Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Amen. All right. We went on vacation. It
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Was great. Two weeks of <inaudible> and we had a wonderful time. Uh, we were, uh, we were at a place that had a lot of iguanas, like squirrels, uh, and, uh, and so that's why you see the tan in front of you. This is a, this is just
Speaker 2 00:00:20 Something that I sprayed on this morning. I've been
Speaker 1 00:00:22 Working on this for two weeks and, uh, no thank you for, for allowing us to go. I don't know about you, but sometimes when, when we go on vacation, we have a tail, a tendency to turn on the tele, right after sun goes down and maybe you don't have anything planned. You turn on the tele, you look at the Olympics was on. So we watch a little bit of the Olympics on the television, but usually doesn't your television station. Just kind of go towards certain things that you, that you like certain shows that are comfortable to you. How many of you like the fixer upper shows? Do you like those shows where they take a dilapidated house and they, and they go in there and they just clean it up and make it all that's that's the typical station for the Jarvis's. We go to those houses and we go look at that.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 That's they're never going to fix that. Oh, the floor is falling. Didn't see that coming. And then you're like going, oh, this is it's amazing. What they can do to this. One of our favorite is a Joanne chip chip and Joanna Gaines. Do you like those guys? Chip and Joanna Gaines. And they're actually, it's called fixer upper. Isn't it is that, isn't that the name of theirs? I get them all confused. It's renovate this house and blah, blah, blah. But anyway, it's a, it's a craze these days and, uh, chip and Joanna, I particularly like, because Joanna will go into a house and she, every time she talks about she, she wants to make the home workable so everybody can function functionable so everybody can, can do what they need to do. She knows, she gets to know the people that are moving into that house.
Speaker 1 00:01:45 So she wants to get to know what their lives are like, what their day to day living is going to be like. And in the end, while her goal is to make it a functionable house, ultimately she'll do a little, little, something, a little extra to make it into what she calls a home and to her. I love it because she's so invested in these people. And in these people's welfares in their, in their lives that they're going to be spending in these homes for years to come. She always ends up talking about this. This home should be a place of solitude or a place of safety, a place that you can call home. It's more than a, it's more than a house. It's a dwelling
Speaker 0 00:02:26 Place.
Speaker 1 00:02:29 I love the difference between the difference between homes
Speaker 0 00:02:32 And houses, right?
Speaker 1 00:02:35 Every one of us probably has a house that we live in or an apartment that we live in. But it's different when we call it a home. When we're on vacation, we were talking about coming home. There's a, there's a difference about coming home to the hotel room. Well, when we get home, we can make pasta and coming home to where our family has grown up, where we've experienced life together. There's a difference between the two it's. It is. It's a place of safety, a place, our family calls home. And I hope to do a good enough job so that my kids, when they go away, they'll want to come
Speaker 2 00:03:13 Home from wherever they are so that they know there's a place for them. No matter where the Lord takes them in their lives. We're about to experience a shift in Exodus, we're doing a
Speaker 1 00:03:25 Study in Exodus. We've talked about the golden calf. We talked about what a disappointing kind of start that the children of Israel had has had at Sinai. They they've been not really a family of God. God wants to make them into a family, but they've been kind of disappointing much. Like sometimes our kids are disappointing to us. Sometimes. Uh, Israel has demonstrated that they're going to struggle to be faithful. They've demonstrated that they are going to have rebellious hearts. They've demonstrated the consequences of sin in their own lives. As they made the scolding cabinet. Remember they poured the golden and Erin said, poof out, came a calf. Didn't see that come.
Speaker 0 00:04:02 And Moses
Speaker 1 00:04:03 Breaks the 10 commandments because of the DoubleTree that, that leads them into it's sin, that leads to sin, that leads to sin.
Speaker 0 00:04:10 And then weren't careful.
