Transcript

Sermon Transcript: The Calling of A Man

2/20/2023 Jeff Schwarzentraub 42 min read

Pastor Jeff:

Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who You are. And Lord, as Your word is open this morning, Lord, help me to faithfully and accurately proclaim Your word. And Lord, be helpful to us as we hear that we can hear You and Lord, that You would work through us for Your great name. Because we believe, Lord, every time Your word is open and faithfully and accurately proclaim that You speak. So now for all those who are gathered, who desire to hear the Lord speak directly to you, who will believe what He says and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen?

Audience:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Amen. Every time I look out at our culture and I see a problem, something goes off inside of me and says, "There's a guy somewhere that's not stepping up and doing what God has called him to do." Every issue that we've ever seen in the world, you can date all the way back to a tree in the garden where a man did not stand up and do what God had called him to do. And since that time, everything has begun to unravel. We talk about fatherlessness in our culture being one of the greatest problems, but so is absenteeism in the home, for dads who are there, but don't know how to love their wives and don't know how to raise their kids.

And I know for me growing up as a guy, I was challenged many times as an athlete and what I needed to be, I was challenged in the business world and what I needed to become, I was challenged educationally to go and pursue things, but when it came to things spiritually, I personally was never around anybody that was willing to challenge me. And I, for one, love to be challenged and the reason I do is because God made me a man. And men are always ... There's some embers that are burning inside of a man that want to be challenged, that want to know, "Here's what God has for me and what should I do?"

We throw the word around calling a lot like, "Are you called by God?" and we reserve that for the special few that we think are called to vocational ministry, to be a pastor, evangelist, a teacher, but the reality is God's speaking to all men. And even when we're called, what are we called to do? What does it look like? Because there's something special when it goes off and there's a tuning fork inside of a guy that says, "I know who I am and I know why I'm on this planet and I know what I'm called to do." And there's something tragic when we meet men who have lived 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years and they're still asking, "I don't even know why I'm here. I'm just trying to make it through the day."

God goes after men every time He wants to change the world and He looks to call men every time He wants to change the world. Today's message is specifically geared for the men in our congregation. However, ladies, you should understand, if you know what the heart of God is for a man, if you're a single lady here, this is the kind of man you want to pray God into your life. If you're a wife, this is the kind of man you want your husband to be because a godly man will always empower all those around him. A godly man will always empower his wife to be great. A godly man will always empower his kids to go beyond. A godly man will do things that are necessary to change the world and make this world a better place.

And, women, even as you listen to this message, you could say this, "I know God can call me to do some of the same things." But the reason that we're speaking specifically to the men today is that men are called to be the leaders in the church and in the home. That's what God called men to be. So when I look at a family, I know by God's design that the man is the leader. However, many times, that's not the case. We throw terms around like this, "Well, she wears the pants in the family." In God's family, the men wear the pants and wearing the pants does not mean bully, it does not mean boss, it does not mean putting people down. It means humbly positioning themselves before the Lord, so that the wives, so that the kids can be empowered to be everything that God designed them to be and the fullness of that.

And, men, if you've ever been confused about what God is calling you to do, today is the answer to that question, to know why He put you on this earth and to know how to get to the next step in your journey with the Lord. So I want to encourage you to open up your Bible to Exodus chapter 24 today. Exodus chapter 24. We'll attempt to get through all of Exodus chapter 24 and the first nine verses of 25. And while you're turning there, we've been poised here at Mount Sinai for some time. God's been speaking to Moses. God's given The 10 Commandments. God's told the people to stay back because He's so holy and only Moses and a few are allowed to come up and see Him and this story is going to continue.

And what you're going to see is that while God has called Moses long before he was even created. In utero, God had a plan for Moses in the same way that God has a plan for everyone in utero for how He wants to see their life fulfilled. We're going to see as he continues what he's being called to do. God's already used Moses for amazing things. God had a plan for Moses when he was inside his mother. God had a plan for Moses when he was going down the Red Sea. God had a plan for Moses when the Red Sea was parted. God had a plan for Moses when he was calling down all the plagues. God had a plan for Moses when he delivered the people. God always had a plan for Moses to do what Moses was called to do.

However, even here later in his life, He's not done with him yet. Men, listen to me, if you're still breathing, God still has a calling on your life and the calling is not retirement to sit on your backend and do nothing or play more golf. That's not a calling, right? That's idolatry. God has called us to serve Him, "Well, what's He called us to do? No matter what age we are, how do I take that next step in my journey?" I'm going to talk about four things in the calling of a man, what God calls a man to actually do and the first is this. God calls a man to hear His voice and communicate His word. God calls a man to hear His voice and communicate His word.

Now, don't lose me yet. He doesn't call everybody to be a pastor. He doesn't call everybody to hear His voice and speak at a church. That's not what He calls. He calls you to hear Him and to speak what He's telling you to speak. That's what He calls. Now notice this, "Then He said to Moses," you're going to see that all throughout this entire chapter, God's only talking to Moses. He's not talking to anybody else. He's not talking to the 72 elders. He's not talking to Aaron. He's not talking to Aaron's two older sons. He's talking to Moses. Why? Because when God calls a man, He speaks to the man. That's what He does. "So he says to Moses, 'Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who are Aaron's two oldest sons, the 70 elders of Israel and you shall worship at a distance. Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.' Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances and all the people answered in one voice and said, 'All the words, which the Lord has spoken, we will do.'"

