This tape is the fifth of six in a series of teachings entitled, The Priesthood of All Believers, delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this teaching is, Priesthood in the Home. Thus far, we have been concentrating on a comparison of two priesthoods. The Levitical priesthood of Aaron and his sons, as it unfolds through the Old Testament, and the priesthood of Jesus, our great high priest, as he's called in the New Testament, especially in the book of Hebrews. And what we've seen several times now is that the New Testament says Jesus abolishes the Levitical priesthood in order to establish his own.

He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. So there's a comparison, but there's also a sharp contrast. He abolishes the Levitical priesthood in order to establish his own great high priesthood.

And we could spend a lot of time on the comparisons and the contrasts. The Levitical priesthood was temporary. Jesus is permanent.

the Levitical priests were many in number Jesus is absolutely unique only one of a kind nobody else could do what he did and because he did it perfectly nobody else has to he is unique they were many he is one they offered sacrifices daily there were high holy days especially the day of atonement but in addition to that daily sacrifices a continual burnt offering. He offered himself once for all. Theirs were imperfect.

That's why they needed to be repeated over and over and over again. His was, in the words of the old consecration prayer, 1928, and before that, all the books all the way back to the first English prayer book, his was a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. Theirs were imperfect, his was perfect.

Theirs were a shadowy prefigure, his was the reality that was being prefigured or foreshadowed. And probably most especially, the Old Testament priests, the Levitical priests, had to offer their sacrifices not only for others, but for themselves. because they also were sinners.

Whereas Jesus had no sin of his own, so his sacrifice is totally vicarious, totally for others, totally for us. And I think probably the best single summary statement is from Hebrews 8, verse 6. As it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.

Christ's ministry is as much more excellent as the old ministry as the covenant he mediates is better than the old covenant. Total contrast, you see that? His ministry is better, his covenant is better, his promises are better.

they are in fact his own promises that's what we were trying to deal with last time because he is one with the God who is offended and wounded in every sin he is one with the Father he is one with the God to whom all of these offerings are made and what I tried to say last time is that we need to see him therefore not simply as an innocent third party but as the God who takes our sin upon himself. So in other words, we need to see the work of Jesus both in terms of what it meant for him to die as a man, an innocent third party who steps into my boots, but also what it meant for him to die as God. You with me so far?

This is basically just summarizing what we've tried to do so far. This has been the contrast between the Old Testament priesthood and the priesthood of Jesus. Now, our overall theme is the priesthood of all believers, and so I want to move beyond that.

I want to move on into what it means for us to have a priesthood. Or, put it another way, I want to shift to the other dimension that Jesus' ministry has opened up. his priesthood, his ministry, his offering, his sacrifice has opened up to us the priesthood of all believers.

But before we get there, there's one absolutely fascinating thing that I want to call to your attention. And let me put it to you this way. We looked at Melchizedek, that strange figure way back in the book of Genesis.

Melchizedek, the priest of God, King of Salem and Priest of God Most High. Remember, most of you are here. Anybody that wasn't?

Okay, you're all one or two. Okay, two people. You'll have to get the tape.

I'm not going to do that all again. We looked at Melchizedek. Melchizedek appears out of nowhere.

There's no explanation for him. We don't know anything about his background, his parents, or anything. He's simply called Priest of God Most High.

And Abraham acknowledges him as such, bows down before him, offers a tithe to him, and Melchizedek blesses Abraham. And that's the central argument in the book of Hebrews, that Melchizedek has a priesthood which therefore is superior to the whole Levitical priesthood, because the Levitical priesthood is contained in Abraham. And so if Abraham acknowledges Melchizedek, therefore Levi and Aaron and all of his sons are acknowledging Melchizedek as a superior priesthood.

If you don't understand that, get the tape. What I want to say is, if Jesus' great high priesthood is prefigured by Melchizedek, who is not a Levite, he's not a descendant of Aaron, he is not even a descendant of Abraham, he is not a Jew, okay, he's completely outside of that whole system, and Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek, according to the book of Hebrews, if Jesus' great high priesthood is prefigured by Melchizedek, then our priesthood, priesthood of all believers, I want to submit to you, is prefigured by... Anybody have a guess?

Jesus? No. Melchizedek? No. God himself?

No. Tell us. David! You got it.

He asked a question and he was right on target. By David. King David, I would call, the great exception.

