We continue in our verse-by-verse study through the book of Numbers. If you'd make your way to the book of Numbers, Old Testament book, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Genesis, yeah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Last Sunday we studied chapter 17 and saw how God once again made his will known by the budding, blossoming, and bearing fruit of the almond branch, the almond tree branch, and that's a miracle because when a branch buds, it doesn't have blossoms on it. and it certainly doesn't have fruit on it, and when it blossoms, the buds are gone, the fruit's yet to come. When it has fruit, there isn't any more budding and blossoming going on, and yet, simultaneously, a dead branch did that overnight with Aaron's name on it, indicating to one and all, and once and for all, that it's the Aaronic family of the tribe of Levi, who are to be priests in the tabernacle and then later in the temple. That was very much what we studied last week. And then, by way of application, we also can discern the will of God for our own lives, primarily from the Word of God, counsel from others, God opening up doors, closing doors, and the like. And so, that was chapter 17. Today, we study chapter 18 in a message that I've titled, and I struggled a little bit with the title, but I came up with roles, responsibilities, and remuneration. That is the job you're gonna do, the priests that is, and the Levites, and what will come from it. Numbers, chapter 18, And we begin in verse one. And the Lord said unto Aaron, thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee that thou may be joined unto thee and minister unto thee, but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness. Now, some of you shall guard the tabernacle and the like, and that's a good translation as well. It has that concept about it, overseeing, serving in, guarding, superintending, that type of concept. Verse three, and they shall keep thy charge and the charge of the tabernacle, only they shall not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they nor ye also die. So the tribe of Levi, they have a service to do, but they better not be doing what they shouldn't be doing or else they will die and you will die. That is the priest, the high priest at that time. And they should be joined unto thee and keep the charge of the tabernacle and of the congregation for all the service of the tabernacle and a stranger shall not come near unto you. And you shall keep the charge of the sanctuary and the charge of the altar that there be no wrath anymore upon the children of Israel. And I, behold, I have taken your brethren, the Levites, from among the children of Israel. To you they are given as a gift for the Lord. to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Therefore, thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for everything of the altar and within the veil, and you shall serve. I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gifts, and the stranger that cometh near shall be put to death. And the Lord spoken to Aaron, behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing and to thy sons by an ordinance forever. This shall be thine of the most holy things reserved from the fire. Every oblation of theirs, every meal offering of theirs, every sin offering of theirs, every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons. In the most holy place shalt thou eat it every male shall eat it it shall be holy unto thee and This is thine the heave offerings of their gift with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel I have given them unto thee and to thy sons and thy daughters with thee by a statute forever everyone that is clean in thy house shall eat of it all All the best of the oil, all the best of the wine, of the wheat, of the firstfruits of them, which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. and whatsoever is first ripe in the land, that is fruit, vegetables, if you will, which they shall bring unto the Lord shall be thine. Everyone that is clean in thy house shall eat of it. Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine. Everything that opens the womb in all flesh, which they bring unto the Lord, whether it be of men or of beasts, shall be thine. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of the unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. and those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem according to to the evaluation by the way verse 15 let me park there for just a second what it's saying there is there are some things that are first born that you're not going to use as an offering you're not going to offer a human for sacrifice, and you're not gonna offer an unclean animal for sacrifice. Do you see that in verse 15? But they must be redeemed. That is, there must be a redemption price paid to the tabernacle or temple treasury for that. That's the idea found in verse 15. So it's qualifying it. God doesn't want anybody going off on a wild tangent thinking, oh, well, we have to kill the firstborn. No, not everything. Some of these things are not to be used as a sacrifice, a physical sacrifice, and namely human beings and unclean beasts, but they do have a purpose and they're to be redeemed. Unclean meaning that which is not to be offered in sacrifice. Verse 16, and those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem according to thy valuation, what they're worth, for the money of five shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is 20 giras. But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem. They're holy. Thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar. Thou shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire for a sweet savor and lord, and see it right there. A cow, a sheep, a goat, that's a sacrificial animal. And so they don't need to be redeemed because you're giving the whole animal. Y'all following with the text now? You're not sure if you're following with the, okay, I hope you are. Verse 18, and the flesh of them shall be thine as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are thine. All the heave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord have I given thee and thy sons and thy daughters with thee by a statute forever. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee. And the Lord spoke unto Aaron, thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them. I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. And behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come near the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin and die. But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance. But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as a heave offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit. Therefore I have said unto them among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance and the Lord spoken to Moses saying thus speaking to let me rephrase that emphasize it the Lord spoken to Moses So now the picture is shifting. It's away from Aaron from the first 24 verses now he's addressing Moses Lord spoken to Moses saying thus speaking to the Levites and Saying to them when you take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance Then shall you offer up a heave offering of it for the Lord even a tenth of the tithe and this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you as though it were the grain the threshing floor and and the fullness of the winepress. Thus you also shall offer a heave offering unto the Lord of all your tithes, which you received of the children of Israel. And you shall give thereof of the Lord's heave offering to Aaron the priest." In other words, the money that the tribe of Levi receives, they are also going to tithe to the family of Aaron, who are serving as priests. Verse 29, out of all your gifts, you shall offer every heave offering of the Lord, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it. Therefore, thou shalt say unto them, when you have lifted up the best therein from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor and as the increase of the winepress. And you shall eat it in every place, ye and your households, for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation, and you shall bear no reason, check that, and you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have lifted up from it the best of it, neither shall you pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest you die. Anyone wanna preach this chapter? It really is not as difficult as it first appears. And believe me, when I tackled this first, I understood it. I just didn't know how to make sense of it to communicate it. I really didn't. And I read, and I'm thankful that I read this very early on in my preparation, my exegesis exposition of chapter 18. I read a note from a theologian about the why behind this. Why are we studying this? Well, it's... It has to do with employment. It has to do with the role that an employee has, God's employee in this case, the responsibilities, that is, how is he going to fulfill the role, and then the remuneration or the salary or payment that he gets for services rendered. And we understand those concepts, right? When you go for a job, you have a job description that tells you what your role will be. And then it goes on and gets more specific and enumerates all the responsibilities. You have to show up at this time. You have to be dressed in this way. You have to do this particular thing. And when all of that is accomplished and you're hired, this will be the salary and benefits that you will receive. We're familiar with this concept, right? That's what Levitic Numbers chapter 18 is. It is a job description with roles, responsibilities, and remuneration or payment or salary for the service which was rendered. And you say, why are we studying this when this has to do with Old Testament Israel some 3,000 years ago? Well, I like what Ronald Allen wrote about this when he said, the modern reader comes to The modern reader comes to chapters 18 and 19 with a sense of foreboding. What, we may wonder, is in these chapters for me? What am I to get out of chapter 18 of the book of Numbers? The answer to that question is fivefold. First of all, the reader, you, of Scripture, needs to have general knowledge about the major institutions of the biblical period just for scripture to make sense. It's important that you understand what went on in Genesis 1 and 2, and then what went on in Genesis chapter 3 with the fall of man, and then what went on during that time frame up until the Tower of Babel, including the flood. with Noah. And then what went on during the patriarchal period of God choosing Abraham and reconfirming with Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes and all. And then what went on during the time of the giving of the law with Moses. And why is that important? And how is that fulfilled in