Now, we've been reading a lot about what God's been commanding. It's been exhaustive in some ways. He's been spelling out for them how things work out in all these different scenarios and we've looked at case law and we've looked at rest and we've looked at worship and we've looked at trust and we've looked at The 10 Commandments. And every time that they're told by Moses, here's what God says, "What do the people respond?" "All that God says, we'll do." Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It's a trick question, right? When we hear the word of the Lord, we want to say, "Well, everything He says, I want to do." But the reality is, apart from Christ, we can't do the very things God's calling us to do.

It's why sometimes we hear a message and we leave the church and we're like, "I got this. From now on, this is who I am. I'm never doing this again," and you make it until 2:00, 2:30 in the afternoon on Sunday. Because apart from Christ, you can't do it. And so the people naively are saying, "Everything You say, we'll do." They mean it, but they don't realize what they're saying because they can't do it apart from an ongoing dependence on God by hearing His voice and communicating what He's saying. And all of us are called to do that. That's why in the first part of verse four, what's Moses do? It says that Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. So Moses said, "You want to do them all? Great. I'll write them all down for you, so they can be in front of you."

Isn't it great to know that the Holy Spirit has given us His word? So if you ever wonder like, "What's God expect of me?" It's all in here. It's all right here for anyone who would be willing to open up the book and say, "God, I want to hear You. Now, let me tell you something about hearing the voice of God. Jesus Christ is alive. He not only died on the cross for all your sins, but He rose from the dead. Our God is living and active. When we read the Bible, the Bible is living and active. That's why if somebody says, "Well, I already read the Bible once." Well, good, keep reading it every day because the Bible's living and active. If you want to hear God's voice, open up His word and pursue Him. He will speak.

When you study the word, memorize the word, meditate on the word, hear the word taught, hear the word preached, it is God who is doing the speaking so you can hear Him. But there are in some groups, some people will say, "Yeah, God doesn't really speak anymore." Friends, He's alive. So the Bible is the plum line, but God can speak through other people. God can speak through your circumstances. God can speak through another believer into your life through a word of prophecy or a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge. Perhaps you don't know where to turn or what to do and all of a sudden somebody's spoke into your life and it just clears up right now, "Well, that's the way I need to go."

God can speak in a variety of ways. He can speak in subjective ways because our God's alive, but His word and what you hear Him say will always align with the word of God. If it ever contradicts this book, you did not hear it from God, period, end of story. So he says, "We're called to hear His voice and then communicate His word." Well, what does that mean if you're not called to be a pastor? It means men, if you're in your house, you're the leader of your home and I'll just repeat what I said. Leader does not mean boss. Leader does not mean bully. Leader does not mean put other people down. Leader does not mean, "Gather around and worship me." Leader means servant, "I'm here to hear the voice of God for my family," and then guess what? Communicate what you hear because you're the leader.

When I was called out here to plant this church, it was 2009, I heard the Lord crystal clear. It was one of those moments. It was July 16th, 2009 and I heard the Lord clearly and I told my wife in the car on the way to a Billy Joel, Elton John concert at Wrigley Field in Chicago, "We're moving to Denver and I'm planting a church," to which she said, "Okay." And that night, as we were walking into the concert, I said, "No, God told me we're going to move there." And she's like, "Well, you didn't say God said." And I said, "Well, I'm telling you now." And she wasn't nearly as excited because all of our family was there, all of our friends were there. We had gotten established there. Our ministry was going really well and she said, "Well, I'll pray."

Now you need to know something about my wife. My wife hears the Lord unlike any other woman I've ever been around. Just this morning, earlier about half an hour before our first service, I could not find my Bible. I leave it in the same spot every single week. And so I called my wife. I said, "You need to start praying." The second she started praying, somebody on our staff found it and brought it to me. And I texted her, I'm like, "Yeah, your prayer worked again." My wife hears God. So when I was talking to her about moving, I knew God wouldn't tear us apart because I knew I wasn't going to send postcards and texts. So I kept praying like, "Lord, what's going on? And how come You're not telling Kim because I know she hears You? There's nobody that hears You like her and she's not feeling it, so You got to bring her along."

One day, my wife called me on the phone. She said, "I heard the Lord about moving to Denver." And I said, "Great. She's like, "Well, I'm not going to tell you what He said though because you'll hold it over me." And I said, "No, I promise, I won't hold over no matter what you said." She said these words. She said, "I've been praying and praying and praying for God to show me what you see and He told me today that I'm not going to see it, but I need to trust you as my spiritual leader and I will go with you because you're called." Now I want to tell you what emotion went through me. It wasn't like, "Oh yeah, baby, I'm the king." That is not at all how I felt. You know what I felt? Terrified. Terrified because my wife was just telling me, "You better have heard the Lord because I'm bringing me and our kids out there, and if you got this wrong, you're ruining our family."

I was terrified. I went back to the Lord like, "Lord, are You sure? Do we got this thing right? Because she's coming now and we got to ..." right? Lady, submitting to your husband is not a bad thing. It's a godly thing. That's why it's so hard to do. Because apart from Christ, you can't do it. Feminism says, "Don't submit to your husband." Feminism says, "You're equal." Let me just tell you from this [poem 00:12:34], men and women are not the same. Not only is your gender different, everything about us is fundamentally different. Amen?

