 Amen, so here we are in Exodus chapter 39, you're like Exodus chapter 39, what are we doing there? So obviously in Exodus chapter 39 we see kind of a repeat of the clothing or the garments of the high priest and just like everything else, just like in Exodus chapter 28 which we have been referencing most of the time throughout this series. But in Exodus chapter 39 as you will see with many other places that there are parallel passages in the Bible. We get a little bit more detail on the specific garment that we're going to be looking at tonight. So you're going to be Bible scholars on the garments of the high priest by the time we are done with this series. So interesting sermon tonight, a lot of Bible to cross reference this evening to what we're going to look at this evening is verse number two through verse number seven we're going to be looking at the ephod of the high priest, the ephod of the high priest. So what is an ephod? So an ephod that the high priest wears, we've talked of course about the robe which is kind of the total covering of the priest. We talked about the miter which is the head covering and the main point of the miter was to hold that gold plate that said holiness unto the Lord where God claimed his priest and said that's my man, he belongs to me, that's how God seals people is in their forehead. But the ephod, then of course we talked about the breastplate which was that plate with the twelve stones with that had the names of the children of Israel on them but it was a plate and it hung on something while it hangs on the ephod. So if you want to think about the ephod, the best way to think about it is kind of like a short apron. The purpose of the ephod was to hold the breastplate itself and the ephod you know ahead the Bible tells us that it was not connected at the top at the shoulder pieces is where it's connected so you could see it was made and those two pieces folded together at the shoulder and then that stone sits on top but we're going to talk about the ephod this evening. So look down at verse number two of Exodus chapter 39. Exodus chapter 39, look at verse number two and let's see what we can learn from the ephod. You say the ephod, I mean it's just an apron to hold the breastplate, right? Well everything has a purpose. Let's take a look at it. It says he made the ephod of gold, blue, purple, scarlet and fine twine linen. So it had all these different colors in it, scarlet and purple, signifying royalty. We know blue signifies holiness but there's something special about the gold here. It wasn't that it was just the color of gold and this is the extra detail we get in chapter 39. Look what it says. It says they did beat the gold into thin plates. They actually took actual gold and they beat it into thin plates and then look what they did. And cut it into wires to work into the blue and into the purple and into the scarlet and the fine linen with cunning work. So what they did was they had all these different colors of threads and they actually beat out thin plates of gold and then they cut wires out of those or you could even think of them as threads in that case out of that beaten flat gold plate and they weaved that gold in between the linen, the clothing itself. So they made shoulder pieces for it. So I mean it says then it says with cunning work. So you can see here that these were, I mean if you think about like what it would take to do something like that, I'm sure they did a good job at it. I'm sure it looked very nice. Cunning work means skillful work. You'll see that word used throughout the Bible especially in the Old Testament that they used cunning work. That means these people knew what they were doing. They were craftsmen. They were very skilled people. When Solomon, remember Solomon was to build the temple. The king of Tyre sent him a cunning man, meaning a man who was very skillful in all sorts of different trades to build things. So this takes a lot of skill to do what they're doing here. Look at verse number four. They made shoulder pieces for it to couple it together. By the two edges was it coupled together. So it's connected. If you think of an apron, a lot of aprons, they tie at the shoulders, I think. I don't know. But it's connected at the shoulders and that's what it hung on because I'm sure the breast plate had some weight to it with those stones and the gold settings in the, you know, gold's very heavy, right? It's like the heaviest of, or one of the heaviest of metals. So it's very heavy. It needs something to hold it. Made shoulder pieces for it to couple it together. By the two edges it was coupled together. And the curious girdle of the ephod that was upon it was of the same, according to the work thereof, of gold and blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen as the Lord commanded Moses. And they wrought onyx stones enclosed in ouches of gold, in gold settings, graven as signets are graven, meaning it was signed as a signature was signed with the names of the children of Israel. And he put them on the shoulders of the ephod that they should be stones from memorial to the children of Israel as the Lord commanded Moses. So here we have another situation. It's the second situation where the names of the children of Israel are placed. So we saw that the names of the children of Israel were placed on the breast plate