Introduction:
Genesis 14:17-20
Psalm 110:4 - The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "“"You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
How Is Melchizedek's Priesthood > Levitical Priesthood? (Hebrews 7:1-10):
- Levitical priesthood was for Israel / Melchizedek's priesthood was for Everyone . (Heb 7:1-2a)
1 John 2:2 - He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
John 1:29 - The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!..."
- Levitical priests could never be King / Melchizedek was Priest and King . (Heb 7:2b)
- Levitical priesthood was Hereditary / Melchizedek's priesthood was Personal . (Heb 7:3a)
- Levitical priesthood was Limited in Time / Melchizedek's priesthood never Expired . (Heb 7:3b)
- The levitical priesthood Paid Tithes to Melchizedek. (Heb 7:4-10)
Luke 6:46 - Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:04
Hebrews chapter seven in your Bibles, if you would open up there, please.
01:04-01:09
And if you're new around here, you might be asking, what kind of a church is this?
01:09-01:12
Well, we are a church that sits on four pillars.
01:13-01:15
We proclaim the authority of God's word without apology.
01:16-01:18
We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
01:19-01:24
We lift high the name of Jesus in worship, and we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
01:24-01:25
That's who we are.
01:26-01:35
And right now is the first pillar part of that, proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology.
01:36-01:44
So whether it's me or Pastor Taylor or Rich or whoever stands up here to deliver the message, we have one goal and there's one standard.
01:44-01:48
It is to represent the word of God to you.
01:48-01:51
Every church has their thing, this is our thing, all right?
01:51-01:53
So there's no compromise on that.
01:53-01:55
We want to represent God's word faithfully to you.
01:56-02:04
So to that end, I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me, and I will pray for you, and then we're gonna go at it hard today, all right?
02:05-02:05
Let's pray.
02:08-02:10
Father, we believe in the power of your word, that's why we're here.
02:11-02:19
That's why we worship and pray and evangelize and send people on mission trips, and that's why.
02:21-02:23
We find our authority in your word.
02:25-02:27
So Father, let your word be our authority today.
02:30-02:31
We pray in Jesus' name.
02:32-02:35
And all of God's people said, Amen.
02:37-02:41
I would like you to please stand for the reading of God's word.
02:42-02:45
Maybe that's something we need to do more often at our church, but grab your Bible.
02:45-02:49
We're going to look at Hebrews chapter seven, and we're gonna read the first 10 verses.
02:50-02:55
But out of respect for the word of God, Let's stand as we read this.
02:57-03:12
Hebrews 7, it says, "For this Melchizedek, "King of Salem, priest of the most high God, "met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, "and blessed him.
03:13-03:17
"And to him, Abraham apportioned "a tenth part of everything.
03:18-03:21
"He is first, by translation of his name, King of righteousness.
03:23-03:25
And then he is also king of Salem.
03:26-03:27
That is king of peace.
03:28-03:36
He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God.
03:36-03:38
He continues a priest forever.
03:41-03:46
See how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a 10th of the spoils.
03:47-03:57
And those descendants of Levi, "who received the priestly office "have a commandment in the law "to take tithes from the people," that is, from their brothers.
03:58-04:01
Though these also are descended from Abraham.
04:02-04:13
But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
04:14-04:20
It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.
04:22-04:30
In one case, tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives.
04:30-04:46
One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
04:46-05:08
You may be seated. Look, this is really advanced stuff. And because I care about you, I'm going to give you a couple options here.
05:09-05:12
So I'm going to give you the short version first.
05:14-05:18
And then if you want the longer version, you can stick around for that.
05:18-05:19
All right, but here's the thing.
05:22-05:25
Let's talk about Old Testament history because obviously that's what he's doing here, right?
05:25-05:27
He's going back to the Old Testament.
05:27-05:28
So quick review.
05:30-05:32
We're gonna try to have this on the screens, right?
05:32-05:37
So we're going back to the time of Abraham.
05:39-05:46
Or, and before he was Abraham, He was known as Abram, right?
05:47-05:48
So that's gonna come up.
05:48-05:48
We're gonna see that today.
05:48-05:50
Same guy, God changed his name.
05:51-05:55
Okay, so Abraham was promised a child and what was that son's name?
05:56-05:58
Shout it out if you know it, I didn't study this part.
05:59-06:00
Isaac, right.
06:02-06:05
Okay, so Abraham had Isaac, right?