Audience:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

And God's the one that designed it that way and God thinks that the way He made men is wonderful and the way that He made women are wonderful and both men and women need to be championed, need to be the fullness of their gender. Amen?

Audience:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Amen? It's true. And I'm just reading this. This is G.K. Chesterton. He's a theologian, great theologian. He said this, "Feminism is mixed up with a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers, but are slaves when they help their husbands." Ladies, I'm just telling you from the word of God, if you've chosen to be married, honoring your husband is a godly thing, and when you do it God's way and you free him up to lead, it helps because some women want their husbands to lead, but they don't give them a chance to because they think, "Oh, he's going to fail here. He's a buffoon. He's not going to make. I got to help him do all this." Let him fail. Let him lead. Pursue him to be, push him to be godly.

Now, it's really interesting here because Moses is being called of God, but nobody else is hearing this. The 72 elders, they're not hearing this. Aaron's not hearing this. Aaron's two older sons, they're not hearing this. So what's he got to do? He's got to hear what God's telling him and then tell the others, "Here's what God says and here's what we need to do." Do you know how much courage it takes to do that? Do you know how much courage it takes to read the word of God and seek the face of the Lord on a week-in, week-out basis, say, "This is what God says," and then stand up and preach it, knowing that not everybody's going to like what you have to say? Do you know how hard it is to do that as a husband, for your wife and for your family when you seek the Lord and you hear His voice and you communicate, "Here's where God's leading us and here's what He wants us to do"?

It's always hard to share with others what God is communicating to you, but hearing the Lord and communicating what He says is the foundation of what you're called to do. Both men and women are called to do that. We're supposed to hear Him and clearly communicate what we're hearing Him say, right? I've talked to many pastors, that's the realm that I live in, that have had conversations with me about ways they're frustrated in their congregation. I'm like, "Well, have you ever preached on that?" Like, "Oh, I could never preach on that, because if I preach on that, everybody would leave." I'm like, "Well, you should try it. Because if it's true in the word and you just preach it, then the people that stay are the people that want to hear the word of God, and if they leave, you probably wanted them to go anyway."

It takes courage to tell people what God says. I'm telling you after doing this for a number of years. It takes courage to stand and preach this message today, right? And here's the problem and here's what we need to see. God always goes looking for a man. Now, this doesn't mean that God doesn't call a plurality of leaders around that man. Because even in the nation of Israel, Moses was the clear leader, but there was a plurality of other men around him. There was a plurality of elders around him. There was a plurality of other people that could help, but who did he call? One guy. We're uncomfortable with that in our culture. We think, "Well, that's not right." It's always the way that God has done it. Old Testament, New Testament, who's he go calling? He goes and calls a guy and speaks directly to him about what there's going to be.

So what does that mean for a church? It means, in a church, there's one person that's the head and then there's a plurality of leaders that help shape it. Who's the one responsible for what's going on in the church? The one that God called to start the church. The one who's leading the church. Then what are the other leaders about? They're about helping shape and fulfill duties that are needed to get done for that. That's why BRAVE, the way that we're structured, is we have three different groups of elders where we're guided by our shepherding elders that help fulfill the vision and praying for and pastoring our people. We're protected by our stewarding elders who make sure that financially we're in good shape and with all the legalities that have to go on, we're doing well.

And then we have supervising or overseeing elders that grow us and grow me, that help me stay accountable. We got accountability coming from 17 different ways, but who's the leader in the church? I am. That's my role. That's my responsibility. God's going to ask me, "Hey, you heard Me say this? You heard this was the way we needed to go. Why didn't you speak up?" It was a couple years ago God started talking to me more about campuses and started talking to me about schools and it became more and more apparent like, "We have to move this way." I wasn't consulting with everybody else. I did run it by several of our elders and leaders, "Hey, help shape this. Am I hearing the Lord clearly? Am I doing all that?"

But who's calling the shot? Who's saying this is what we must do? It's me. That's my responsibility. You say, "Well, I don't like that." Well, then take it up with the Lord because the Lord calls a man. And here's the way it is. There's two different types of callings and I fit into both of these. One is sometimes God calls you to be the leader where you're the head, and by the way, anything with more than one head is a monster. That's why we don't have the presidents of the United States serve all at the same time. It would not work. There's one president, right? And that doesn't always work. So enough said.

But then there's a plurality of leadership. There has to be because any man that's worth his salt that has been called from God knows that he's completely dependent upon God and who God brings. So sometimes God puts a calling on your life, not just for vocational ministry work, but maybe in the political sector or maybe in the business sector or maybe in the teaching sector where you're called to go do something that nobody else has done and you're leading it. And God says, "I want you to lead this charge," and you'll say, "Who me?" And God will say, "Yeah, you and you'll go through all the same things Moses did," where you say, "Well, I'm unqualified and I don't know how to do this." And God says, "I didn't call you because you're qualified, but I'll qualify you because I'm calling you," and then He takes you the next steps.