The great exception to the rule of priesthood. What was the penalty in the Old Testament for presuming to do priestly things if you're not a priest. Death.

Capital punishment. And we saw how Korah and all of his followers, they're very jealous of the priesthood of Aaron, and they rise up in rebellion and they're wiped out. An incredible devastation of thousands of people.

We saw how Saul, who is not a priest, he's the king of Israel, but he's not a priest, and he presumes to offer the sacrifice in the absence of Samuel, and the kingdom is taken away from him. And eventually he dies. He's not immediately killed, but eventually he dies in battle as a consequence of the kingdom being taken away from him.

The penalty for presuming to act as a priest, if you are not a priest under the old covenant, is death. Now, I want to look at some scriptures with you. You're going to be astonished if you have never noticed this before.

1 Samuel 21, 1 Samuel 21, 1st paragraph, verses 1 to 6. Somebody read that for us. You got it?

Yeah. David went to Nab and Achmelech, the priest, Achmelech trembled when he submitted and asked, Why are you alone? Why is no one with you? David answered Achmelech, the priest, The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, No one has known anything about your mission and your instruction.

As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find.

But the priest answered David, I don't have any ordinary bread on hand. However, there is some consecrated bread here, provided the men kept themselves from women. And David replied, Indeed, women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out.

The men's things are holy even on missions that are holy. How much more so today. So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread except the bread of the presence, that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day that it was taken away. Thank you. This is before David becomes king. He's simply a warrior at this point, a kind of a general.

And he comes to Ahimelech, the priest, and he says, My men are hungry. Give them something to eat. And Ahimelech says, I don't have anything to eat except what's here called the bread of the presence, What did we call it previously?

The showbread. Okay. And they have this little discussion about whether or not the men have been involved in sexual activity recently, but the issue is the bread of the presence is to be eaten only by the priests.

That's the issue. And David says, we haven't had any illegitimate sexual activity. It's okay.

And the priest gave him the holy bread, and they ate it. Jesus referred to that. I'll comment on that again in a minute.

Look at 2 Samuel 6. This is a good deal later in the story. David has become king, and he's in the process of establishing his kingdom, and he begins to take interest in something that King Saul had never taken any interest in, namely the Ark of the Covenant.

And he says the Ark of the Covenant needs to come into the city of Jerusalem and eventually have a house built for it. And of course you know that whole story. David is not allowed to build the temple, but Solomon builds it.

But this is the story of bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem from out in the country where it's been kept. 2 Samuel 6, let's start with verse 12. Would somebody read 12 to 19? Now, King David was told, The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has because of the Ark of God. So David went down and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fatted calf.

David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts and the sounds of trumpets. As the Ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Michael, the daughter of Saul, watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates, and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women, and all the people went to their homes.

When David returned home to Esther's household, Michael, daughter of Saul, came out to meet him and said, How the king of Israel has distinguished himself by disproving in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would. That's enough. She accuses him of nakedness, but in fact he's not really naked. He's wearing an ephod.

An ephod was a priestly garment. It was kind of like sandwich boards made of linen material. It went down the back, it went down the front, with straps over the shoulders.

If you could picture that, a linen sandwich board. And on the front, they had the 12 precious stones, which represented the 12 tribes of Israel. Evidently, that's all he was wearing.

And he's leaping and dancing, and so he's exposing himself. But it's as shocking as it would be for the king to be dancing naked. What I want you to see is it's even more shocking that he's wearing the priestly ephod.

See? Who does he think he is? And not only that, but he's offering sacrifices.

And I think, it doesn't specifically say this, but in verse 13, it says, When those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces. He sacrificed an ox and a fatling. I have the sense that every few feet he offered a burnt offering.

Maybe not, but that's how I read that. He went six paces and he sacrificed an offering. Another six paces and sacrificed an offering.

And not only that, but he pronounces blessing on the people. See? So he wears the priestly garment he offers sacrifices the very thing that Saul did for which the kingdom is taken away and he pronounces priestly blessing over the people if that's not shocking enough look at the next chapter just one verse after we have this long interchange he's first encouraged to go on and build the temple and then Nathan comes the prophet Nathan with a word from God that in essence says you're too much a man of war.

You're not going to be the one to build the temple. Your son, Solomon, will build the temple. Okay?

Verse 17, in accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. Look at verse 18. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that thou hast brought me thus far?