of judgment and we looked at that last week. We looked at that. We looked at the Solomon and how Solomon wanted God to give him a wise and understanding. The breast plate goes over what? It goes over the heart. Solomon wanted a wise and understanding heart to judge the people, to discern from good and bad for who? The names were on the breast plate over his heart to judge for the people. So that was a responsibility that Solomon asked for. It was a responsibility that God placed on the high priest. Now we see here on the shoulders of the ephod we see these two stones and we see on one stone of course your person has two shoulders. We see six names on one stone and six names on the other of the again the names of the people. So why? Why place the names on the shoulders? And that's what I want to get at this evening. I want to study through the Bible and I want to look at you know why the names of the children of Israel were placed not only on the breast plate of judgment but on the shoulders of the ephod on these two stones. And in order to understand this I want to do a short Bible study on the Ark of the Covenant. Alright, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 6. 2 Samuel chapter 6 and let's just do a quick study on the Ark of the Covenant and you'll start to see why these names were put on these stones on the shoulder of the high priest. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 6. 2 Samuel chapter 6. Now in 2 Samuel chapter 6 we're looking at the Ark of the Covenant. It was in the house. It was in the house of Abimelech at this time. This was before David brought it back to Jerusalem. This is after they got it back from the Philistines. Remember the Philistines took the Ark and he was trying to bring it back to I'm sorry Abinadab I misspoke there. So David's trying to bring it from the house of Abinadab back to its proper home in Jerusalem. Look at verse number 2. So David is trying to move the Ark back home after it was captured by the Philistines and he's bringing it from the house of Abinadab in Gibeah. And David arose and went verse number 2 of 2 Samuel 6. David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Baal of Judah to bring up from thence the Ark of God whose name is called by the name of the Lord of Hosts that dwelleth between the cherubim's. And they set the Ark upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah and Uzah and Ohio the sons of Abinadab draved the new cart. So here these two boys of Abinadab are pulling this new cart that they built a wagon to carry the Ark. It sounds reasonable to me. David in all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of firwood even on harps, on sultries and timbrels, on cornets and on cymbals. So I think it's like the Church of Christ by the way that like believes that you shouldn't have any instruments amongst their false gospel but they believe you shouldn't have any instruments. I mean look at all the instruments that David's using here just a side note. And when they came to Nikon's threshing floor Uzah put forth his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen shook it. So here the cart is going along and it shakes, I mean it hits something on the road or on the path or whatever they were on and the Ark shakes and Uzah he puts his hand on the Ark to catch it. I mean it's going to fall off and he's trying to stabilize the Ark and look what happens. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzah and God smote him there for his error and there he died by the Ark of God. Now I don't know how many times you've read that maybe you've never read that before but I mean that seems a little bit harsh. I mean here was a man he was just trying to stop the Ark from falling off the cart he was trying to stop it from you know probably going out of the ground getting damaged whatever and he holds up the Ark to stop it from falling. And even David didn't like this and David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzah and he called the name of the place Parazuzah to this day. But then look what it says in verse number nine. Did David like get mad at God and just charge God? No look what David does and David was afraid of the Lord that day. So David feared God because what God did. So the question is why would God do that? Turn to Numbers chapter seven. Turn to Numbers chapter seven. So here they made this nice cart to I mean isn't the aren't the intentions good here? The intentions are let's the Philistines have had the Ark they stole it you know it caused them all kinds of curses they gave it back and Abinadab kept it in his house in Gibeah for a while Abinadab I believe was of Judah but Abinadab keeps it with his two sons and then David just wants to bring it back to Jerusalem where it belongs and you know put it back in the temple. Look at Numbers chapter seven in verse number nine. Of course then Uzzah tries to stop it from falling tries to stop this sacred you know this sacred Ark from being damaged and God just strikes him dead right there. So why is that? Why is that? Look at Numbers chapter seven. In Numbers chapter seven look at verse number four let's go back a couple verses. The Bible says in the Lord spake unto Moses saying take it of them that they may do the servitude of the tabernacle of the congregation. He is talking about the Levites here. He's talking about the