1. The New Priesthood – Pt. 3

2. —Wilbur Rees, quoted in Charles R. Swindoll, Improving Your Serve
I WOULD LIKE TO BUY $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. No, no, not the flesh and blood one... He will keep me from my appointment with the hair dresser and make me late for the cocktail party. He will soil my linen and break my strand of matched pearls. I can’t put up with pundits from Persia or sweaty shepherds trampling over my nylon carpet with their muddy feet. My name isn’t Mary, you know!
I want no living, breathing Christ—but one I can keep in its crib with a rubber band. That plastic one will do just fine.
—Wilbur Rees, quoted in Charles R. Swindoll, Improving Your Serve

3. 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NLT)
9  But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 10  “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”

4. Matthew 9:35-38 (NKJV)
35  Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36  But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37  Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

5. Luke 10:30-34 (NKJV)
30  Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

6. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (NKJV)
19  For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20  and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21  to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; 22  to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23  Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.

7. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NKJV)
24  Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26  Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

8. Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV)
18  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

9. The choice remains the same – covenant or consequence!