What did he go into? Exactly. He went into, in essence, the Holy of Holies, a temporary place like unto the tabernacle, the place in which Ark of the Covenant was resting until such time as it could be put in a permanent temple.

He went into the place that only the high priest could go into. And he only once a year on the Day of Atonement. Yeah.

With a rope on his ankle. And he sat down. I mean, extraordinary.

That's right. I mean, you read any commentary on either the temple itself or on the tabernacle. And they'll make a big deal of the fact that there were no seats there.

The only seat in the Holy of Holies is the mercy seat on which God sits. See, nobody else sits. The priests stand in the presence of God.

They don't sit. There are no other seats there. But David went in and sat.

It's incredible. I mean, it's mind-boggling. How come he wasn't fried?

And then one more. 2 Samuel 8, verse 15 to 18. Dan, read it. So David reigned over all Israel, and David administered justice and equity to all his people. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was over the army, and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was recorder. And Zadok, the son of Ahitab, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were priests.

And Saraiah was secretary. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites. And David's sons were priests. You did very well. I'm not going to challenge the pronunciation of any one of those. I want you to call your attention to the last phrase.

And David's sons were priests. Best translation is they were priests. Now, that could mean simply that priests married into David's family.

It could mean sons-in-law. but most commentators will not say that. Most will say that at this point in history, the priesthood was not exclusively located in the Levitical tribe, which is absolute nonsense, because we've already seen that that predated David by at least 300 years.

So it could be that it means his sons-in-law, but I think it means exactly what it says, that David's sons were priests, which they had no right to be. So, what I'm saying to you is that David broke every rule of the prohibition, every single one, and yet instead of punishment, he receives blessing. And there's no explanation for that, there's no justification of it, there's no rationalization of it, he just does it.

it's recorded without comment in 1 and 2 Samuel now I'm going to offer you an opinion and please understand this is an opinion I can't prove it, it's an opinion I think the key is to be found in the attitude that he exhibited when he danced before the Lord we have a little song about that I will dance as David danced, right? number one, he's utterly unselfconscious he doesn't care what anybody thinks about him can you imagine the king of England dancing naked Ronald Reagan dancing naked Mikhail Gorbachev dancing naked I mean can you imagine he doesn't care his wife upbraids him and he says you think that's offensive wait till you see how I rejoice see he doesn't care what people think he delights in the Lord that's what he's doing and how many of the Psalms which he wrote tell us delight thyself in the Lord that's what he's doing he's delighting in the Lord he is not acting like Korah was out of jealousy there's no evidence that he is jealous of the priesthood. He's simply exalting in God.

He is not acting like Saul was in some kind of legalistic attempt to appease God or satisfy God or make sure that the sacrifice is done so that we know God will be with us when we go into battle. That's not his motive at all. He's simply rejoicing.

He knew God was on his side. Just a second. When he eats the showbread, it's simply because his men are famished and it's as if he's saying sacramental rules have to give way to the necessities of life which is exactly what Jesus himself said when his men were going through the grain field and they took the grain and they rubbed it between you know that's what was technically wrong it wasn't the picking of the grain it was rubbing it between their hands which is, well, yeah, it's more than harvesting.

It's, what do you call it? It's milling it, exactly. That's the work that they were technically doing.

And Jesus said, have you not read where David ate the bread of the presence? He alludes to this very incident as a justification for what his disciples had done. David is simply reveling in God.

And I believe, here's my opinion, I believe that that's more than any other single thing. That's what it means when it says that David was a man after God's own heart. I mean, David was a great sinner.

I mean, you know, he didn't do little ones. I mean, he did big ones. You know, he takes the wife of one of his top generals.

She gets pregnant. He sends out that guy to be killed. It's a definite suicide mission.

Withdraw from him. Leave him alone in the front line. Let him be killed so that I can have his wife.

You know, in essence, adultery and murder. And God says, you're a man after my own heart. You've got to be kidding.

No, he's not kidding. David was able to acknowledge the depth of his sin. But that's not the issue.

The issue is his reveling in God. Yes? Was in his loins.

Well, sure. But the Messiah, the whole line there, you'd have to go back to Abraham. It is interesting.

You touch on something. I think that it's absolutely intriguing. If you go to Israel, how many of you have had that pleasure?

Any of you? Three, four, five. If you go to Israel, you will probably get a chance to visit the upper room.

