You Can’t Have it Both Ways

This clip is part of the sermon “The Lord of Lists" delivered by Kevin DeYoung at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC on August 31, 2025.

They must have thought that they could have the best of both worlds'.  That when it was convenient they could say, "Yep, Barzillai the Gileadite, that’s our dad. Huh? Remember that?" Inherit his wealth, have his good name. And now when it came to be priests, they could go back, and they could do both things.

But you can’t. You can’t have it both ways. 

So perhaps this is a fair application. And I’m thinking in particular of those many, many young people here who have had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. Maybe even in this church. Maybe at Covenant Day School. Maybe your whole life you’ve had, what shall we say, a kind of priestly inheritance. 

And now as you’re growing up, it’s nice to have that in reserve somewhere on the shelf.  But if another identity comes along and it seems to get you the things you want now, whatever that might be.  Identity has the smartest, the most beautiful, the partier, the progressive, whatever it might be, I like that.  And you know what, when it comes time to it if I need this old identity, I can have that too.  I can have it both ways.  I can be this new person. I can leave this other priestly inheritance behind and when it comes to it, I can always say, oh yeah, well wait a minute that’s really me.  I grew up in the church and my parents were Christians and my grandparents were Christians.  See here it is. 

Might it be that the man at the registration says something is not adding up here.  I thought you didn’t want that inheritance.  I thought you wanted this new identity. Because you can’t have them both, you can’t be a son of Barzillai from Manasseh and a priest from the tribe of Levi.

And you may think, well of course, I will just be one person for this crowd and I’ll be another person when my parents are around, when I’m in church, when I come home for the weekend, and I can have both and no one will be the wiser.  Well at some point someone will. 

We cannot embrace another identity and then just come back and claim the old one whenever you want, holding the two together.  There is a cautionary tale for these men who thought it was a good idea to squander their priestly inheritance even for someone as noble as Barzillai the Gileadite.