Speaker 1 00:04:11 And so, and so God has, has tried to help them understand that he wants to be with them. Um, and he still wants them to be as family, unlike a parent, even though he has to discipline them, he assures them that they're still his people and he still desires to be with them. No matter how disappointing they've been to him, he wants to make sure he's, he, they know he wants to be
Speaker 0 00:04:37 With them. And the way he does it, this is through tabernacle. How many of you have
Speaker 1 00:04:43 Heard of the word tabernacle before heard this word before? Yeah, it's a pretty popular word. We've we use it in a variety of different circumstances. Tabernacle literally means dwelling
Speaker 0 00:04:52 Place. So
Speaker 1 00:04:54 God is building a dwelling place among his people. Now you may think to yourself, Craig, we're going to talk about the tabernacle and Mount Sinai and all that old stuff. I'm telling you what, this is the message that blows me away. This whole idea of tabernacle blows. Every time I study it, I'm blown away. When we had our pre-service meeting with all the folks you see, here we go through a time of prayer and sharing in the, in the morning. And as we were talking about, they said, well, Craig, what are you gonna preach on it? And I, I, I pretty much gave them the whole thing there because I'm just excited about this idea of tabernacle. And my hope is that by the end of the service, you will be
Speaker 0 00:05:34 As well.
Speaker 1 00:05:35 Look at Exodus 25. This is where the idea starts in Exodus 25, starting verse 1 25, by the way, this takes up a great deal of time. In the book of Exodus, we're going actually from 25 all the way to 36 today, there's a huge chunk of scripture given to this idea of tabernacle. This starts in 25 verse one, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people, Israel that they will take for me, a contribution from every man whose heart moves in him. You shall receive a contribution for me. And then you skip down to verse eight. Why do they need to give a contribution? Because in verse eight and let them make me a sanctuary church, will you just read these next few words with me that I may dwell
Speaker 0 00:06:19 In their midst? Now you could
Speaker 1 00:06:22 Read over that pretty quickly because verse eight is pretty short, not a maker, a tabernacle for me, a dwelling place. That's where the word tabernacle means. Make a dwelling place for me that I may dwell in their midst. God wants to be in their space. So what does he do? He knows that they're going to fail. He knows that they're going to be a disappointment. He knows they're going to struggle with rebellion. He knows that they're going to sin and they're going to feel every time like they do, like they're far away from him. So he needs to build a place, a dwelling place where they can be assured no matter how far they fall, they will always have a way to get
Speaker 0 00:06:59 Back. Back to him. He doesn't leave them. He will never leave them. And he builds a tabernacle that he made
Speaker 1 00:07:11 Dwell in their midst. God wants to be in their space, his desires to be with them. He doesn't bring them to where he is. It's the other way around. Have you ever wondered, like why, when you decide to follow Jesus, why doesn't he just take you there? You know, why go through the whole mundane, painful process of life after that? Where you are going to be a disappointment to God, you are going to drop the ball. You're going to let this tongue and say stuff that you're going to have to apologize for later. You're going to struggle with faithfulness. You're why go through all of that? Why does it God just take us to be with him. I mean, that's, what's going to happen anyway.
Speaker 0 00:07:49 It's interesting to me that in scripture,
Speaker 1 00:07:52 God is constantly reminding us that he wants to be with us in the space of our lives, in the spaces that we have in our lives. God wants to be in their space and God wants to be in our space. Moses has already said, I'm not going to go anywhere unless you go with us. And now God is saying one, one better. I'll do. I'm going to do one better. I'm not just going to build a cottage that I can visit. Once in a while, I'm going to build a home or I can stay
Speaker 0 00:08:20 A dwelling place.
Speaker 1 00:08:22 It doesn't just visit the tabernacle. This is his house. Is that crazy? This is the place God is building. It's his fixer upper, but he's starting from scratch. He's literally getting all of this, these contributions. And he's saying let's, let's build a house so that I can live with you. When you wanted to visit God, he was only a stone throw away. You live. Literally could walk out of your tent, take a few steps.
Speaker 0 00:08:53 And you're at God's house. You to see
Speaker 1 00:08:55 God just go see him. He's right over there. He's at he's home. He's always home. You can go see him. This was life for the, for the children, visitor isn't that crazy. They could leave their tent and they could they're home. And they could go to God's home. Whenever they wanted to. Everything to build God's home has to come from them. Materials, construction, all of this had to be from scratch. In fact, there's a dozen chapters after this on stuff that God wants in his
Speaker 0 00:09:23 House. Where did people get all the stuff? Where did the Israel, they were slaves.