06:05-06:09
And then Isaac had Jacob, right?
06:10-06:16
Now, just like Abram, God changed Jacob's name to Israel.
06:17-06:19
And Jacob had some sons, right?
06:19-06:25
He had 12 sons and they became known as the 12 tribes of Israel, right?
06:25-06:31
So Jacob had all these sons here, you know, like Simeon and, you know, Naphtali and Dan.
06:32-06:42
But one in particular that we need to focus on today that came up in this passage is Levi, right?
06:43-06:53
He's famous for his blue jeans, but also what you know Levi for is from Levi came the priests.
06:54-06:55
What letter is that?
06:55-06:58
Okay, we're gonna get through this together.
07:01-07:12
So under Mosaic law, the law that God gave Moses, only the Levites were allowed to be priests, right?
07:12-07:14
It was, that was just how it was.
07:15-07:19
If you were gonna be a priest under old covenant Israel, you had to be a Levite.
07:20-07:29
But in this passage we're looking at in Hebrews, he met a man, Abraham met a man named Melchizedek.
07:35-07:41
I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hands, but I'm sure for, I just took off part of that Z and I sure didn't wanna do that.
07:41-07:42
I'm gonna try this again.
07:42-07:44
We're gonna erase that from the record.
07:46-07:48
Like Bob Ross up here having happy accidents.
07:50-07:53
Milk his deck.
07:55-07:56
All right, we're gonna try this again.
07:57-07:58
All right, there we go.
07:59-08:03
So the Hebrew writer here is taking us back to the times of Abraham.
08:04-08:12
before the priests of the Levites, all the way back to Abraham, he met a man named Melchizedek.
08:12-08:18
And he tells us in this passage that Melchizedek was a couple of things.
08:18-08:26
He was priest and he was also a king.
08:29-08:31
Okay, so I promised you, here's the short version.
08:32-08:33
Here's what this passage is about.
08:35-08:36
(pages flipping)
08:38-08:48
The priesthood of Melchizedek is greater than the priesthood of the Levites.
08:49-09:00
And we know that because Abraham or Abram paid tithes, a tithe rather, paid a tithe to Melchizedek and Melchizedek blessed Abraham.
09:00-09:09
So we know that this order of priesthood necessarily has to be superior to this order of priesthood.
09:10-09:15
And Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is of this order of priesthood.
09:17-09:18
All right?
09:20-09:21
That's the short version.
09:23-09:28
And if you would like to go, you may, no judgment.
09:31-09:44
However, if you would like a little deeper explanation as to why this even matters, because it does, it really matters, then I encourage you to stick around.
09:44-09:52
This is gonna, a lot of this is gonna seem like a Sunday school class today, but that's where we're going here, that we represent the text, right?
09:54-09:58
We're going in this series through Hebrews called, Why Jesus?
10:00-10:00
Why Jesus?
10:03-10:10
Why are we up here worshiping him and in our seats, worshiping the name of Jesus Christ?
10:11-10:11
Why Jesus?
10:12-10:14
Why is he the content of all of our sermons?
10:14-10:16
Why do we have communion together?
10:17-10:18
Why do we send people on mission trips?
10:21-10:23
Hebrews explains why Jesus is such a big deal.
10:26-10:30
And we've seen so far in our journey through Hebrews that Jesus is God's last word.
10:30-10:31
Jesus is God himself.
10:32-10:33
We've seen he's greater than the angels.
10:33-10:34
He's greater than Moses.
10:35-10:36
He's greater than Joshua.
10:36-10:38
And he says, come to him today.
10:38-10:41
Do not harden your heart.
10:43-10:49
Like the people on the verge of the promised land, didn't have the faith, he says, don't don't harden your heart, you've got to come to Jesus today.
10:51-10:59
But then in chapter five, verses 10 and 11, the Hebrew writer mentions Melchizedek.
11:01-11:09
And he says, "I got a lot to tell you about Melchizedek." He goes, "But you couldn't handle it." He says, "You're dull of hearing.
11:10-11:15
You wouldn't understand what I'm saying." So he makes this pause, and that was the last few sermons.
11:15-11:25
And in this pause, he again says, "Come to Jesus before it's too late." And as Pastor Taylor preached last week, like, look, we have security in the promise of God, right?
11:26-11:28
This is a sure thing, so come to him.