Scripture? And the prophecies there at the end of the Old Testament. And then the life of Christ, who he is, the incarnation, what he came to. It's important that we have a grasp, some kind of a grasp. and an understanding of what these things mean. Folks, with God as my witness, when I was saved at age 20, heard the gospel for the first time, I could not have told you Abraham from Daniel from Esther. I didn't know anything about anything in scripture. I'm not proud of that, that's just how it was. And in these nearly 50 years, I've gained a measure of understanding. So now I have a working knowledge of it, and you do as well. We all grow at various stages and in various speeds, if you will. And so the point is, it's important that we have this general knowledge of Numbers chapter 18. And I'll tell you what, I've been surprised by joy. I had no idea the book of Numbers was gonna be as interesting, compelling, and exciting as it has been, at least for me, these many months that we've been in it. Secondly, our understanding, I don't know who's changing that. If I'm changing that, if you're changing that. Am I controlling things or are you controlling things? Oh, I am, good. I love to control things, just ask Kathy. I said to Kathy, we were courting, are you sure you wanna marry me? I can be very bossy. Only then did I realize afterwards that she is the irresistible force and I'm an immovable object. And we do it having fun. We've never had one argument. We've never had one fight in eight years. But there's a lot of activity in the meantime. You didn't need to know any of that. Our understanding of the true worship of God begins with the sense that he controls and directs our true worship. Who the priests are, how they function, are first his concerns. This means that worship is not a game whereby we may make up the rules as we play. That is an important principle to know. And thirdly, a general knowledge of the work of God, general knowledge of the work of God, of the work of the priest in the Hebrew Bible gives many insights to the modern reader as to the interests of God in our own worship. Often we think of worship in terms of what we like and appreciate. This misses the mark. Worship is principally for God's pleasure. May we understand that principle. You do not come, you ought not come to a worship service thinking, what can I get out of it? You ought to be coming and I ought to be coming to a worship service. What can I contribute to it? In glory to the Lord and praise of him and encouragement and exhortation with one another. Folks, if the modern-day American church would be a whole lot more selfless than self-interested, the work of the Lord would advance in a much more fruitful way. And that's not necessarily us, but it may be, it could be at any given moment that I attend a worship service thinking that I need to get something. Now, the blessing of the Lord is when you die, that's when you live. You die to self. You live unto him, and you are blessed. And so, have that mindset. This is a good five points about what it means to study and why the importance of studying the book of Numbers. Fourth, a general knowledge of the work of the priests in the time of Hebrew worship gives a Christian reader significant insights into the priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, it sets the table. It's the forerunner, if you will, to who Christ is and what he did. The book of Hebrews has an intense priestly orientation in its presentation to the Lord Jesus, priest of God in the manner or order of Melchizedek. And you'll remember when we spent a lot of time on that a few years ago in preaching through the book of Hebrews. And then fifthly, and contrast with the highly regulated, highly strictured or restricted patterns demanded of the priests of the Hebrew economy, the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has direct access to God through the Savior that is nearly unbelievable. We are all priests, we come near the presence of the Lord without an intermediary, that is other than Christ, Yet our privilege as believer priests can only really be appreciated against the backdrop of priests of the biblical period. So we study the book of Numbers because it is important for us to study it and to gain an understanding of what went on back then and what Christ did for us in our time. Okay, let's get into a very quick, brief outline. First of all, let's look at the roles, responsibilities of the priests and Levites in verses one through seven. All men are human, but not all humans are men. All priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests. It was the family of Aaron. Three different things took place. Miracles took place to demonstrate that in previous chapters. especially the last chapter, chapter 17, we see that. And so the family of Aaron, they were called to be the priests. Notice in verse 1, if you will, of chapter 18, and the Lord said unto Aaron, one of the first times, maybe one of the only times, that the Lord spoke dealt directly with Aaron. He always would deal with Moses, but he's dealing with Aaron. You, your family, are the ones who are going to take care of the house of God. Notice, and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, that is of the structure itself. If there's sin that goes on, it's your responsibility, as well as the priesthood, not only of the structure, but of the sacrifice itself. You and you alone, your family, are responsible for