Other times, and I've been in this situation too where I haven't been the head, other times, there's somebody else that you're going to follow whose vision's big enough for you to fulfill your calling under the umbrella of their leadership. And that's a fulfilling calling too. I've been in both circumstances. I may be in another circumstance someday when I step down from here or if I step down from here where I'm under somebody else's leadership. I'm fine with that as long as I can fulfill what God's called me to do. Just so you know on our staff, we have at least five guys here on our staff that could go out and be senior pastors of churches and be very successful at being great senior pastors, but have folded their strengths here because they feel like they can fulfill their calling here and multiply it greater than if they went and did it by themselves and that's a fine calling too.

But here's what the problem is. If you're not going to go do it, then find somebody who has a big enough calling to house your ministry, big enough calling to house your political career, big enough calling to house your business career, big enough calling to house your teaching career. Well, you can be who God made you to be under their umbrella. Now, here's the problem. If you can't, then I'm going to give you a couple things never to do. Never complain that somebody else's vision's too small and never complain that somebody else's vision doesn't include you. Don't complain about that, right? If you're in a situation where somebody else's umbrella's too small, "Man, I know what God's calling me to do and I can't do it here," then you get three choices.

One is this, wait patiently with great support. You can do that. I was in a situation when I was finishing up my last two years of seminary in Dallas. I was at a church. I was not thrilled about the way the church was going. I was not thrilled about the leadership, but as I prayed about it, God said, "You're staying right there and finishing up school." So during those two years, super hard for me because I didn't align totally, but I never one time said something bad about our pastor, about our leadership, about anything else. All I did was affirm them and tell the Lord, "I'm doing this for You. And if anybody else says something bad, I'm not going to join them. I'm only going to honor You because this is where You have me and I'm going to serve as best I can. And God used that to grow my maturity and character in a lot of ways.

So you have that choice sometime. So if you're at a church or you're at a business, you're at school, you're at someone like, "I can't be who God's called me to be," one of your options is, okay, then just honor the leadership and serve really well as long as you stay there. Second option is this. Go find someone else to follow. Just leave, "Can't do it here. I'm going to go find somewhere else." That's not sinful. Go find someone else where you can serve under them and fulfill their vision. Or third, if you can't find someone else, go start your own thing. Just go do it. Sometimes God's kicking us out, we're in the business world and can't serve under this person," I've been patient for a long time. I can't find anybody else to serve under," because God's been stirring in you. It's time for you to launch out and go do that. All of those three options take great faith and great humility to stay and serve, to trust, to leave or to go start your own thing, okay? Does that make sense? Those are your three choices.

But here's what you can never do. Here's what you must never do. If you do these things, you're a pawn for Satan. Never complain about the vision. Never complain about the vision. Why would you complain about the vision if you're under the vision? Why would you complain about the vision if you're going to leave the vision? Why would you complain about the vision if you're going to start your own thing? It was prompting you to get out, okay? Never grumble with others when others are grumbling about how bad it is. You don't join them. Don't sow seeds of discord. And number four, don't rally people to your way of thinking.

All those things are used by Satan to cause factions inside of church businesses, athletic groups, everything else. In other words, if you don't like it, humble yourself before the Lord and serve anyway or leave or go start your own thing. Those are your options. Now, I see it in churches, it doesn't happen here, but I'm sure in some churches it does, where people will be in a church and like, "I don't like that vision. I don't like that we're doing that. I don't like that we're doing this," but instead of just submitting, here's what they do, or instead of just leaving or instead of just going and starting their own church, here's what they say, "I just don't like it here. I'm going to rally other people to my way of thinking. I'm going to grumble and complain." You're being used of the enemy. Don't do that. Just go find another church.

The reason God has so many different churches is because not everybody's going to align with one church. There's a lot of, "I love BRAVE. That's where I'm going to be. I think it's the best, right?" But at the end of the day, it's all about the kingdom. And there's a lot of other churches in our city that are about the kingdom and you can go honor God in other churches that are about the kingdom. Just never stay in a place where you're going to grumble and complain about leadership. Get out. Go. You're free. Nobody's holding you here. Even if you sign a membership covenant, you're not locked into BRAVE. You have freedom to serve the Lord, any way the Lord would ever call you to serve and you're not sinning by doing that. Does that make sense?

Men, here's what you're called to do. You're called to hear and listen to the voice of God and then speak out what He says. And for some of you guys, it's not being a pastor in a church. For some of you guys, you see things happening in our culture and God's speaking to you about it, but you refuse to speak to people and say, "This needs to change and we got to do something about it." Every problem we see is that men don't step forward, and when men step back, women step forward. When women step forward, men step back. It's just the way that it works. And if we have godly men stepping forward, that will elevate both men and women and boys and girls, God can do an incredible work. So hear His voice and communicate His word. That's what you're called to.

And when I'm with a guy, I'm always listening for, "What is he talking about?" Because you can't fake spending time with the Lord. Did you know that? You can't fake it. You can drop some Scripture here. You can do some Christianese over there, but I can tell when I'm with somebody if they've spent time with Jesus or not. I'm listening to things like this. I want to hear you say something like, "Here's what God's been showing me in His word lately and here's how I've been praying for you. Here's what I've been learning about deliverance ministry and freedom in Christ. Here's something I've been changing about my life because something God showed me.