11:30-11:34
And when we get to chapter seven, you see what he's doing is he's saying, okay, enough with the pause.
11:34-11:40
Now let's get back to this Melchizedek stuff that I sort of broke the ice with earlier.
11:42-11:44
And like, okay, what's the point?
11:45-11:48
Like I said, some of you maybe have never even heard that name before.
11:48-11:51
Like what's the big deal of Melchizedek?
11:53-12:03
And I've shared with you before, some of these passages in Hebrews might be lost on us contextually because we're not Jewish.
12:04-12:07
But you see for the Jews, this was a huge deal.
12:07-12:10
This was part of their national identity.
12:10-12:17
We had the law and part of the law was having these priests that were mediators that offered sin on our behalf.
12:17-12:20
and made things right between us and God.
12:20-12:22
That was a huge deal to them.
12:23-12:39
So for Jesus Christ to come along, to be the only mediator, the only high priest, this would have been a like, this would have just shattered everything that they understood, everything they grew up with, everything they knew about their history.
12:42-12:51
The Hebrew writer says the Levitical priesthood under Mosaic law was inferior to Melchizedek.
12:51-12:57
Jesus as high priest is greater than all of the Levitical priests because he's of this order.
12:58-13:01
Absolutely mind blowing to the Jews.
13:01-13:02
All right.
13:05-13:08
So that's probably the third longest introduction ever.
13:10-13:12
So let's get to Hebrews chapter seven, verse one.
13:13-13:14
Can somebody grab my water?
13:14-13:15
I think I left it back by my seat.
13:16-13:17
Jillian, could you grab it back there?
13:17-13:20
So she handed it to me and like in knucklehead, I left it back there.
13:21-13:22
And don't throw it.
13:23-13:28
She was gonna throw it and I know she would have hit it, but hey, thanks, bud.
13:28-13:29
Thanks, Jilly.
13:29-13:32
All right, Hebrews chapter seven, verse one.
13:32-13:33
All right, we're gonna break this down.
13:33-13:34
We're gonna get through this together.
13:34-13:35
You with me?
13:36-13:37
All right, all right.
13:38-13:40
'Cause this is mind blowing stuff.
13:40-13:46
You gotta stay tuned in because I guess I'm kind of a nerd for this stuff, admittedly, but this is mind blowing stuff here.
13:47-13:50
And just track with me because your mind is going to explode too.
13:51-13:51
All right?
13:52-13:53
So let's break this down.
13:53-14:10
Verse one says, "For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, "priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning "from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him." Okay, so he's obviously talking about a contemporary of Abraham.
14:11-14:16
We're going back to those days And these days in particular are Genesis 14.
14:18-14:25
And something you have to understand about these days, it might seem kind of weird to us, but every little area or city had its own king.
14:25-14:36
I know it sounds weird, but like imagine in our day, if there was like a king of Zillianopole and a king of Blonocks and Mike Wolsky, the king of Zillianopole, he's pointing to himself back there.
14:36-14:38
I would vote for you if that was the thing.
14:38-14:46
But like, you know, a king of McKee's Rocks, every little area has its own king, right?
14:46-15:03
So there was a man, a king, named, and I can never pronounce his name spot on, so I'm just gonna say it confidently and you're gonna go, "Oh, that sounds right." Shadolamir, we'll call him Chad.
15:06-15:08
Oh, come on, you don't think people called him King Chad?
15:09-15:10
At least behind his back.
15:10-15:17
Okay, so there was this King Shadolammer and he got these other kings and they went like conquering other areas, right?
15:17-15:23
And they would take captives and they would take spoils, but they made a huge mistake.
15:24-15:27
One of the captives they took was named Lot.
15:28-15:29
And do you know who Lot is?
15:30-15:31
Abraham's nephew.
15:31-15:53
So Abraham found out that his nephew was taken captive by this group of kings and he rolled up his sleeves and he's like, "All right, it is time for a royal beat down." And he gathered some allies and they made this surprise attack by night and slaughtered the kings, Hebrews tells us.
15:55-15:58
And he took back the captives and the spoil and he went home.
15:59-16:00
And that takes us to Genesis 14.
16:00-16:01
It's gonna be on the screen.
16:02-16:03
So that takes us to this passage.
16:03-16:26
It says, "After his," Abram, Abraham, "After his return from the defeat of King Chad, and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Sheba," that is the king's valley, "and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
16:27-16:29
He was priest of God most high.