Levites and what they need they're going to need to do the service of the tabernacle. This is before the temple this is the service of the tabernacle. It says oh look at verse three it says they brought their offering before the Lord six covered wagons twelve oxen and a wagon for two of the princes and for each one an ox and they brought them before the tabernacle. Now the Lord is telling Moses how to cut up all these carts and these oxen. He says take it of them that they may do the servitude of the tabernacle of the congregation and thou shalt give them unto who unto the Levites to every man according to his service. And Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them unto the Levites. Two wagons and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershawn. So the sons of Levi had two sons Gertnoy had three sons Gershawn, Morari and Ithamar. And Kohath I'm sorry Kohath and Morari and Gershawn were the sons of Levi. He's saying give two wagons and four oxen to Gershawn. Then verse eight he says four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto the sons of Morari according to their service because these sons of Levi are going to have to do certain things and God's cutting up the tools that they'll need here. But then look what he says to the third son. But unto the sons of Kohath this is the son of Levi. He gave none because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them is that they should bear upon their shoulders. They're talking about the sons of Kohath here are the ones that are going to bear the ark upon their shoulders. And if you remember in Exodus chapter 39 that we just read, the ark was supposed to be carried, it was supposed to be carried, go back to Exodus chapter 39. We can take a look at it. Exodus chapter 39, this is detailed out I believe in Exodus chapter 25 as well but it actually lists it out in Exodus chapter 39 that we just read on how they were supposed to actually carry the ark. Look at verse 35. They were supposed to be carrying it with the ark, it was created in Exodus chapter 25. It was created with these rings and it was to have these staves which are poles gone through and the staves are not supposed to leave the rings. Look at verse 30 he says it says the ark of the testimony and the staves thereof and the mercy seat. So here we see that this is how it's supposed to be carried is with these staves, these poles that go through and the sons of Kohath, the Levites themselves were supposed to carry the ark. The Levites, it was their job to bear the ark upon what? Upon their shoulders. It says in Numbers chapter 7 and verse number 9. So this is why Uzza died because it was not his place to bear the burden of the ark. It was not his place. It was the Levites that God had charged that with. Now go to Joshua chapter 3 and I'll show you how important this was to the Lord. Go to Joshua chapter 3. Go to Joshua chapter 3. So it was the Levites. It was their job to bear the burden of the ark upon their shoulders. It was not the job of the people. It was not the job of the tribe of Judah. It was not the job of any other tribe, just the Levites. Go to Joshua chapter 3. In Joshua chapter 3 we're seeing the story of the people that are about to cross. They've been in the wilderness for 40 years and they're about to cross the Jordan River. All right, I'm going to show you how important these Levites bearing the ark is to the Lord. Look at verse number 3. They're getting ready for the crossing. They've been in the wilderness for 40 years and they're getting ready to cross the Jordan River. Here's how it begins. Look at verse 3. It says, and they commanded the people saying, when you see the what? The ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. And who's carrying it? Is it on a cart? Is it on a cart being pulled by people with oxen? It says no. And the priests, the Levites, bearing it upon their shoulders. Then you shall remove from your place and go after it. All right, now jump up to, so it says, when you see the priests walking by, bearing the ark of the covenant, then you follow. This is how the crossing begins. Now look at verse number 13. Verse number 13. How are they going to get across the river? Are they all just going to walk through the water? How are we going to get all these tents and all these people and all these children across the river? Look at verse 13. And it shall come to pass. As soon as the soles of the feet of who? The priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon and heap. It says, these priests, as soon as you see them walking by, you start following them. And as soon as their feet touch the waters, the banks of the Jordan, as soon as their feet get wet, the Jordan river is going to dry up. And that's how the people are going to cross. Look at verse number 16. Go down to verse number 16 of Joshua chapter 4. Go to Joshua chapter 4, and look at verse number 16. So all these people, actually in Joshua chapter 4, why don't you just go up to verse number 2? So you think about this, these priests are standing there with the ark in the Jordan, and all the people are crossing by. And then in the midst of all of that, Joshua commands them, or the Lord commands them to do this. In verse number 2 of Joshua 4, it says, take you 12 men out of the people, out of every tribe of man, and command them saying, take ye hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the river that's dry now, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm 12 stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place when ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the 12 men who had prepared to the children of Israel out of every tribe of man, and Joshua said unto them, pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you that when your children ask their fathers in time to come saying, what mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. So now, this is an interesting picture within a picture here, and I hope I can get this across clear, but basically the situation is this, the priests picked up the ark and put it on their shoulders, they walked to the edge of the Jordan, the people followed behind them, and all the people crossed while the priests were holding the ark, and not only did all the people cross while the priests were holding the ark in the Jordan river, the Jordan river, not only did their feet touching the river bed stop the waters, but it was actually their feet that started the waters, again, go to Joshua chapter 4 and look at verse number 16, after all this happened, the people all crossed over, look at verse number 16, command the priests that bear the ark out of the testimony that they come up out of the Jordan. Joshua, this is after everybody's over and this monument is already built, Joshua therefore commanded the priests saying, come ye up out of the Jordan, and it came to pass when the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the souls of the priests' feet were lifted up unto dry land that the waters of Jordan returned to their place. It was the priests' feet that started the water parting and it was the priests' feet leaving the river after everything was done, after hundreds of thousands of people have crossed over. Then God tells, while they're crossing over, God tells them pick a man out of every tribe and have him go get a stone, and each man goes and gets a stone and they make a monument to memorialize the crossing and the miracle that God did. All the while the priests are standing there holding the ark. How many people think that the priests put the ark down in the mud, knowing now what we think about what God thinks about the ark? Look, it was their burden to bear, is the point that I'm trying to make. Now, with the high priest on his shoulders, he bears all the names. And yes, we get this, that this is a picture of Christ. This is a picture of Christ as Hebrew 414 says, seeing them that we have a great high priest, seeing them that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. We see that this is a picture of Christ, but this is also a picture here of a spiritual leader. This is a picture of a spiritual leader having these names put on his shoulder. This was the position that God was putting the priest in. He was there to bear those names upon his shoulders. That was his burden to bear, the names of the people upon his shoulders. Now, a lot of people think that, hey, you know, I want to be in charge. A lot of young men think this way. They're like, I want to be in charge that way. I can just tell everybody what to do, and I'll get my way all the time. And this is why I want to be the boss at work. And this is why I want to be the manager. And this is why all this, because things are just going to be great. I don't ever have to argue with anybody. Everything just goes my way. And I can be the man in charge. But the problem is, the problem is, is that being in charge is not about having the preeminence over people. Being in charge and being a good leader, especially spiritual leadership, means you are the one that bears the burdens of the people. That's what God is putting forth to us here. Go to 3rd John, Chapter 1. 3rd John, Chapter 1. A lot of people think that just being in charge, or you know, whether that's in the secular world, or whether that's being the pastor, is just all about having the preeminence over people. And that's actually the opposite of what it is. Look at 3rd John, Chapter 1. And look at verse number 9. 3rd John, Chapter 1, verse number 9. We see a guy like this. We see a guy like this. And John is writing about this guy. John, who's a leader, he's one of the apostles. He's helping, you know, grow churches and plant churches and be an evangelist. And John says this, I wrote under the church, but diatrophies who love it to have the preeminence among them receiveeth us not. So it's actually the person that wants the preeminence, that you don't want in leadership positions. He's actually trying to fight against the apostles. So look, to be in charge, just to have control of things and to get your way is the wrong reason, it's a bad reason to want to be in charge. Okay? Because if you think that, you know, you have to have people, you know, you have to be the boss to have people respect you, you're wrong. You know, you should have respect no matter what position you're in in your life. You know, just working hard, being diligent, being honest, that's going to make people respect you. That's just going to happen. Okay? But being in charge, what God is telling us here with the stones on the shoulders of the high priest, and especially for a spiritual leader or for a pastor, you know, it's not, it can't be about the preeminence because you don't even make the rules. A pastor can't even say, like, I want to be a pastor because then I can just, you know, make the rules and I can just do whatever I want. No, you can't because you're bound by, you know, Christ has the preeminence in the church. So there's a problem if people want to be in charge just to have the preeminence because the true charge for a pastor, for a spiritual leader, as we see with this high priest, is the burden upon his shoulders. That's the true, that's the true charge that God is giving him. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 23. You say, well, what do you mean? What burden? Well, I'll show you. The Bible tells us what the, what burden he is talking about. Look at Jeremiah chapter 23, Jeremiah chapter 23. And we can see what God actually, God actually calls this. He actually calls this burden that is put on a spiritual leader that is put on a pastor. He actually calls it out in Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23 is a chapter where God is rebuking bad spiritual leaders. He's rebuking bad pastors. He's rebuking bad, you know, false prophets, people that, you know, the later part of Jeremiah chapter 23, he's talking about, you know, people that just, they claim that their word is God's word. This is a pastor who comes into a church and just like, just makes up a bunch of stuff and says, this is what God wants. You know, this is, this is a lot of pastors today, unfortunately. Look at verse number 36, though, and look, notice what he calls it. He says in verse number 36 of Jeremiah 23, it says, and the burden of the Lord shall you mention no more. Well, you say, what is that? What is the burden of the Lord? Well, he defines it for us right here. He says, for every man's word shall be his burden, for he have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts of our God. So we're talking here about the words of God. We're talking here about God's word. The burden of the Lord is God's word. And he's saying, you've perverted my word. He's like, so you don't have the burden of the Lord. It's like, you have your burden. You have his burden. So if you look at, for every man's word shall be his burden, that's the liberal church today. The liberal church today, they don't have the burden of the Lord. They're just, they're just saying their own words. They're saying what they, what they want to say. You say, why would people do that? You say, why would people go out and just say their own words and just say all these nothing sermons and these motivational speeches that really have nothing to do with the Bible? Why would they do that? Because preaching God's word is a heavy burden. That's why. That's why they don't do it. It's literally called, preaching God's word is literally called the burden of the Lord. And in Jeremiah 23, what God is saying here is that these people that are speaking their own words, they're speaking their own dreams, they're passing their own dreams off as, God gave me this dream. They're coming and they're saying, I had a dream of this and this and this and God gave me this dream. They're just making it up. It's not what God told them. God's angry about it. He's like, you know what? You don't have the burden of the Lord. Because this, this is the burden of the Lord. Preaching this is the burden of the Lord. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. It's the same thing that a pastor today, a pastor in the New Testament, you say, yeah, that's the Old Testament. No, it's the exact same thing that the pastor in the New Testament is commanded to do. It's to carry this burden of the Lord. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 talks exactly about that. So that's, that's why liberal churches do it. That's why somebody gets up and just gives a, that's why Joel Osteen gets up and says, everything's going to be great for you all the time. Just give money. Everything's going to be awesome. You know, it's just nothing ever bad is going to happen because it's hard preaching the truth to people. I mean, he's not even saved, but that's another thing. It's hard telling people what the actual word of the Lord says. Because a lot of times people aren't going to like to hear that. That's why it's called the burden of the Lord. And that's why God tells the pastor or the false prophet in Jeremiah 23, you don't have the burden of the Lord. He says, you don't have it. You perverted my words. What does that mean? You've changed my words. You've twisted my words. You have counterfitted my words. And you don't have the burden of the Lord. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 in verse number 1. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse number 1. Look at this. Look at how it starts out in verse number 1. It says, I charge thee before God. Can you really get any more serious than that right there? I mean he's basically saying this is an order. And this is not an order from me. This is an order from God. It's like, okay, he's talking to a pastor here. He's talking to someone going into the ministry saying, I order you from God. We better listen to what comes next. And the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. He's like, I'm ordering you this under God's name and under Jesus Christ's name. And look what he says. Preach the word. You know what that means? Preach the burden of the Lord if we want to connect that to Jeremiah chapter 23. He says be instant. He's saying, preach the word. So everything that he says after this, after this semicolon, is in description of preaching the word. Is in description all these things that come next are going to be things that happen as someone is carrying the burden of the Lord. As someone is preaching the word, carrying the burden of the Lord, these are the things. This is the load that will be on his shoulders. Look what it says. It says be instant in season, out of season. He's saying, you have to carry the burden of the Lord. You have to carry the burden of the Lord when people like it and when they don't. What those priests, they stood there carrying that dark the whole time. They couldn't put it down. Then look what he says. He says reprove. You know what reprove means? It means to correct. Somebody comes in here. I mean this is a command given to a pastor. I mean every young man that wants to be in charge and wants to be a pastor or whatever, look he just needs to just let go of that. Because this is your charge as a spiritual leader, as a pastor of a church. This is what it says reprove. If somebody comes in and they start teaching false things, you need to correct that. Look, you correct it nicely or whatever you need to do. Look this has happened. People have come in with some weird strange ideas and I've just nicely, you know, showed them from the Bible how that's you know, that's not what the Bible says. And 95% of the time, that's the end of it. But that's reproving. That's reproving. That is the charge of the pastor. That's part of the burden of the Lord that he carries. Look what it says here. Rebuke. That's a little different. A rebuke means someone that just needs to be told that that they're wrong. Look, that's part of it too. Look, that's not fun. But that is something you're like, I want to be a pastor. I want to be a spiritual leader. I want to be a pastor of a church one day. But I just could never rebuke or reprove or rebuke anyone. Well, you shouldn't ever want to be a pastor then. Because you will have to rebuke someone. You will have to rebuke people that are in error. Why? Because just like that breastplate of judgment, what was the breastplate of judgment? It was over his heart and it was for wisdom and understanding to discern good and evil. You have to protect the people from evil. So that you will have to rebuke in order to protect. But that, guess what? That's part of the burden of the Lord. And that says exhort. Now exhorting is fun. Now exhorting is not that big of a burden. Exhorting is to strongly encourage. Exhorting is to, the burden of exhorting is when you strongly encourage people from the Bible and you tell them what the Bible says and, hey, if you do these things, this will happen and this is how things will go. And then people don't listen. That's the burden on a pastor on that one. But then it says, with all the long suffering and what? Doctrine. So a pastor can't just get up and just say, hey, I need you to do things this way for no reason. He has to follow the doctrines of the Bible. He has to follow the doctrines of the Bible. Those things in verse number two are the burden of the Lord. Now ask yourself this. Ask yourself this. As the priests bore the Ark of the Covenant, what was in the Ark? It's the same thing. Many times in the Bible, including in Exodus chapter 39, I think it's verse 35, I could be wrong, it's called the Ark of the Testimony. In Joshua chapter 4 it's called the Ark of the Testimony. In many parts throughout the Bible it's called the Ark of the Testimony because what was in there? The Word of God was in there. They were literally, it's exactly the same thing as 2 Timothy chapter 4 where the pastor is to bear the burden of the Lord, which is the responsibility to preach the Word of God. And that is a picture of the priests standing there bearing the Word of God while all the people crossed over. Look, it was not their job. It was not their job to bear that burden. But so here's the thing folks, this is why it's wise in a church. In a church where the pastor is called by 2 Timothy chapter 4, he's charged to preach the Word. He is charged to bear the burden of the Lord. Guess what? Nobody else in the church is charged for that. Nobody else in the church is commanded to do that. Those priests were the only ones that had to bear the Ark of the Testimony while everyone else walked over. This is why it's best if you have something going on in your life. It's best to usually talk to your pastor, because a lot of times your pastor will give a different answer than your friend. Why? Because your friend doesn't have to bear the burden of the Lord. Because a lot of times if you ask your pastor a certain question, what do you think I should do in this situation? A lot of times the answer that you hear from the Word of God is not going to be something that you like. But it's his responsibility to tell you what the Word of God says. It's his responsibility, because why? He is literally charged by God to tell you what the Bible says. And look, your buddy is probably just going to tell you what you want to hear. He's probably just going to tell you, yeah, you know, I think you should do what you want to do. You know? Because guess what? A lot of times your friends just