Introduction

Good morning everyone, today let's look at Exodus chapter 28. Exodus is a challenging book in the Bible for us to study. We have studied chapters 25,26 and 27, and now we come to chapter 28. Chapter 28 is talking about serving as a Priest before God. The Israelites made a Tabernacle, an altar, tables, a lamp, and an ark for the covenant. The eventual purpose of making all these things was for a human to serve as a Priest before the Lord. All the things were prepared for someone to be chosen, anointed, and to be ordained as the priest before the Lord.

Being a Priest of God is the best job

Do you know what the best job is in the world? Priest! Do you know why it is the best job in the world? Priests carry the dignity, the owner, and the beauty! In the old days, when the people came out of Egypt, the garments they were wearing did not match who their owner was. Because what they wore represented the wealth and the dignity of their owner.

One day, someone carried a designer handbag that cost her probably a couple of thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars. But the problem is that I actually did not know the brand and I never paid any attention to the brand. When she put the bag on my table, I was not even realized it. The lady seemed to be a little bit unhappy as she spent a lot of money on the handbag and I was not bothered at all. To me, it was just an ugly handbag. I did not know why she would spend so much money on it. But that represented the status of her wealth.

Nowadays, when people drive an expensive car or a sports car, then you are someone. However, in Exodus chapter 28, they made the best outfit for the priest. The best dressing was to show the dignity, beauty, and honor that God wanted to give to the priest. That is the best job! God wanted to appoint someone to serve as a Priest before the Lord. So God dressed the priest in all the gold and silver, the jewelry with precious stones, and many other valuable things. Do you think that was the best job ever? What he really did was to serve the Lord, minister to the lamps, the tabernacle, and the things that were all about God.

The question is, when the Israelites came up from Egypt, they said the Army of God came out of Egypt. So the first thing they did was to build a Tabernacle. Do you understand that? The Army of God needed to fight the battles. If they wanted to win the battle, the most important thing they needed was the presence of God. They needed to minister to God, to serve as a Priest before God. Because God would determine whether they won or lost.

So God plays a very important role in our life. Without God, it will be full of challenges, and many problems will have no answers. That was why when the Israelites came out of Egypt, the first thing they did was build a Tabernacle and prepared everything for the priest who was going to be anointed and ordained. Anointing or ordaining is to appoint someone as a pastor or reverend. This process is called Ordination. It's a group of pastors gathering together. Then they ordain someone to be a pastor. And someone would ask whether they are ordained or not. Actually, I am not quite bothered as I'm more bothered about whether the Lord ordains them and whether the Lord our Lord is with us. So they're new words just in case you may not know what ordain or ordination is. It's just to appoint someone as a priest to serve before God. But this job was given by God. It's such a beautiful position! It is full of dignity, full of honor, and beauty. No one can compare what they wear.

Today, when people use an iPhone or wear an iWatch, especially young children, it seems to be something. And they compare what you wear, what kind of bag you carry, all these things. But in those days, the Priests were dressed the best. But best dressed was not the only thing, and all these came with destiny. The destiny of the priest was serving before the Lord, and they carried the names of the Twelve tribes, the sons of Israel. That was so interesting.

The dress was specially made. They had a breastpiece for decision-making. What was that? They had decision-making power as a Priest and it came from the Lord. You have to understand the decision-making power. For example, it's equivalent to the judge nowadays. A judge decides in a legal fight who wins or loses. It was a symbol of power in those days, even today.

Being a Priest holds the decision-making power

This decision-making is not something usual. It has two pieces, one was called Urim, and the other one was called Thummim. So these two pieces were the decision maker of the Lord. When they threw the pieces in the air, they could face up or face down. The priest would say whether it was true or false. So this was the kind of decision-making as a priest. As a priest, we are not just talking about Aaron, even today, we serve as a priest before God, and we have the decision-making power. What kind of decision-making?

In New Testament, Jesus says you have the right to forgive someone's sins. What kind of position is it? It must be someone higher up there to hold power so that you can be a decision maker, which is by the spirit of God. Is that a good job? Is it the best job ever? Yes, it is!

Sometimes, we find that people are a little bit confused about this kind of position. In a traditional church, the pastors live off the donation, the offering, or tithing. If someone can donate a huge amount of money, the pastor will treat them as someone. If the less wealthy people cannot donate money, they are just someone who comes to church to fill up the chairs. This is very common. As a result, those wealthy people will be appointed as Deacon of the church, which is very common practice.

But the problem making me confused is if the priest is more important or holds a higher position than the merchant, but if you ask the young people, "Do you want to serve as a Priest before the Lord? "Or "do you want to be a wealthy merchant?", most of people want to be wealthy, and they want to do big business and run a big organization. Serving as a priest, What is that? But in the spiritual realm, we actually carry power.

