant your life and you say, unless God moves me, unless something heretical happens, I'm going to be here in the good days and I'm definitely going to be here in the bad days, because somebody needs to stand and be in that gap and intercede for that church family and watch what happens. Your life will thrive as you plant yourself, you serve and realize God has a ministry for you, and I can't wait to hear in the comments below and in the days ahead what happens when you plant yourself in a congregation and you say, coach, put me in the game, watch what God does in your life. You have a ministry and you have a purpose.
Speaker 1:
Let's pray God. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you see us, you know us and you love us. I pray, god, that you will have your way in our lives. I pray God that you will help every one of us realize you have made us for a purpose and, lord, one of those purposes is to be part of a local body of believers.
Speaker 1:
I know, god, that a lot of times there's a thousand reasons why we have trouble planting ourselves, maybe from unmet expectations or pain or hurt. But I pray, god, we will not let past pain destroy future opportunities to love and to be loved. I pray, lord, that you'll begin the work of healing, begin the work of exciting our lives of what could be, and help us take that next step so we can be part of something bigger than ourselves. I thank you for all things. In Jesus' name, we pray amen and what God's word says in 1 Chronicles 29,. I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. I love you. God sees you. I'll see you tomorrow for 1 Chronicles, chapter 24.