16:30-16:44
And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And Abram gave him a 10th of everything.
16:47-17:00
So Melchizedek brought out the bread and the wine, he blessed Abraham, Abraham gave Melchizedek a 10th of the spoils, and that is all that is said about Melchizedek in Genesis.
17:01-17:07
And it's astounding to me that for the Hebrew writer, it's like such, this guy is such a big deal.
17:07-17:12
Like, "Oh, I'm gonna tell you about my kids and some of you can't hear, but I'm gonna tell you now." And he's got such a big deal.
17:13-17:17
And he shows up for three verses in Genesis.
17:20-17:24
But he shows up in just one more verse in the Old Testament.
17:25-17:28
And this verse is so astronomically significant.
17:30-17:32
This is a game changer verse.
17:32-17:34
It's Psalm 110, verse four.
17:34-17:40
It says, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind." Sounds like Pastor Taylor's sermon last week, right?
17:41-17:45
"The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind." He's speaking of the Messiah.
17:46-17:50
You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
17:52-17:55
Just that one verse, name shows up, no explanation.
17:55-17:58
And then we get to Hebrews seven.
17:59-18:01
and we learn the significance of Melchizedek.
18:01-18:04
And what we're getting into here is typology.
18:05-18:12
You see, the Old Testament was filled with these pictures and images of what the Messiah would be like, what he would do.
18:13-18:20
And they would describe the Messiah in such a way that sort of when the Messiah showed up, we were able to recognize him.
18:20-18:24
Oh, God sort of painted the picture of what you would be like in the Old Testament.
18:24-18:26
And then when Jesus came, it was like, that's him, That's him.
18:27-18:28
So that's typology, right?
18:28-18:38
Like an example is, you remember like in the book of Numbers, Israel sinned again in their travels and the fiery serpents sent from God were biting them and killing them.
18:38-18:42
And God told Moses to make this bronze serpent, put it on a pole.
18:42-18:48
And when it's lifted up, when people get bit, they look to the bronze serpent and they're saved.
18:48-19:01
Well, then you get to John chapter three and Jesus said, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, he says, "So the Son of Man will be lifted up." And see that bronze serpent was a picture of Jesus.
19:01-19:06
Lifted up, people look to, people are saved.
19:06-19:09
I see when Jesus was lifted up, he was lifted up on a cross.
19:10-19:12
He died on that cross to take away your sin.
19:13-19:25
And you see, if you turn to Jesus Christ, if you look to him, you'll be saved for much more than a snake bite, you'll be saved from the bite of sin, which is an eternal death.
19:27-19:33
And Jesus said, when he's lifted up, people are going to look to him and be saved.
19:33-19:35
It's a type, it's a picture.
19:36-19:45
And see Melchizedek was a type, a very important person in the Old Testament that was a picture of Jesus, pertaining to Jesus as priest.
19:46-19:48
So we read verses one through 10.
19:48-19:49
What's the point?
19:50-19:50
Here's the point.
19:52-19:57
Melchizedek's priesthood was superior to the Levitical priesthood in every way.
19:57-20:06
And Jesus Christ, the Messiah, as promised, Psalm 110, verse four, is a priest in the order of Melchizedek.
20:08-20:18
So since Christ is in this order, which is greater than this order, then Jesus is once again superior.
20:20-20:33
And he's telling these Jews, "It's okay to turn from the old covenant to the new covenant in the blood of Christ because he's in this different priesthood." Is everybody with me so far?
20:33-20:34
Because I can start over.
20:40-20:50
And you're all like, "No, this is crystal." So breaking it down very quickly, how is Melchizedek's priesthood greater than the Levitical priesthood.
20:51-20:57
Number one, on your outline, the Levitical priesthood was for Israel.
20:57-20:59
Melchizedek's priesthood was for everyone.
21:00-21:02
Look again, we're gonna go through this quickly.
21:02-21:10
It says, "For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him.
21:11-21:21
And to him, Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything." See Melchizedek was not a Levitical priest because they didn't even exist yet.
21:21-21:26
The Bible says he was a priest of most high God.
21:26-21:28
That's El Elyon.
21:30-21:33
That's not the covenant name of God.
21:33-21:36
That's the power name of God.
21:37-21:37
What's the point?
21:37-21:43
Well, the point is Levitical priests, they were really for covenant Israel.