Sometimes, I browse the website and see some pastors have their descriptions about themselves. It's a short resume talking about themselves, what their job is, and the profession they are in. They describe their profession as a merchant. I don't think a pastor should describe themselves as a merchant. There is quite a lot of confusion.

But now I want to come back to the Bible. Being a priest serving before the Lord is the best job. It comes with dignity and honor.

Priests come with dignity and honor

They come with dignity and honor. When I preach so much about the priests, and one day, some of our church members quit their job. They went to the church and told me that they had quit their job. I said, "Why did you do that?" They said, "I want to come into the church and serve the Lord." That is good! I preach so much about serving God being the best job, the best profession, full of dignity and honour and beauty. I preached so much, and they came! Is there a church going to pay them well? Look at the bank account, the figures. Oh my God, what am I going to do? I started to worry but I didn't show it to them. I said, "Wonderful, God will supply!" I still sing that kind of song, I still preach that kind of message. Do you know what happened? God is God! God is a wealthy God! We are never short of money because that is the best job! I love God, he is a wealthy God, the source of wisdom and wealth. Do you want to serve him? I have to tell you, it is the best job ever.

In a survey, someone mentioned this: The number one challenging job is the American president, and the second most challenging job is a church pastor. Is that so? They say church pastor is the second most challenging job. How can this be? If you want to say so, the top job is serving the Lord. I still preach this message because look at Exodus chapter 28: if you want to win the battle, serve the Lord. When the Lord is happy, all your issues are no longer issues. But if you want to serve before the Lord, you have the decision-making power in the spiritual realm. You decide whether the army of God wins or loses.

God is the source of wisdom

As a church in the early days, we had good food but lost the good battle. Good food is no use. This is not the place to have good food or fill our stomachs. That is only satisfying our mouths and stomachs, but not God. Later we change, we changed to a church of praying. We set apart all the holidays in this place (The government has their own rules, they have 12 public holidays). We set apart those days to fast and pray. We set apart Tuesday night for prayer meetings, Saturday we have a prayer meeting, later we have Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday all for prayer meetings. Do you know what happened? People come into the church, and they can sense the blessing. They can feel the blessings flow into this place. They can see that the church is winning the spiritual battle, we follow the word of God, and we follow the experiences preached by our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul. People say, "You have so many prayer meetings, will waste time for kids to go through tough periods of exams when they are preparing through tough enrollment exams? Can God help us?" Yes, God is the source of wisdom.

One day I was meeting a pastor and having a Sunday service and asked where his son was. He said, "My son had to omit the church meeting." I asked why, and he said, "He is preparing for the university enrollment exam." I cannot say, "That's wrong!" They are not the people I am shepherding. If you are a person I am shepherding, I will tell you that it is not the right way. At the end of the exam, I asked if his son had passed. He didn't, and I thought that was good. Why? We have to learn a lesson. As a Christian, making God happy is the most important. Our life is not determined by an enrollment exam. It is determined by God. God is so great.

Serve the Lord with your heart, soul, and mind

Now and then, I preach the same message: God is good, and serving God is the best. So you, young or old, prepare to serve the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind. You know, as a priest, they carry something called an ephod. What is this? It is something to put on your chest. They have twelve names of the tribes, the twelve sons of Israel, Jacob. They have to carry the twelve tribes on their shoulder. What they do is pray for the people of God. The twelve tribes of Israel came out of Egypt and formed the great army of God. They formed the twelve tribes to win the spiritual battle or worldly battles. They are determined by the priests. The priests must stand firm, serving the Lord with their whole hearts, soul, and mind. That is a very important piece.

So we learned a lesson in those days, which was being defeated by the devil, badly and a lot of problems came. Later on, we changed our way of serving the Lord, we saw spiritual battles, and we overcame. Whenever we fight against the devil, we win, and a lot of the people who come into our church are set free. Whether this sickness or that bondage, we break them, cast out demons, and heal the sick.

If you serve God, he will make you a winner

Remember, your life will be very different if you have spiritual power. If you do not have spiritual power, the devil in the spiritual world will bully you until you are an unlucky and unhappy person until you die. So we have to know what this is. Carrying the name of the twelve tribes means we have an assignment from God. We have to serve the Lord, carrying the name of the twelve tribes. Do you think that is heavy? No, if we serve the Lord wholeheartedly, the burden will not be heavy because God will make you a winner in your life. Do you want to be a loser? Or a winner? Someone was defeated so badly that they wore a shirt saying, "I am a loser. I was bound to be a loser." Do you see those t-shirts with that kind of print? When I see those, I think, "Oh, I am so sorry."