Here's what you can be praying for me because I need more help with this. Here's what I'm most recently excited about in the Lord. Here's something I've been stepping into that is taking a ton of courage. Here's something that I just walked away from. Here's something new I'm embracing. Here's how God has been speaking to me. Here's how I've been sharing the gospel. Here's how I'm learning to love my wife and my kids better. Could you help me?" You can't fake that stuff. If you fake it, it will sound fake when you say it and it will sound fake to the person that's hearing it. So I'm always looking to hang with people that are listening to and hearing the voice of God and willing to communicate what God's saying, right?

Ladies, if you're single, I'm telling you that's the kind of man you want, "What's he been hearing the Lord say? What's he talk about? Is Jesus on his lips? Is he talking about Him?" That's what we need to listen to. God calls a man to hear and communicate His word. Secondly is this. God calls a man to champion the atonement and lead in worship. God calls man to champion the atonement and lead in worship. Notice the second half of verse four. It talks about Moses. It says, "Then he arose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with the 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel." So what's he going to do? What's the first thing he's going to do in the morning?

He's going to lead God's people in worship. Now, some of you may say, "Well, thank goodness I'm not a pastor. I'm not leading people in worship." Men, you are responsible for the spiritual temperature of worship in your families. It doesn't mean you have to gather everybody in the living room and play a guitar and sing songs, right? Some of us can't do that. That's okay, but here's what I'm talking about. Do your kids and your wife see you pursuing the Lord in the word? Do they hear you worshiping Him with your voice? Do they see you pray? Do they see you and watch you pray over them? Are they seeing a lifestyle of worship that is being lived out right before their very eyes? Is that who you are?

Because guys, I want to tell you something, when you get to heaven, you're the spiritual thermometer, the barometer of what's happening in your home for worship. It is not your wife's job to lead your family in worship. It's yours. Amen?

Audience:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

And single guys, you want to be living this way before God brings you your mate, so that you can know whether this is a woman who's going to come alongside of you that you can worship with for the rest of your life. Make worship a priority. That's what Moses is doing. He's going to lead the people in worship. Number five, verse five, "He sent young men of the sons of Israel and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. So then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said again, 'All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient.'"

Now they're adding to it. So Moses is worshiping and what is he going to worship with? What's part of his worship? Bringing the word of the Lord and the people are responding, said, "All that God says, we'll do and we'll be totally obedient," right? Dads, it's your job to show people the plum line of what God expects for your family. It's your job to lead people and guide people in that way, not perfectly, but increasingly, right? That's what he says. Verse eight, "So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words.'" So what does he offer? He offers sacrifice. Why? Because without shed blood, there is no access to God.

In the Old Testament, it was bulls, goats, and rams. Without that, there was no access to God. Without the death of one, there couldn't be relationship with the other. So what is Jesus in the New Testament? Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that once for all died for our sins and rose from the dead. No longer are we covered by the blood. What are we? We are cleansed by His blood. But apart from the blood, we have no relationship with God. People in our culture talk all the time about how they love God or how they're spiritual about why God is so good in their life. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ shed blood alone for the forgiveness of your sin and His resurrection from the dead, you do not have a relationship with God.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." It's always through the blood. So what are men called to do? They're called to champion the atonement. What should be coming out of them is, "The reason I have life in my life is because of the shed blood of Christ. The reason I'm sharing with you is because you need the shed blood of Christ. The reason we share in partnership is because we share the blood of Christ. It's all about the blood of Christ. It is not about me, my position, my leadership. It has nothing to do with that. It's all about Jesus Christ shed blood for me. That's it." Amen?

That's what we're called to. And sometimes we, as men, forget that. We think it's about us or our gifting. Let me just tell you, your gifting doesn't mean anything to God. He gave it to you. He can take it away. He gave you all your strengths. He gave you all your weaknesses. It's not about your gifting and what you can bring to God. It's about His life in you, and apart from Him, you can do nothing, right? God's looking for men that will champion the atonement because it leads to humility and lead people in worship. When you see men like this, you see men like Moses. In order to sprinkle the blood on people, what was he covered in? He was covered in the blood. We see it in the Old Testament. It sounds very messy because it was.

In the New Testament, in order to be effective as a called man of God, you have to be washed in the blood as well. You can't give what you don't have. And if you don't have the blood of Christ and if the atonement of Christ and his propitiation for your sin is not front and center to who you are, you can't lead people in the ways of God. You can't lead people in worship. Where's my single ladies? Everybody's scared to raise their hand now. Sometimes I'm talking to you all and you'll say things like this, "Yeah, he's a really good guy." I'm like, "How's he leading for the Lord?" And you'll say something like, "Oh, he goes to church sometimes." And I say, "Well, the devil goes to church every weekend, so what good is that? I want to know that he's washed in the blood. I want to know he's leading you in worship. I want to know this, how are you more godly because you've been around this guy? How are you more purer? How are you more elevated? How are you fulfilling more of your destiny because this guy wants you to be your best?"

This is not the place where ... You ask my wife sometime if she's better because of me. I'll let her answer the question. You're nodding yes, right? Okay, I know and I'm better because of her, right? There's this partnership, but don't just marry a guy that talks about worship or has attended to worship service. Marry a guy that's leading in it. Marry a guy that's washed in the blood of Jesus. Marry the guy that when I ask you, "Is he a Christian?" your answer is not, "I don't know. I think so." You don't want that guy. And any of the ladies in here that are married to a guy like that will say amen heartily or were married to a guy like that will say amen heartily. Get yourself a Christian dude that will elevate you. Amen?