21:44-21:46
Melchizedek's priesthood was not so limited.
21:50-21:57
And the Hebrew writer's point is Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, meaning that Jesus is the Messiah, not just for Israel.
21:57-21:59
Jesus is the Messiah for who?
22:00-22:01
The whole world, right?
22:02-22:04
And that checks out in the New Testament, doesn't it?
22:04-22:06
Doesn't that check out 1 John 2, 2?
22:07-22:12
He's a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the Saite church.
22:13-22:14
whole world, right?
22:15-22:16
You don't believe me, John 1 29.
22:17-22:18
Remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus?
22:19-22:23
He said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the," what?
22:24-22:25
The world, right?
22:25-22:26
And that's the Hebrew writer's point.
22:27-22:29
He's not like just a priest for Israel.
22:29-22:30
He's a priest for the whole world, right?
22:31-22:34
Number two, the Levitical priest could never be king.
22:35-22:37
Melchizedek was priest and king.
22:41-22:42
Look at the second part of verse two.
22:43-22:46
It says, "He is first by translation of his name, King of righteousness.
22:47-22:57
And then he is also King of Salem, that is King of peace." See in Israel, if you were a Levitical priest, you absolutely could not be King.
22:58-23:00
You couldn't, you were not allowed to be King.
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And Melchizedek, as a Hebrew writer reminds us, he was priest, yes, but he was also at the same time, he was King.
23:12-23:14
He was king of Salem.
23:16-23:24
And that place Salem later added onto its name and became known as Jerusalem.
23:27-23:27
Right?
23:28-23:33
So his royalty is a picture of Jesus.
23:34-23:41
Just the very fact that Melchizedek is priest and king points to the Messiah who would be priest and king.
23:43-23:45
Even the names have significance.
23:46-23:53
Melchizedek's very name means King of Righteousness, and there is no higher King of Righteousness than the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
23:54-24:01
And Melchizedek was King of Salem, which in Hebrew, Salem, Shalom, means what?
24:02-24:03
Peace, right?
24:04-24:07
So he was King of Peace, king of righteousness and peace.
24:09-24:14
I don't know if there are two better words that we could use to describe the lordship of Jesus Christ.
24:14-24:18
He is the king of righteousness and peace, pictured in Melchizedek.
24:18-24:22
Number three, Levitical priesthood was hereditary.
24:22-24:25
Melchizedek's priesthood was personal.
24:26-24:26
Look at verse three.
24:27-24:39
It says, the first part of verse three, it says, "He is without father or mother or genealogy." As I said, for the Levitical priesthood, there was really one main criteria.
24:39-24:43
Remember a couple of weeks ago, we were joking about requirements to get a job.
24:43-24:51
Well, if you're going to be a priest in Old Testament Israel, there was one thing that absolutely without question had to be on your application.
24:51-24:52
You had to be a Levite.
24:54-24:55
No question.
24:56-25:07
And Melchizedek's priesthood had nothing to do with his family line because he points out here, We don't even know Melchizedek's genealogy.
25:08-25:09
We have no idea.
25:11-25:15
In other words, he didn't get the job because he was in the right family.
25:17-25:44
And you see, that's what the Hebrew writer here is saying, is like, look, my Jewish friends, if there was a priestly line that was different than the Levitical line and came before the Levitical line, is it possible that there's a different priestly line that comes after this?
25:46-25:53
Obviously there is, because God promised that the Messiah would be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
25:57-26:01
Right now there's somebody sitting here going, I should have left after the short version.
26:03-26:04
But you made it this far.
26:05-26:06
We're gonna get through this together.
26:09-26:10
I love this stuff.
26:10-26:11
This is so fascinating to me.
26:12-26:13
Number four, write this down.
26:13-26:15
Levitical priesthood was limited in time.
26:16-26:19
Melchizedek's priesthood never expired.
26:19-26:21
Look at the second part of verse three.
26:21-26:30
It says, "Having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, He continues a priest forever." Listen, you got to understand this.
26:30-26:32
Just look up here.
26:33-26:36
He's not saying that Melchizedek was eternal.
26:38-26:39
He's not saying that.
26:40-26:44
He's not saying that Melchizedek never died.
26:45-26:46
He's not saying that.
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What he's saying is, we have no record of it.
26:52-27:05
He's saying this, look, from a literary standpoint, or shall we say on the page, Melchizedek appears eternal.