overseeing what goes on, you'll notice. The significance of this, Aaron being the father of the Aaronic priesthood, he and his sons were to care for that, the tabernacle and the holy items within us. Notice also in verse six, that they were given a gift. And in verse six, it says, I have taken your brethren, the Levites, that is the other families of the tribe of Levi. Aaron was one of the families of the tribe of Levi. And there were other families. I've taken your brethren from the tribe of Levi, the Levites, from among them, to you they are given as a gift for the Lord to serve in the tabernacle. And so the priests were the ones who were handling the offerings. the Levites, the other members of the tribe of Levi, were doing the work of caring for the building, for the structure itself. Folks, it's very much like how it's set up now in an analogous way. For Ephesians 4 verse 11 and verse 12 say, and he, God, gave to some churches apostles and some prophets. Not every church had an apostle, a part of that congregation. Paul was at Ephesus for three years. What about the other churches? Well, they didn't have an apostle necessarily. And prophets, of course, apostles and prophets are the foundation, Ephesians 2, and they're gone now. But he also gave evangelists and pastor teachers. for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So there were those who were called to have specific designated functions in serving God's people for the glory of God. And then all the rest were to do, if you will, the general labor. And in fact, in Ephesians chapter four, it talks about that the pastor is to equip the saints for what purpose? to do the work of the ministry. Not that the hired pastor, he's not the hired hand to do the work, he's the hired hand, if you will, to equip you to do the work. And I'm so thankful, and Kathy has observed this in being just here the last eight years. She says, she's told me, you know, everybody is involved at Redbridge. There's simply no one, just almost no one sitting on the sidelines, unless you're providentially hindered or something. This is a church filled with workers. And that's how it ought to be. In fact, it said there, with the Levites, they're not to be the key ones who dealt with the sacrifice, but they're to be working. And if they did not fulfill their requirement with the structure in erecting it or in deconstructing it whenever they were on the move, There's problems because no one else was allowed to do it. Folks, if you don't get the job done for the work of the ministry, it's not going to get done in and through this local church. If I don't get the job done of equipping and exhorting and any other number or teaching of the how-to's to do it, then the work is likely also going to be hindered. Y'all following, seeing the analogy here? It's very much along that way. You are the Levites, if you will, in that you are a royal priesthood to get the job done that God has for you. Now, verses 1 through 7 speak of the priests and the tribe of Levi, but there's also a high priest who is not of the Aaronic order, not from the family of Aaron, not even from the tribe of Levi, but he's from the tribe of Judah, and he's of the order of Melchizedek. And his role and responsibility was to willingly submit himself to not only be the one who would bring a sacrifice, but who would be the sacrifice himself. And 1 Peter speaks to that, chapter 2 and verse 24, when it says, who? His own self, Christ, bore our sins in his own body on the tree. that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness. That is, we've been resurrected unto righteousness. By whose stripes you are healed. Isaiah 53 referencing that. It's not about physical healing as our charismatic friends would want us to believe. It is clearly about the work of, the atoning work of Christ in saving our souls. Healing us from spiritual deadness and resurrecting us to spiritual life. He did that as our great high priest. He had a role, he had a responsibility. He fulfilled it, to God be the glory. Verses eight through 19. The remuneration, that is the payment, the salary for the priest. It speaks of that in verses eight through 19. What was their paycheck? Well, their paycheck was a portion of the offerings that were brought to the tabernacle were given by God to the priest. In fact, we see no less than four times, verses 7, 12, 19, 26, God told Aaron that he, the Lord, had given this remuneration. Let's just look at one of them. Look at verse seven, if you will, of Numbers 18. Therefore, thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for everything of the altar and within the veil, and you shall serve. I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gifts, and the stranger that comes near, shall be put to death, and that's not saying everything I'm wanting to say on that. Verse 12 is, so, all the best of the oil, the best of the wine, the wheat, the first of them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. And so, when the people of the nation would bring their offering to the Lord, the tabernacle in the wilderness, and well, even in Canaan land before the temple was constructed, the priests from the family of Aaron, from the tribe of Lebi, would receive a good portion of that to actually consume. That is, the meat, The vegetables, the grains, the fruit, the pressed grapes for grape juice, and the like. That was what God said, I want you to have. You're not going to have the same inheritance