Audience:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

The third thing God calls man to do is this. God calls man to prioritize His presence and to delegate responsibilities. He calls man to prioritize His presence and delegate responsibilities. God knows that the most important thing in any man's life is Him. Not him the man but Him, God. Is God's central in your life? Notice verse nine, "Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel and they saw the God of Israel and under his feet appeared to be a pavement of sapphire as clear as the sky itself. Yet, he did not stretch out his hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel and they saw God and they ate and drank."

Now, isn't that amazing? They came into the presence of God and they saw God and they ate and drank. Now, if you're a Bible student, this should cause you some problems like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I didn't think a man could see God and live," and you're correct. Because a few chapters later, when Moses is asking to see God's glory in Exodus 33 in verse 20, God said to him, "You cannot see My face for no man can see Me and live. You can't." In the New Testament, we see in John chapter one in verse 28, I believe, 1:18, John 1:18, "No one has seen the Father except the Son and who the Son chooses to reveal Him. Nobody sees the Father." First John 4:18 or 4:12 says the same thing, "No one has seen God at any time."

You say, "Well, wait. In my Bible, they just saw God. What's going on with that?" It seems to me that when I read through God's word that the fullness of who our God is, we cannot look at Him and will be incinerated, but God sometimes appears in fire or a cloud or through an angel or a messenger. And for some reason, there's different times where people see God in a way that others haven't seen Him. Here, they see this red sapphire, this sapphire glowing underneath, which reminds me when I talk through the Book of Revelation in Revelation chapter 15 in verse two, we see the exact same vision that John saw exactly what Moses saw in Revelation 15:2 talking about after the time of tribulation. He says, "And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire. It's like a blood red glass. And those who had been victorious over the beast in his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass holding harps."

If you read through Ezekiel 1:22, he saw the exact same vision. What? What happened? God allowed them to come into His presence and see Him in a certain way and He said He did not raise His hand against them. In other words, God invited them in and let them see some of His glory. Not all of it. Some of it had to be veiled or they would've died, but God invited them in to see it. It would have been mean of God to say, "Hey, come up and see Me," and then they took one step closer and they went, "Poof," that was it, right? God invited them in. So they did get to experience some of the presence of God.

The way we get to experience the presence of God is this. Jesus Christ is alive as He's ever been, and through His Holy Spirit, we can still experience Him every day everywhere we go, and yet, there is something special about coming together with other people that believe when we worship Him and hear His word, where God begins to speak to us, that we know, that we know, that know that our God is alive. It's His presence. Amen?

Audience:

Amen.

Speaker 1:

And what are men called to? Before you're ever called to be a coach or a teacher or an attorney or a pastor, what do you need to be about? Seeking the presence of God. Going after Him with everything you have. So what's Moses about ready to do? He's about ready to go a little bit further than the rest of them are going. He's going to tell them, "You guys can't come with me, but God's calling me to get a little bit closer." Because notice what happens here. Notice what happens here in Exodus 24, verse 12. It says, "Now the Lord said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain and remain there and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments, which I have written for their instruction.'"

So God says, "You've been writing things down. I'm going to write them down for you on stone tablets." So Moses arose with Joshua, his servant or his aide, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. But to the elders, he said, "Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Erin and her are with you. Whatever has legal matter, let him approach them." So what's he doing? "I'm going to go seek the presence of God, but I'm going to delegate responsibility to Erin and her because I love God, but I love God's people and I want to make sure God's people are taken care of."

When you truly love God, you will love the people He puts in your life. If you genuinely love the Lord, you will love the people around you. That's what God does because God loves the people around you. So he tells them, "Hey, I'm delegating responsibility." This is a big job. You remember how Moses stood up in Exodus 18, and all day long, all he did was to answer disputes. And here's what we say, guys, "I don't have time for the presence of the Lord. I don't have time to do that. I don't have time to do a Sabbath. I don't have time to pursue. There's no way I could ever take a week off of work." Why? Because you're too dad-gum busy with things that aren't nearly as important as seeking the presence of God. That's why, right?

So God says, "Prioritize Me, and when you prioritize Me, delegate responsibilities to others that can take care of what you need to do." And here's where our pride comes in, "Nobody can do it as good as me. I got to do everything. I got to hold all the balls in place. I got to hold on." No, you don't. God is the one that's holding them all in place. God is asking you to be dependent upon Him. And if you go seek the Lord, He'll take care of everything else. You know what a pastor's number one responsibility is? Seeking the face of God. Nothing's more important than that. People that can teach the Bible, there are dime a dozen. People that seek the face of God, they're fewer and further between. Why? Because we think our duties are more important than God's presence in our life and we're wrong.

I don't care what your vocation is, seek the face of the Lord. Pursue him. Pursue him. In the New Testament, you'll remember in Acts chapter six, you can look this up. In Acts chapter six, verses three through seven, there was a dispute that arose among the widows in the church because the Hebrew widows were getting more of the food service than the Greek-speaking widows and there was this big problem. They had problems in the first century in church the same way we do today. Amen? And here's what the elders said, "Hey, that's a problem. We got to take care of that because we love our people. So choose seven men filled with the spirit to take care of that. We got to have them take care of people. But as for us, we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word."