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From a literary standpoint on the page, Melchizedek appears as if he's always alive because we don't have any recorded beginning or ending.
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We don't know where or when he was born or what his parents' names were.
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And we don't know where or when or how he died, right?
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Where did you come from?
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Where did you go?
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Where did you come from?
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Cotton-eyed Mel Kisadak.
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You see, he's saying, look, On the page, he doesn't have a beginning or end, but you know, that's a perfect picture of Jesus who literally, literally had no beginning or end because Jesus is eternal.
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You see the Levitical priests, they could only serve from ages 25 to 50, right?
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But Melchizedek with no record of his birth, no record of his death, on the page, he's serving forever, right?
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So number five, the Levitical priesthood paid tithes to Melchizedek.
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How's Melchizedek's priesthood greater than the Levitical priesthood?
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Why is this greater than this?
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It's because he's saying, this paid tithes to this.
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That's huge.
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Look at verses four through 10 again.
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It says, so verse four, "See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils." Like Melchizedek must've been awesome if father Abraham, like Jew number one, paid a tithe to this man, this king.
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He says, "And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham.
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Okay, so these priests took tithes from other Jews is what he's reminding us of.
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And here's the point that he's making.
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He says, verse six, "But this man," Melchizedek, "who does not have his descent from them," meaning he wasn't a Levite, "received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises." And he's, I love verse seven, he goes, "It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior." He's like, everybody knows that, right?
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Everybody knows that.
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When a blessing is given, the superior blesses the inferior.
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And which way did the blessing go?
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It went this way.
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So he's like, remember that is, this guy's obviously superior if he is blessing him.
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Right?
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So, verse eight, "In one case, tithes are received by mortal men, the Levites, but the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives, Mr. Alive Forever on the page, Melchizedek." I love this, verse nine, he says, "One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor Melchizedek met him.
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So he's saying Melchizedek must have been great if Abraham tied to him.
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And he says, Melchizedek so great.
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Like how great was he?
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He goes, think about it this way.
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Even the Levites tied to Melchizedek because the Levites eventually came from Abraham.
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You see what he's saying?
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He goes, "I'll tell you how great Melchizedek is." He says, "You know, these guys get tithes, right?
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These guys receive tithes." He's like, "These guys, they actually paid tithes to him.
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That's how great he is." Like, "Well, no, no, no, they came much later, you said." Well, his point is, since Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, he said, "It's like Isaac and Jacob and Jacob's kids, including Levi and all the priests.
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It's like they all paid tithes to Melchizedek because they were still in Abraham's loins at the time Abraham paid the tithe.
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You understand that?
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Abraham acknowledged Melchizedek's greatness with the tithe.
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Therefore, he's saying his great grandson, Levi did.
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So, great grandson, right?
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Son, grandson, great-grandson.
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And then these would be like greats, greats, and great, great, greats.
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And for those of you that are keeping an accurate record of this, right?
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He's like, they're all paying tithes through Abraham because they were still yet to be born, still in his loins.
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So to explain this for the Jews would have been like,
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(blows air)
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Wow.
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I mean, the Jews had such a deep understanding of the Old Testament and Israel's culture and Israel's history so much more than we do.
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But there's a huge piece here for us.
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And this is what I want you to chew on.
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You know, some people, when we think of Jesus Christ, there are some people that think of Jesus as the King.
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You know, and I sort of think of like, like some of our Roman Catholic friends, quite honestly, maybe some people that we know that don't go to church, they have this idea that Jesus is this exalted, transcendent, in charge, and there's a fear there and a reverence there that honestly, I think we've lost in the church to a large degree.
33:53-33:58
But some people think of Jesus as the King, right?
33:59-34:07
He's up there and he's powerful and he's transcendent and it's, oh, it's terrifying to think that someday to die and stand before him.
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But then there's other people.
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And I think this is most people in churches like this, that they think of Jesus as the priest.
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And who's the priest?
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The priest is somebody that deals with sin, right?
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In other words, a savior.
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So what's a good symbol for a priest?
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You know, all right, we'll do like an, How about we'll draw like an altar, like an Old Testament altar, right?
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And that'll be our symbol for priest.
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If you don't like it, you didn't shout out anything better.
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So this is the Old Testament altar.
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We got the horns up here and it's made out of bricks.
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So we'll do one of these deals here.
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This is our older symbolizing priest.