as everyone else. You're not going to be just like everyone else. And folks, there are specific callings in our lives as well. Pastor, teacher, and evangelist. There's the office of deacon, 1 Timothy chapter three. Maybe you are gifted as a teacher, maybe you're gifted in some other way. We are not cookie cutters, and that doesn't mean that God is capricious, he has favorites, he's a respecter of persons. No, there is no respecter of persons with God. It simply means that we are not cookie cutter. He has a specific role for you, a specific role for me, and I'm called to be faithful in what he has called me to do. you are as well." They were as well to the point of physical death depending upon what the violation was, the severity of the violation. So the remuneration was the people would bring the offerings and the priests would be able to partake of it. You say, but it was the people, the congregation of Israel, all the tribes, they're the ones who brought the offerings, that's right. But it all belongs to God, amen? It's all his stuff. And so if he prescribed a way for his stuff to be distributed, that's his business. Funny anecdote, I don't think I've ever shared this before. I've been senior pastor this month. I became the interim senior pastor in July of 93. So 32 years ago this month. Went to the ministry 40 years ago this month, full-time pastor. Anyway, I'd been the associate for seven years, and I'd been senior pastor for maybe a year. And the senior adult widow, older lady, came by the door after service, and she was just marveling. She was just pouring compliment after compliment toward me, which is always a good idea, by the way. She was gushing. You do so much around here. She was there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, prayer meeting, singing in the choir. Being with the Lord for a long time, been with the Lord for 25 years now. And she said to me, she looked at me at the door on the way out and she says, how do you get all this done? She was serious. How do you get this done? I said, well, I just work at it and I'm high energy and back then when I was 36, I really was high energy. I'm a sloth now compared to then. How do you get this done? And I told her, well, I just schedule things and blah, blah, blah. She says, well, what do you do for a living? Because she knew that I was married and had four children. I said, well, I'm a pastor. Well, I know you're the pastor. She knew I was the pastor, but what do you do for a living and to put food on the table? And then the light went off in my head. She doesn't have a clue, does she? I said, well, I work here. She said, I know, I'm up here all the time during the week and you're always here. What do you do for a job? She was clueless. She thought, she believed that I was here 40, 50 hours a week and that I worked a job as well. Well, I went on to describe to her that this is my full-time job and I'm compensated, I'm remunerated for what I do. Well, her countenance fell. Oh, well maybe you're not so great after all. That really was the truth of it. Folks, God is the one who said, I want you to do with my stuff what I direct you to do, and it's all his stuff. So we're, as a congregation, called to bring the firstfruits of our increase. Bring them to the Lord, and then distribute in an orderly manner according to the way your church functions. Scripture is very clear on this. 1 Timothy 5, 17 says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. Some preachers believe that means twice the paycheck that anybody else makes in the church. especially they who labor in the word and doctrine the double honors respect and remuneration you're to pay the preacher you all do that quite well and and that lady left more enlightened now you'll notice nine times in verses 8 through 29 the word heave offering used. Look, if you would, in verse 8, and the Lord spoken to Aaron, behold I've given thee the charge of mine heave offerings. Do you have another word in verse 8 for the substitute word for the word heave? Contributions, it is a contribution, it is an offering, so it must combine that heave offerings into contributions. But it's a special kind of contribution. It's understood and believed that it is a particular item, say a basket of wheat grain. And you're going to bring that as your offering, and you're coming to the tabernacle, and you literally would lift up the basket as if ceremonially surrendering it to the Lord. That was a heave offering. And it could be anything. It could be grain, fruit, vegetables, meat. whatever it was that was a heave offering and many times it's used ceremonially raised or lifted as an offering to the lord to present it to the lord then it was to be provision for the priest in the tabernacle or for his family at home two different um designations for that. Some of it consumed by the priest in the holy place and then by others. I already mentioned some animals had to be redeemed, that is a purchase price paid for the firstborn as well as the firstborn child. Now notice in verse 19, there's an interesting concept here in verse 19. All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee." That is, I've given Aaron, you and your sons, thy sons and thy daughters with thee. In other words, your family can partake of it as well. The daughters weren't priests. It was only the sons who were priests, but yet the family, the wife, the children could partake of the offerings. I've given this to you by a statute