What were they saying? They weren't saying their problem's not a big deal. They were saying, "The bigger deal is if we stop seeking God and communicating His word, we're going to fail as a church." The reason we have some churches in our culture today that are all about what we call the social gospel, they're doing all this activity that's seemingly good, but they've lost their way, is because they've had pastors over the years that have neglected the presence of God, neglected seeking God, stop speaking about God and just been into good activity and that's not what God calls the church to be. Delegate responsibility. That's why at BRAVE, we can say, "We want to put everybody on a mission."

In the coming weeks, starting in March, we want to talk about it, "How can I be involved and what's my calling and how can I fulfill my calling? What's it look like?" because God wants everybody here to experience the fullness of who He is. Did Jesus delegate at all? He said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. Therefore," what? "Go." Who's the subject? You. "You go make disciples of all nations. You baptize people in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. You teach people to obey everything that I've commanded you. I'll be with you always until the end of the age, but you go do it." Jesus said in John 14, "You'll do even greater things than these because I'm going to the Father. And whenever you ask for My name, this I will do."

And you might say, "Well, I've asked for a lot of things in Jesus' name, He hasn't done." But if you read the next verse, it says, "Obey my commandments." Some of us don't see God answer our prayers because we're not obeying what He wants us to do. But who's He delegated the world to? You and you and you and you and you and you and you and up there, everybody in the upper deck and me, he's delegated to us. Is it because Jesus was lazy? Is it because He was tired? Was it because He just doesn't know how to do it as well as we do? No, if Jesus was still here, He could do it better. He could've rose from the dead and said, "Now, I'm going to do everything, but you guys get to watch."

But He said, "No, I'll be in heaven and it's good for you I'm going away because I'll send you another, the Holy Spirit and He'll do it all through you and then you know that you're accomplishing My work and I'm going to use you. And it's not going to be because you're so special. It's going to be because I'm the one that chose you." Amen? Do you prioritize His presence? Last week, we talked about the verse in Psalm 46:10, "Cease striving and know that I am God. I'll be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth." Stop, pursue Him. Make His presence first and foremost. Lead in worship. Leading in worship does not mean attending church once a month. It's every week, "I'm getting my family up. I'm leading. I'm bringing them into the presence of God. I want people to see in my family that God is priority in my life more than anything else. That's who I am. That's what we do." Amen?

It's like Joshua said at the end of his life, "You can choose whatever gods you want to serve, but I'll tell you what, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's what men are called to do." You think about this and I know some of you guys when we started this were thinking, "Well, I want to know whether I should be a football coach, a pastor, or a businessman. Well, which one is it?" That's how I used to pray. And here's God's answer, "Listen to My voice and speak what I say. Champion the atonement and lead in worship. Prioritize My presence and delegate responsibilities to others." And then there's this third one that's going to come up because notice what happens. "Moses went up to the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain."

I'm in verse 15. "The glory of the Lord rested on the Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day, he called Moses from the midst of the cloud." So Moses is just posturing himself in front of God for a week. He's got a lot to do, and yet, he can take a week off to seek God. "And to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop." If you look up Hebrew 12:29, it says, "For our God is a consuming fire," that's what it looked like. "And Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights."

40 days in the Bible is a time of testing. God flooded the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. It's a time of testing. It's a time of Him revealing to him, "You've seen what I've done through you. In this next season, here's what I'm requiring of you. Here's how you're going to lead My people." So Moses had 47 days to go up and listen to God. Sometimes, as men, we don't even have an hour. Unless you come to BRAVE, then you got an hour and a half. All right, but let me give you this final one. God calls a man to do this. God calls a man to compel generosity in others and steward resources His way. Notice what he says. Now he's going to go spend time with the Lord. He's going to be up there 40 days and 40 nights.

What's the first thing God's going to speak? He's going to speak directly to Moses. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, what? "What does He want from His people?" "Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me from every man whose heart moves him and you shall raise My contribution." What's the first thing God asked for? Resources. Money. Now let me ask you a question. Does God need their resources to build the tabernacle? Does God need money to build the tabernacle? Then why in the world is that the first thing that He's going after?

Matthew 6:21 gives us the answer, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." When you give generously to the things of God, He's got your heart. That's what He's looking for. One of the ways to grow spiritually really, really quickly, start being generous to God with your money. Because you'll know when you trust God with your money, He's got to come through for you. Some people say, "Hey, your pocketbook or your checkbook's the last thing to be converted." It shouldn't be. It should be the first thing to be converted. Like if you're really a Christian and start giving to God out of your resources, He doesn't need it. The church doesn't need it. What do they need? What's God need? Your heart.

Now I'm talking to a very generous church. Our church has been generous from day one, continues to be generous, so I know I'm talking to people that agree with me. But if you're one of those people that you're just, "I just don't know that I can give here. I don't know what I can do," find a place you can because it's a blessing to you to give. He who scatters little will sow little. He who scatters much will reap much. You cannot outgive the Lord. It is an impossibility. Now, I know some of you are tuning out because you're like, "That's what pastors always like to talk about. They're always talking about money. I know we're going to grow our vision. I know you're going to ask for our money." Of course, anything worth anything it is going to cost. It has to.