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Some people only think of Jesus as the priest.
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Like Jesus takes away my sin.
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Jesus is my ticket to heaven.
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Jesus is my friend.
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Jesus understands when I mess up.
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Jesus, he's my buddy.
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And I wanna ask you this morning, On these two, where do you lean?
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'Cause most people lean hard one direction or the other.
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He's my king or he's my priest.
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And you see, with all that the Hebrew writer is saying in this passage, here's the thing that I think we need to catch.
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is yes, we have this God who is transcendent and sovereign.
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And at the same time, we have this priest who loves and is merciful and is gracious.
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And what do we have right here?
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You see, this is what the Hebrew writer is telling us.
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that this is where you find Jesus.
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In the order of Melchizedek, he's the king.
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And also in the order of Melchizedek, he's a priest.
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He's one who makes us right with God.
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What's the point?
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What's the impact here?
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You know, here it is.
36:59-37:03
We spend a lot of messages begging people to come to Christ.
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Do not harden your heart like they did in the wilderness, on the edge of the promised land, refused.
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And then remember Hebrews 6, it is impossible to renew to repentance.
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Somebody that gets to the edge and walks away, they've tasted and they've seen and they've been part of it and then they walk away.
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And the question I'd like to present to you is this, why wouldn't somebody receive Jesus?
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Why wouldn't somebody receive Jesus?
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I mean, the promise of eternal life, the promise of his constant abiding presence, the fellowship of some amazing people, the promise to someday make all things new, why wouldn't somebody receive Jesus Christ?
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I mean, after all, this thing sounds great here, the priest thing.
37:59-38:05
I recognize in my life that I need that because I'm a fallen sinner by nature.
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I recognize so easily that I need that.
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Here it is, church.
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I think one of the reasons that people can sit in church and not receive Jesus is 'cause we're all about this.
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You guys see over there?
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All right.
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We send poor Russ to India and he came and look at a whiteboard?
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What's the matter with you people?
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We're so sold on Jesus being this, but we're a lot slower to recognize that we need this.
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Because when it comes to the king thing, you see, that's when we start getting, ah, nobody tells me what to do.
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I don't like somebody telling me how to live my life.
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I don't like somebody telling me how to spend money.
38:48-38:50
I don't like somebody telling me...
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The bottom line is people want Jesus on their terms, not on his terms.
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And I want to tell you today that that's not an option.
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In pastoral ministry, one of my favorite things to do is weddings.
39:16-39:25
And when I'm talking about weddings, I'm talking about people in the church that are believers, love the Lord, love each other, people that I know.
39:26-39:29
When it's that scenario, I love doing weddings.
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For me, it's a big party, you get to spend time.
39:32-39:33
Right, remember that, Taylor?
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I did your wedding and Murphy's are here.
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You know, Big James, I did his wedding too.
39:36-39:39
I felt like a little kid with him and Kaylee 'cause they're so tall.
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I was like, "Yeah, my little nephew married him." But anyways, I love those weddings, to spend that time with them and get to know them and hear their story, and just the huge celebration of these people that I love coming together and making covenant.
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And that's one of my favorite things that I get to do.
39:57-40:00
And do you know what one of my least favorite things to do in ministry?
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Is weddings for people that I don't know.
40:07-40:22
Because a lot of times as a pastor, I get roped into that, whether it's like family of friends, or friends of family, or somebody that found me online, or like at our old church, they were just driving by, they liked the architecture of the church.
40:22-40:24
I wanna get married here 'cause it's pretty, will you marry us?
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And I hate those weddings.
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I just do.
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And I'm gonna tell you why.
40:38-40:56
Because in those weddings, what typically happens as they come because they want me to legally marry them, but they're not interested really in what God said about it.
40:58-41:05
'Cause I do a seven session pre-marital counseling thing with them where we talk, we talk, right, Kaylee, we go through this stuff.
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We talk about what does God say about all of this?
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What does God say is the role of a husband?
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What does God say is the role of a wife?
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You know, and we walk through all that.
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conflict resolution and communication.
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And we go through all that intimacy and finances.
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And we cover all of these things.
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So many times I get people that are like, "Look, can you just do the wedding?
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"But do we have to have so many scriptures in our wedding?
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"And do we really have to do "all that premarital counseling stuff?
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"And can your wedding sermon, can you keep it short?" And I'm like, "We've never met, have we?" Can I keep it short?