forever. It is a covenant of salt Forever before the Lord under there anybody have something other than the covenant of salt That's what it says in verse 19. And the idea is well, what's a covenant a covenant is a promise. What is salt? It's a preservative. And so God is saying that I am vowing unilaterally I'm promising to the Aaronic priesthood that he would take care of them until the Lamb of God would come until God will provide himself a lamb as Abraham told his son Isaac in Genesis 22. And so God was vowing and swearing by himself that he would fulfill this for them, for all their generations. So the remuneration for the priests, thirdly and finally, the remuneration for the Levites, that is for the other members of the tribe of Levi, because they were not going to be compensated with land. The Levites, the tribe of Levi, would not inherit any land. Judah, and Reuben, and Naphtali, and Simeon, and Gad, and Asher, and all the other tribes, they get divided out a portion of land. And the book of Joshua speaks of that. And we preached on that a decade ago plus or so. But not the tribe of Levi, they were not given any land. And so, what was their compensation? Their compensation was that the people would bring their tithes, their financial tithes, their monetary coinage, or they would tithe from their animals, from their grain, from their fruit, from their vegetables and the like. The tribe of Levi would receive that, but they also, as children of God, were required to bring an offering, and so 10% of what they received went to the priests who served in the tabernacle. And so you all receive compensation for what you do. A portion of that, the firstfruits, needs to be given to the work of the Lord from which some of that supports, remunerates those who work here in a job capacity, if you will, for lack of a better a better term, Chairman of the Personnel Committee. Now, you need this chapter to remember how to pay us well. Okay. So, just because the Levites received remuneration, that did not exempt them from giving. They were to give a tithe of the tithes which they received. Here's the conclusion. The roles, responsibilities, and remuneration for the priests and the rest of the tribe of Levi. and the application of how it parallels or pictures a lot of what we do in the church. What about the remuneration for the great high priest? What about the remuneration for the one who didn't come from Levi, but came from Judah, who wasn't part of the family of Aaron, but was after the order of Melchizedek? What is the compensation? for the greatest of high priests? What is the compensation for the greatest sacrifice that's ever been offered? That is the Lord Jesus, what he has done for us. Well, Philippians 2 speaks to that in verse 6 through 11. It says, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he's not stealing any glory, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a serpent, and was made in the likeness of men. He was just a human being, like we are. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. wherefore God also hath highly exalted him in the resurrection, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Universal proclamation of his lordship. his remuneration and that is just and that is right because he and he alone deserves that and so we all who are in the service of the Lord we have a role what is he called you to do who is he called you to be of course to abide in him to be conformed more and more to his image you have a responsibility some function and There's remuneration. And folks, for the children of God who serve Him, the retirement benefits are out of this world. You can't get a better deal, for lack of a better term, than what you have going now. Because all of this abundant life now, an eternal life, forever and ever and ever in his presence no more pain suffering or the sin or the like but in his glorious presence forever it gets gooder and gooder the longer I serve him the sweeter he grows it's been 48 years for me, maybe longer than that for you, you would testify that you don't regret coming to know Christ as your Lord and Savior. Amen? You don't regret being called to serve and honor Him. Similarly, the priests and the rest of the tribe of Levi, if their hearts were right, They served with gusto, with vigor from the depths of their hearts. May we do the same. Lord, I'm thankful for your word. I dare say I've never really studied Numbers 18, not in depth, certainly I have not in 48 years of knowing you until now. And it truly is, it's a miracle, the integrity of Scripture. There aren't any contradictions. There are only complementary passages. And so much that we see in the Pentateuch, especially in Leviticus and Numbers, We read about being realized in the book of Hebrews in and through the great high priest, the Lord Jesus. And Lord, that builds us up in the faith because of how trustworthy your word is. And so bless these truths to our hearts that we each have a role. We each have responsibilities. We're accountable, Lord, to you. And I'm so thankful that we each will receive eternal dividends, blessings for what you have provided for us. May we walk in a spirit of gratefulness all our days. We're gonna stand now and sing a hymn of invitation. Number 606, I gave my life for thee, Jesus is saying. Number 606, our deacons are down front to receive you. Maybe you've come to a point of recognizing you don't know the Savior. ♪ We wish you a merry Christmas ♪