In my heart, and you're going to hear about this over the coming weeks, I'd love to see us put 1,000 campuses around our country. And if we had 1,000 to 2000 people in everyone, we'd have 1 million to 2 million people that call BRAVE Church their home. We'd have another 1,000 academies. Can God do that? 100% He can do that. Can He do that without all of us? Heavens know. So who does He call? He says, "Go to the people that have a heart for Me and take a contribution from them." Who's he go to first? The men. He says, "Go to the men from every heart who moves him, so you can raise My contribution."

In the New Testament, the equivalent would be in Second Corinthians nine that God loves a cheerful giver. And some may say, "Well, I'm not very cheerful and my heart's not moved, so I'm not giving." To which I would say, "Then you don't love the Lord that I'm talking about. Because if you really understand what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for your life, that He came to this earth and humbled Himself as a servant, to put on flesh for all eternity and fulfilled the law and died on the cross in shame for all your sin and took the Father's wrath and rose from the dead and offered His Holy Spirit and promised you an eternity with Him forever and ever," and said, "What kind of cost to that?" you can't pay it, but you can contribute to it and you can let God know that He has your heart.

And so this is the contribution he tells, verse three, "This is the contribution which you are to raise from them, gold, silver, bronze," very expensive stuff, "Blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, rams' skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and the setting stones for the ephod and for the breast piece. Let them construct a sanctuary for Me that I may dwell among them according to that I'm going to show you as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of its furniture, just as you shall construct it." So how does God want to spend the money? "Just the way I'm going to show you. When resources come in, use them for just the way I'm going to show you. Communicate just when I'm going to show you. Use them for the things that I'm going to show you." There's a responsibility to do that, to compel people to generosity and then to steward them faithfully. That's what we're called to do.

Now, it's interesting here that he wants the best. Why? Because the place he dwells is to be called the tabernacle. Now, it'd encourage you, if you're a regular attender, read the next three chapters this week. We're going to fly through them because I don't want to spend a whole week on goat hair curtains, but it's important but we're going to fly through a lot of that. But what's God want? He wanted a place where He could be housed, His presence could be housed, His glory could be housed so that He could be among His people. Then the temple's going to come along years later and there's a place called the Holy of Holies where the same presence of God was housed.

And then the New Testament comes, and when Jesus died on the cross and the curtain was split from bottom to top, it was ripped right up, I'm sorry, from top to bottom, it was ripped wide open giving access to God. Where does God dwell now? In all of us who have repented and believed you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells in us. So why would God ever want contributions from New Testament believers? Because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And God wants a place for His people to come and to honor Him, right?

"Pastor Jeff, when are you going to start talking about money?" When I meet Jesus because I've found in my own heart, the more generous I am, the more I see God at work, right? The reason I can ask people to be generous because I know I'll be generous, right? I know our elders will be generous. I know majority of you will be generous. And together collectively, when God looks down and see a church that worships Him, a praise to Him, takes the gospel out, is generous to Him and is begging Him, "God, do more than we could ever dream or imagine," guess what God says? "Wow, that's a faithful group of people. I can do more than they could ever think or imagine. I want to be part of that. I want to do that." That's what God says. And guess what? He's already doing it. He's been doing it.

God was with us when we met in an apartment building and God was with us when we met at Cherry Creek High School for a period of three years. And when we made the commitment to buy the building just south of here, God was with us when we did that too. And there was a small group of people that raised a large amount of money to secure the blessing for many in the future. And one day, we'll be collecting more money to expand our footprint. We've done it here in Westminster. I remember we started the Broomfield campus. And there are people like, "Why are we raising money for that?" Well, right now, there's nearly 1,500 people that call Westminster their home. And by the way, we love you all, right? God's doing awesome stuff and we want to see that continue. Amen.

So think about this. Think about how God served your heart. I know this is a bit of a challenging message. Most words from the Lord are, but what's He looking for men to do and who is He looking for you to follow? Be a man and follow a man that hears God's voice and communicates His word. Be a man and follow a man that champions the atonement and leads in worship. Be a man and follow a man who prioritizes His presence and delegates responsibility. Be a man and follow a man that compels generosity in others and steward's resources in God's way. This is what God was telling Moses. This is what He's telling us.

And men, I'm here to tell you, if we'll humbly step into that calling, regardless of what vocation God ever puts you in, if you can be that kind of man, you will change the culture. I'm fond of saying, "So go the men, so go the church. So goes the church, so goes the world." The reason we're in the mess we're in, you can trace it all the way back to a man. But the beautiful part of redemption is God can take any broken man, and through Christ, make him whole and then use him for His glory. Amen? Amen? Isn't that a good word? It's an encouraging word for us. And that's who God wants us to be and that's who God wants you to be and that's who God wants us as a community to be. And we want to celebrate the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me as you stand?

Our Father in heaven, we give You all the glory, honor and praise for who You are. And Lord, You've spoken to us today specifically about the calling of a man. Lord, help us as men to fulfill that calling. Help us as women to fulfill that calling. Help us to be the men and women and boys and girls You want us to be. And Father, for all that You are and for all that You're going to do, we give You glory, we give You honor, we give You praise, we give You worship. And it's in Jesus' mighty name that we pray, amen and amen.