And the upper room is not, in fact, the upper room. You know, that's long gone. But as far as they can figure out, there is a room in approximately the same place that the upper room was.

And it's in a building, second story of a building, and guess what's on the first floor? The tomb of David. the upper room in which the Holy Spirit empowers the apostles and disciples to sing and dance and worship and praise is literally built on the foundation of David so yes he prefigures he prefigures Jesus in that sense but what I'm trying to say is he prefigures our priesthood see we're not priests under the old covenant who do we think we are coming in and doing these priestly things who did David think he was what I'm trying to say is if Jesus was of the order of Melchizedek maybe we could put it this way that you and I are of the order of David do you get it I like that yes did you have a comment that after they had made that first part of the trip David was upset because you know just to keep the ark from falling those who were not eligible reached out to save it and yet he presumed that would be a study worth doing in and of itself the whole business of bringing the ark into the city first of all they did it the wrong way God had said very explicitly when the ark is to be carried it's carried on poles on shoulders and they put it on a cart and the ox that are pulling the cart stumble and the ark starts to fall and this poor little guy Uzzah I mean one of the saddest stories in the Bible Uzzah's motives are absolutely good reaches out to steady the ark and he's struck dead which freaks David out altogether and that's why the ark doesn't immediately come into the city. That's a whole study of its own. It went into the house of Obedidim the Gittite and God blesses Obedidim the Gittite verse 11 of chapter 6.

And then it was, that's where we picked up the story then it was told to King David the Lord has blessed the household of Obedidim so David went and brought up the ark and as he brings it up he's dancing and sacrificing and celebrating and so on. Anyway, I just wanted to point that out. I think that's a fascinating study.

We have all these incredibly strong prohibitions against doing priestly things. And here's a guy who comes along and does them. And instead of being punished, he's blessed.

And I think that what he's prefiguring is the priesthood of all believers. Because we don't have, none of us, have the authority under the old covenant, under the old rules to be priests. But what Jesus has opened up to us is indeed a priesthood of celebration, of reveling in the Lord, of dancing before him with all our might, and, as we'll see next time, of doing priestly things.

Okay? That's where I want to end up. I was looking here in 2 Samuel 7 and 4. God says to Nathan to tell his servant David what to do or not to do. Right. Perhaps David's servanthood, his servanthood of the heart as well as his body and mind and soul, gives him the courage to do these things because he is in a life, he's in obedience to God. And perhaps he's anointed by the Holy Spirit and has given permission maybe even to do these things. Well, it's never said that he's given permission. We simply have to infer that. That he's not punished, so he must have been given permission. No, but my thinking is he has obedience of spirit, and perhaps that's why he's not formed. Good. Well, I want to do one other thing tonight, and I want to back up. If you go back to the beginning of 1 Samuel, I want to just look at what I would call a brief study in priesthood in the home.

And some of you may know this story. I'm sure all of you know at least part of the story. It's the story of Samuel, who was the high priest.

He was the prophet and the priest of ancient Israel prior to there being a kingdom, prior to Saul and David. And before we come to Samuel the man, we come to Samuel the little boy, and before that we come to his parents. And it says in verse 1 that his father's name was Elkanah and in verse 2 Elkanah had two wives.

One was named Hannah and the other was Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah had no children. And Elkanah used to go up to Jerusalem, rather to Shiloh, to worship the Lord, sacrifice before him, and he ran into Eli who was the priest and Hophni and Phinehas who were his sons.

Eli was the high priest and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas were priests with him. And verse 4, on the day when Elkanah sacrificed he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife and to all her sons and daughters and although he loved Hannah he would give her only one portion because she was barren. The Lord had closed her womb.

And there was great jealousy. You can just kind of follow along as I summarize. Hannah was jealous of Penina.

And she wept. She wouldn't eat. She wept bitterly.

And she prayed to the Lord that he would open her womb and give her a child. Verse 9. After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose.

Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thy maidservant and remember me and not forget thy maidservant, but will give to thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head.

That's a sign of being dedicated to the Lord. She is a woman of great faith and great courage, and I want to admire Hannah, but I also think she made an enormous mistake at this point. Tremendous misunderstanding.

What she's doing really is trying to strike a bargain with God. If you'll do this for me, then I'll do that for you. If you'll give me a son, I'll dedicate him to you.