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Good one.
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But they're like, "Look, could you just pronounce this "and bounce this?
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"Do we have to go through all of this, "all of the scripture stuff?" And you know, my answer is, I'm like, I can't do that.
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Why?
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Because of who I am.
42:21-42:30
Like, look, there's not agent of the state authority to sign marriage licenses, Jeffrey S. Miller.
42:30-42:33
And then over here, you have Pastor Jeff.
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Oh, you don't recognize me without my Bible, sorry.
42:35-42:37
Over here, you have Pastor Jeff.
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and like they're two separate entities.
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And they're like, "We just want this guy." And I'm like, "But that's not an option because I'm not one or the other.
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I can't subdivide myself to please you.
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And you can't do that either.
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And do you know who else isn't gonna do that?
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Jesus isn't going to do that either.
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Oh, you wanna, do you want a savior, but not a Lord?
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You wanna go to heaven, but you don't want the God of the universe who died for you to be the authority in your life?
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Okay, I'll just be that guy.
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Will Jesus do that?
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No, Jesus does not subdivide.
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And that's the point, church, that we need to catch here.
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But this is very complicated stuff, but our big takeaway needs to be, he's King and priest both.
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He's not just one or the other.
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And I need to ask you, you know, I imagine we're all sold on the priest thing, but I just need to ask you as we close, is Jesus your King?
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And in evaluating that, I just need to ask you, is there any area of your life where he's not the King?
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Is there any area of your life that you have sort of tried to keep out from under his authority.
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Like finances.
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Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, "there your heart will be also." The Bible says you should give a first fruits to God.
44:18-44:22
You should be like, you know, Abraham paying the tithe to Melchizedek.
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We should give God first and best.
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And if you're like, "Yeah, I'm not really on board with God telling me "how to spend my money." "Eh, it's God's money." And you trying to keep that separate from the authority of God tells me that he's not your king in that area.
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Or sexually.
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The Bible tells us that God created that intimate relationship for a man and a woman in a covenant relationship as husband and wife.
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That's why he created that.
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Like, "Eh, I don't really think that, you know, "the Bible should tell me who I'm allowed to be with they're not allowed to be with.
45:01-45:02
Okay, then he's not your king.
45:04-45:07
And you're not taking him for who he is, right?
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Bible says we need to forgive those who sin against us.
45:11-45:12
They come back, repent.
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Jesus says you must forgive them.
45:14-45:17
And if there's somebody in your life that you're like, I will never forgive that person.
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Then you know what that tells me?
45:19-45:21
That tells me he's not your king.
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If there's any area in your life where you know Jesus is commanding you and you refuse to do what he says and instead insist on doing it your way, Jesus would say to you the same thing he said in Luke 6:46.
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When he says, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord?
45:51-45:56
"And not do what I tell you." I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please.
45:56-45:58
as the worship team makes their way forward.
45:59-46:13
And I wanna commend you for diligently going through a very complicated section of Scripture.
46:17-46:49
But as we have our heads bowed, I just wanna challenge you to pray Father, please show me any area of my life, whether it's finances or sexually or my relationships with others or the way I speak to people or the way I speak about people or any area of my life where I have not submitted to the kingship of Jesus Christ.
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Father, show me that.
46:56-47:08
And you need to pray, Father, I see in your word that Jesus Christ is my high priest, and at the same time, he is my king, because he is in the order of Melchizedek.
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And I'm not going to try to receive Jesus for just what I want him to be, I want to receive him for who he is.
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And according to your word, this is who he is.
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He is my priest and he is my king.
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Father, I pray that you would be glorified in our lives.
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Father, in my life and the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ that are sitting here, that are watching this stream, that are gonna be listening to this later.
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Father, we love you.
47:42-48:00
And Father, I pray that you would give us the faith trust you that we would follow Jesus Christ as King. Yes, He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but He is also the King who sits at your right hand and who reigns forevermore.
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Father, may Jesus Christ be our priest and King. We pray in His glorious name.
48:11-48:11
Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 7:1-10
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Explain, in your own words, the overall point of this passage. Why would this have been such a huge revelation for the Jews who received this message?
Why do some people believe in Jesus as their Savior, but not as their King? How do we sometimes justify “subdividing Jesus”, and thereby trying to take Him on our terms instead of His?
Breakout
Pray for one another. Is there any area in your life where Jesus is not King?