We are bound to be winners because we serve the Lord as priests! God is God! God makes us winners! If you read the Bible, you will see that God will make you the head, not the tail, above and not underneath. Are you with me? Do you want that? When the enemy comes to attack you in one way, they will flee in seven ways. We are priests. The history of the Israelites proves one thing: When the priests serve the Lord wholeheartedly, they will win the battle.

Yesterday we studied 1 Samuel, and the Israelites were killed by the Philistines, 4000, and another 30000, and they were defeated badly. Even the two sons of Eli were killed in the battle. They brought the ark of the covenant, and it was no use. It is whether you are someone who wants to serve the Lord with all your mind and soul. That is the number one commandment. Love your God with all your soul, mind, and strength. Do you believe that? I cannot guarantee that, but God can. Do you want to be a winner in life? You must carry that destiny, what you want to live for. Do you want to live for yourself? No, you must live for God.

Dealing with carnal nature is the most important thing for a priest

Human beings serving before the Lord must wear a robe and undergarments. You also have to wear an undergarment to protect your private parts. You cannot expose them. That's what God is trying to do. We must put on Jesus Christ to deal with our carnal behaviors and flesh. Our sex organs are the most typical body parts to show that we are carnal. It is one of the places to express your carnal behavior. We have to put on Jesus Christ to cover our bodies. And by the power of our Lord and the resurrection, we have to deal with our carnal nature.

We serve before the Lord as a priest. So the most important thing we have to do is deal with our carnal nature. This is the best job ever. You were anointed and appointed as a king, as a priest, and as a judge. Do you understand that you are doing the best job ever? Are we paying our due diligence? Are we doing our part to serve the Lord? If you do, I should say that you are fortunate enough to make a good decision. A priest wears something on their head that says: Holy to the Lord, set apart yourself to Him. We are the people who were set apart for the Lord. That's what we live for. So we have the doctrine of MingDing that talks about laying down our lives for the Lord.

Worldly things don't matter for the people of God

We do not belong to the world, but to the Lord. The worldly things don't matter. Whenever I preach this way, I got a problem. I feel pity for people who suffer from all these illnesses. The sickness comes from our carnal nature. If we don't deal with carnality, even if we were healed by the Lord, the sickness will come back again. Do you remember how you got healed, but the problem came back again? It's all because we take these worldly things too seriously. Those are the trivial problem but we think they are important. That is why we got hurt and we got problems.

If we set apart ourselves for the Lord, are we going to be so calculative and worried about our gains and losses? So come with me and set apart yourselves for the Lord, look down on those worldly things. If you worry about how people treat you, what you eat, what you drink, what you wear, and whether you sleep well, then let me tell you, those things are carnal. We have to set ourselves apart for the Lord; when we do that, we become a priest. We get the best job ever which is full of dignity, honor, and beauty. Are you setting yourself apart from the Lord? If you are not, I feel pity for those decisions made by the people of God.

Follow the path of Jesus Christ and be a winner

Israel people came from Egypt. Whether the Israelites were losing or winning the battle, all this was determined by how much they obeyed the word of God and how much they have set apart for the Lord. In the tabernacle, Aaron and his sons were appointed as the priest. Then his two elder sons, Nadab and Abihu were burned to death. They died before the Lord when they were serving. The fire came up from the Lord and burned them up. Even after this, the Lord told Aaron that he could not cry.

Serving the Lord as a priest is not only the best job, but it also comes with a risk. If you do not want to serve the Lord, a lot of side effects will come with it. Are you accepted to the Lord? We have to be acceptable to Him. They built a tabernacle. The only purpose for these thins was that people would serve as a priest before the Lord. We spent so much effort to build a church. The only purpose is for the people of God can serve as a priest before God.

Are we serving as a priest? The priest's hand is touching God, and his feet are on the ground. We bring the problem of the people to God, and we bring the power of God from the throne to the earth. This is the best job ever!

I know some of our brothers and sisters. All of their problems come from their carnal nature. If you and I want to serve the Lord, the number one thing we have to deal with is our carnal nature. We are ordained, anointed, we are consecrated so that we may serve as a priest. Do you understand all these words? We were appointed to this job and we have been given the power to do this job. We have been consecrated and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We were appointed to serve as a priest.

Serve God and follow him. How much more should we serve the Lord? Our Lord, Jesus Christ, has already opened the path. We have to follow his path. Jesus Christ is the one who makes himself the role model we follow, who put his body on the cross. When we carry the cross, we nail down our carnal nature. Whether you have what kind of sickness or sleeping problem, all these things will be gone. Whether our mind belongs to the world or the Lord, are we setting ourselves apart? I will end here. I want to remind you that God planned for you to be a winner. But only if you follow his approach, you will be a winner.
May the Lord bless you!