And she has, in her mind, a very specific understanding of what dedicating her son to the Lord means. And we'll get to that in just a second. I just want to say to you that you find instances of that all the way through history.

You'll find lots of instances in the Bible of people who dream up in their own minds, bargains with the Lord. And sometimes God blesses them, not because of the bargain they struck, but simply because He's a merciful, loving God. And they go and carry through their bargain and probably end up in some place that God never intended them to be in the first place.

Do you follow what I'm saying? The most shocking example of that is in the book of Judges, where you read about a guy named Jephthah, who says, Oh Lord, if you will give me victory in battle, I will sacrifice to you the first thing that comes out of the door to greet me when I get home. What a dumb thing to say.

What do you think is going to come out of the door to greet you after you've been away for several months? God gives him victory in battle. He goes home and his little daughter comes out to greet him.

And he sacrifices her. And it's a day of ghastly tragedy. You know, there is not one word that suggests God wanted him to do that.

He made the terms of the bargain. Do you follow what I'm saying? I think exactly the same thing is happening here.

Hannah is making a bargain with God, and she has in mind what it means to dedicate her son to the Lord. Verse 12, As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli, the priest, the high priest, observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart and only her lips moved and her voice was not heard and Eli took her to be a drunken woman.

She was just praying silently and you understand that was not the way you do it. You pray out loud, okay? And Eli looks at her and he sees her going, you know, and he thinks she's drunk and he says, How will you be drunken?

Put away your wine from you. Hannah answered, No, my lord, I'm a woman sorely troubled. I've drunk neither wine nor strong drink but I've been pouring out my soul the Lord.

Do not regard your maidservant as a base woman, for all along I've been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation. And Eli answered, go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him. It sounds a lot like what you hear Jesus saying on several occasions, go in peace, your faith has made you whole, right?

Notice that Hannah does not tell Eli anything about the bargain that she's tried to strike with God. She simply says, I've been praying out of my great anxiety and vexation. And he says, God has seen your faith and he's going to answer your prayer.

Okay? So they go back home and indeed God opens her womb and she conceives and bears a son and calls his name Samuel. For she said, I've asked him of the Lord, Samuel of the Lord of God.

And the man Elkanah, verse 21, and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice. Hannah didn't go. She said, as soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him.

Probably two or three years go by. And finally she goes up. And verse 26, she brought Samuel along with her and she comes to Eli and she says, O my Lord, as you live, I am the woman who is standing here in your presence praying to the Lord.

For this child I prayed, and the Lord granted me my petition which I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord as long as he lives. He is lent to the Lord.

Great. Except you know what that means? She's going to leave him there.

The problem with that, you find in verse 12 of the next chapter. Well, start with 11. Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, and the boy ministered to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest.

Now, the sons of Eli were worthless men. They had no regard for the Lord. Eli is the high priest of Israel.

His sons are priests with him. Hannah has entrusted her three-year-old son Samuel into Eli's care. And Eli is a wonderfully spiritual man except for one little problem.

He doesn't know how to take care of his own sons. Got it? And you can go on and read the next couple of paragraphs.

The problem was, first of all, when people came to offer their sacrifices, The sons of Eli demanded more than was their share. The priests got their living by taking a portion of the sacrifice. These guys wanted more than their share.

They demanded more than their share. Then you read down in verse 22. Now Eli was old and he heard all that his sons were doing to Israel, how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

So they went from greed to sexual immorality. and Eli rebukes them but he doesn't stop them. Verse 27 And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, Thus the Lord has said, I revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh and so on and so on.

And verse 34 This which shall befall your two sons Hophni and Phinehas shall be the sign to you both of them shall die on the same day. In other words, you wouldn't discipline them. I'm going to.

And you can go on and read chapter 4. There's a tremendous battle with the Philistines. The people are defeated.

The Ark of the Covenant is captured. The sons of Eli are both killed on the same day. And when Eli hears that news, he is so devastated by it it says he reels backward falls backward and breaks his neck and he dies.

This is the man to whom Hannah has entrusted her son. Now you know in the midst of all that we have the marvelous little story of the Lord speaking to Samuel. You remember that from Sunday school.

Samuel, Samuel and he runs to Eli and he says here am I. Eli says not me go back to sleep. Three times that happens, and finally Eli says, it's the Lord. Next time he speaks to you, just tell him, here am I, and speak to me and I'll obey.