don't want to upset you. I'm not saying I want to upset you, but I will tell you the truth in a nice, loving way. Because I'm responsible to God. You know, the pastor is responsible before the Lord. It's his burden to bear. That's why the stones with the names of the people are placed upon his shoulders. Because it's his burden to bear. And look, I mean, I can tell you just from a testimony that exhorting, reproving, rebuking, preaching the Word, it's not something that's always pleasurable and fun and exciting. But along with that, you know what along with that comes? Along with that burden to do all those things, to basically to preach the Word, comes the worrying. Comes the caring. Comes the, you know, the pastor bears that burden. And the pastor's family in many, many cases bears that burden for the whole church. He bears the names of the people upon his shoulders. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. This is why, this is why the qualifications for a pastor in the New Testament are so strict. It's not saying that the pastor has to be perfect, but you wonder like where do these qualifications come from? Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. I mean, let's just look through these for just like five minutes. The problem, the reason that these qualifications are here in 1 Timothy chapter 3, in verse number 2 through like verse number 7, is because with the burden of the Lord, just like those priests carrying that ark, you know what comes with that? What comes with bearing that burden is a lot of pressure. Is a lot of pressure upon the man of God's shoulders. Look at verse number 2. Let's just look through some of these and here we see like, I mean, it's not just the pastor that's brought up. It's his family. It's his wife. You say why? Why? It says a bishop must be blameless. That doesn't mean he's perfect, okay? That doesn't mean he's perfect. It says that, you know, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. So he's not somebody that has behavioral problems. He's a nice person that likes to be hospitable to people. He's a good teacher to people. Now it gets interesting here. So he's got one wife. He's not got a bunch of wives. Sober, I believe in verse 2, kind of more refers to like the state of mind. You know, he's a he's a serious thinking person. Because in verse number 3 we cover the drunkard part, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. Because here's the funny thing. What happens to somebody who's like a drunk? What happens to somebody who drinks? If you've ever known somebody like this, and then they get under like a bunch of pressure in their life. What do they do? They drink more. They just fall into whatever those sins are. They just dive into that. Right? The more stressed out they get, the more pressure that's put on them. You know, somebody that struggles with greed, struggles with covetousness, pressure gets on them, and they're just going to go into those things further. So the Bible is like saying like, look, you can't be somebody that struggles with these things. You can't be somebody that has like, it's not talking about being sinless. It's just saying like, you can't be somebody that struggles with these things. Because God knows that when that burden of the Lord is upon you, when that arc of the testimony is on your shoulders, when the names of the people are placed on your shoulders, under pressure that, you know, any problems that you have are going to, you know, those cracks are going to widen is what the Bible is saying. Not a novice. Oh no, verse 4, one that rules well with his own house, having his children a subjection with all gravity. Look, he needs to have, he needs, this isn't saying his children have to be perfect. You know, a lot of people think that. You know, a lot of people think, oh, you know, the kids of the pastor need to be perfect. No, this isn't what it's saying. It's saying that, you know, he needs to have his house in order. He needs to have, you know, his marriage not perfect, but in order. Because guess what? When you put pressure on a man, and you put pressure on a family, you know, from this, there can't be any, there can't be cracks there. Because it's going to exploit those things. So this is why all these qualifications are here. Because God knows the kind of load, burden that's going to be put on the spiritual leader. More of you must have a good report of them, which are without. Not a novice, verse 6, let's be filled up with pride. He fall into the condemnation of the devil. So it's saying like, verse number 6 is kind of a good one. I mean, these are all sermons in the cells. But verse number 6 is not just saying he needs to know the Bible. It's saying that he needs to be like a mature person. He needs to know the Bible, but he needs to be a mature person. Otherwise he's going to be, if he's just some punk that just wants to be in charge of people, he's just going to get all puffed up with pride. And he's going to fall into some temptation and destroy himself and whatever group he's leading. Unless he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. If he's, if he's going to be some prideful person, he's going to get, he's going to get snared. You know, what do we know about pride? You know, that pride will, will, you'll, you'll fall into a snare. So that's why all these, these strict qualifications, all that to say this. All these qualifications are put in there for somebody that would want to be a pastor, not because the man needs to be perfect, not because his family needs to be perfect, not because his wife needs to be perfect, but because that man and that family that is under him is going to be under enormous amounts of pressure from the burden of the Lord. I mean, you could see why these pastors of these churches that, you know, they're just getting, they just want to get people in the door, they don't care, they don't want to say anything mean, they don't want to say anything true, they don't want to say anything that would offend anybody, because it's a burden. It's heavy. It's heavy to do that. It's heavy to tell people the truth, the burden of the Lord. So look, turn to Exodus chapter 17. Turn to Exodus chapter 17. God needs, he puts all these qualifications in the Bible, because he needs a man who can bear the burden not only upon his shoulders, but upon his heart. They can know when to protect the people, and he can bear the load of preaching the word of God, he can bear the load of caring and worrying about, you know, the flock, the church. You say, why? You know, why did God have it this way? Why did God make it so a spiritual leader would have to bear this load? Why did He do that? Turn to Exodus chapter 17. Did I tell you to turn there? Exodus chapter 17. And we'll end here. But we see that these stones, I hope you can see that these stones upon the shoulder of the high priest are very important in showing the role that the spiritual leader is in. Go to Exodus chapter 17. In Exodus chapter 17, the children of Israel are in a battle. They're in a battle with Amalek, and God makes it. So you say, why did he put this heavy burden on the man of God? Why did he put this heavy burden on the high priest? Why did he make the Levites stand in the river for, I don't know how long that took, how many hours that took, carrying that burden upon their shoulders while they crossed hundreds of thousands of people, then they made a memorial, they picked up these stones, and they had to hold it the whole time upon their shoulders. Here's why. Amalek is in a battle with the children of Israel in Exodus chapter 17. And God makes it so when Moses holds up his hands, they win the battle. But when Moses puts his hands down, they begin losing the battle. So the story goes that Aaron and her, they get Moses something to sit on so he can do better at holding up his hands. Not only do they do that, but one stands on each side of him and they hold up his hands for him because he's getting tired. He's getting worn out. But here's the only thing I'm trying to get you to understand. Look at verse number 11 of Exodus chapter 17. And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed, and he led down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hand were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat there on, and Aaron and her stayed up his hand, the one on the other, one side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So the point is, is that God puts all these qualifications in for a pastor in the New Testament so he can bear this burden of the Lord for the people. But, you know, it's nice when he's got some people to help him out with things. It's nice when, you know, the load can be taken off of them. You know, I mean, it's, I think about this a lot. You know, ministries, ministries, not this, this ministry certainly isn't limited by ideas. And there's a lot of ideas, you know, on where, you know, where to take this ministry, how to grow this ministry. Ministries are limited by, really, by manpower, is what it comes down to. You know, our soul-winning ministry, the whole point of our Christian lives, is limited by what? It's just limited by manpower. I mean, soul-winning is literally a function of man-hours. It's like more people out soul-winning longer, we will get more people saved. It's very simple. So look, the pastor, you know, the pastor needs support every now and then is what we can take from this story in Exodus chapter 17, but more importantly for you, for you watching or for you sitting here in the church, just remember that just like Moses, just like Moses, the pastor's victory, the spiritual leader's victory, is the people's victory. And that's why the names were attached to his shoulder. Because those two things, the people and the priest, the people and the pastor, they're tied together. And as the priest, you know, bears those names successfully, the people succeed, just like in Exodus chapter 17. When Moses was able to keep his hands up, the people won the battle and people came in to support him, held up his hands, and look, they won the battle. The pastor's victory is the people's victory. So it's super important where the names of the children of Israel are on the garments. They weren't on every garment. They weren't on every garment. They were just over his heart. They were over his heart so he could protect the people with wise and understanding judgment, a wise and understanding heart. The names of the people were there. And then they were on his shoulders because he bears the burden of the Lord, just like the Levites bore the arc of the testimony of God's word in the river Jordan. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.