And Samuel does that, and he gets a word from the Lord. And that's the beginning of Samuel's story. Chapter 3, verse 19, Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground.

And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord had revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.

So what you see is the beginning of Samuel's ascendancy at the same time that God is passing judgment on Eli and on his sons. And in essence, taking the priesthood away from Eli and giving it to Samuel. Okay?

but turn to chapter 8 Samuel becomes the key man in the whole nation of Israel I would say the most spiritual man in the whole country ok but look at chapter 8 when Samuel became old he made his sons judges over Israel the name of his first born son was Joel the name of his second Abijah they were judges in Beersheba yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain they took bribes and perverted justice isn't that incredible? Samuel has lived through the experience of seeing God take away ministry from Eli because he had failed to discipline his sons and yet when Samuel grows up and has sons of his own and has not only the priesthood resting upon his shoulders but the well-being of the whole nation resting upon his shoulders, he's no more able to discipline his kids than Eli was to discipline his kids. Get it?

And you know what the consequences are? Same thing happens, only this time even worse. God not only takes away the ministry from Samuel, but he changes the rules altogether.

And we go from leadership by the high priest to leadership by a king. That's what happens. All I'm suggesting to you is this.

Really two things. Number one, Samuel had no good role model. And that's Hannah's great mistake, Hannah and Elkanah.

I mean, incredible mistake. As well-intentioned as their motives might have been, they entrusted their son to somebody who had no credentials to take care of him. And he had no good role model.

And so he grows up and he falls into exactly the same patterns that Eli had fallen into and his kids turn out just as bad as Eli's. And number two, and the point of doing all this tonight, is that whatever else the priesthood of all believers means, I want to suggest to you that it starts first in our homes. And if you have been given the privilege, the responsibility of parenting, whatever else it means. It means being a priest to your kids.

It means they're our top priority. It means that whatever ministry we have out there in the church or in the world has to be focused, first of all, with our own kids. Priesthood in the home.

This is why the New Testament is so rigorous in its demands that if you can't make it work in your own family, don't presume to leadership in the church. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus especially the criteria for leadership in the church is work it out with your kids now let me be quick to add this I know some of us have gotten started in our walk with the Lord late and we may already have blown it with our kids before we even came to the Lord Jesus and I don't mean to lay that guilt trip on you but for those of us who have little children whatever else priesthood involves. It involves working it out with them.

I heard again this morning, I've heard this statistic many times previously and again this morning, it was on the 700 Club. Do you know how much time the average father in America spends in one-on-one quality time with his kids per day? 18 seconds.

On the average. Now, I'm not talking about time sitting in front of a television in the same room. I'm talking about quality interaction between father and son, father and daughter.

On the average, the American father spends 18 seconds a day with his kids. The American mother spends about 20 minutes a day in that kind of interaction. so we've got to do something about that don't we whatever else priesthood involves and we're going to talk a little bit about what else it involves whatever else it involves it involves passing from one generation to the next the privilege the responsibility, the wonder, the joy of obedience to the Lord he had a lot of trouble with one son in particular yeah he sure did with Absalom yeah he sure did that just yeah yeah yeah well our kids you know you can't take total responsibility kids finally have to answer to the Lord okay and the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children, but the proverb that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge has been set aside. You know, Scripture says each one answers for himself or herself. So we can't lay the total responsibility for our kids' response upon their parents. They are responsible to the Lord themselves. but what we're responsible for is what we did in relationship to them do you follow the difference between those two things and that I think is worthy of some thought and some prayer Jane 12 kids Susanna Wesley one hour per week per child in addition to a quiet time of about an hour a day plus caring for 12 kids and she produced John and Charles Wesley that rebukes me fairly well how about you let's stand and pray together Father God, first of all, we thank you for David, for the abandon that he had, for the delight that he had in you. Lord, he wasn't worried about offending against some law of sacraments or role. He just enjoyed you.

Thank you for that. Thank you that we are the children of David. And then thank you, Lord, for the challenge and the rebuke of what it means to be entrusted with the responsibility of children.

How sad it is that Eli and then Samuel after him made such a failure of their parenting. Lord, we know that except for your grace, we will be in the same boat. We ask you to help us, Lord, as we want to go on to think about what it means to be your priests in this generation.

help us, Lord, to work that out in our families. Help us to bring our kids to you. For your name's sake.

Amen. Amen.