Speaker 1 00:09:30 Where did they get all this stuff to make God his furniture and things like that? Where did they get it from? This was all Egyptian material. This was all the stuff they took with them. When they left Egypt, Egypt, the Egyptians gave them pretty much gifts so that they would go away and the plagues would stop. This is all it's. And what did they already use their stuff for so far,
Speaker 0 00:09:53 They use it to build a golden calf.
Speaker 1 00:09:55 What they had taken from the Egyptians to build a golden calf. Now they take from the Egyptians and they build a house, a house
Speaker 2 00:10:03 For God, a home where God would live. This blows me away, taking the things from the kingdom of darkness and putting them into the purposes of God.
Speaker 1 00:10:15 All their possessions were about to be redeemed, to build God,
Speaker 0 00:10:20 Uh, home verse three.
Speaker 1 00:10:24 What kind of contribution should they bring? Well, it says a versary. This is a contribution your soul received from them. Gold, silver and bronze,
Speaker 0 00:10:30 Pretty expensive stuff. Blue
Speaker 1 00:10:33 And purple Scarlet yarns, fine. Twine, twine, twine, linen, goats, hair, tanned, Ram skins. Goatskins Acacia wood oil for the lamps spices for anointing oil and for fragrance, incense, Onyx stone stones for setting for the <inaudible> for the breast, please. That's what the high priest wore and let them make me a sanctuary that I made well in their midst on before we go any further, I want you to get this one word. This was a contribution. Do you catch that word contribution? This was not something that they were forced to do. That each person bring to me a contribution. All of these things were donated. The people knew this was a place where God would be with them. We're building God a house. So let's take up an offering and bring to God what w w w w want so that we can make the helm that he wants to have.
Speaker 1 00:11:25 I love this because it just constantly reminds me of Joanna Gaines. I know it's a terrible illustration, but it just reminds me because, because God is saying, I want a house and let's see how much you want me to have a house with you, a home with you. And so they take up a contribution and they were so desperate for it that they gave from their hearts. If you skip up to Exodus 35 in verse 29, it says all the men and women, the people of Israel whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done. Brought it as, what does it say there? Oh, we don't have it up there. Uh, is 35, 29. Do I not have that one up there? There it is. Yes. Uh, all, all of the men and women, the people of Israel whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as what church,
Speaker 0 00:12:18 A freewill offering.
Speaker 1 00:12:19 Do you know what you're supposed to see here? This is a freewill offer. In other words, the people were so desperate. There were so in love with the idea of making God
Speaker 0 00:12:27 A house, a home that they just kept bringing stuff. They just brought
Speaker 1 00:12:33 Stuff after stuff after. And they had been through the holding get gold, golden calf experience. So they knew they didn't want to use it for that kind of thing anymore. Now they have a chance to use it for God
Speaker 0 00:12:43 And they just keep bringing it. This
Speaker 1 00:12:45 Is not coerced. This is freewill and evidence of their joy, that God was going to build a house, a home among them. I want you to know at one point in this whole process, if you go to the very end of this process and Exodus 36, Moses and Aaron say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're bringing too much stuff. Stop bringing all of this stuff. We got too much. Can you believe that they brought so much stuff that they told them to stop? Don't believe me, look in Exodus 36, verse three. As they receive from Moses, all the contribution that the people of Israel brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning. So that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of tax task on the sanctuary came each from the tasks that he was doing and said to Moses, Moses, we need a minute that people bring much more than enough for doing the work. The Lord has commanded us to do so. Moses gave command and the word was proclaimed to the camp. Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work and
Speaker 0 00:13:53 More. How does that come across to now?
Speaker 1 00:13:58 These are just been rebels. These has just been people that said, God, we, we don't even want to go near the mountain that God's at. It's a shaky, crazy, scary thing. In the Hebrew. It says there their feet were moving back and forth in their shoes. They're scared to death of this God. Now, though, God has brought them through the discipline process. He's reassuring them. He says, listen, I will go with you. And they say, then
Speaker 0 00:14:26 We're so excited about this. We're just keep bringing them,
Speaker 2 00:14:30 Bringing stuff, bringing stuff until
Speaker 1 00:14:34 The leadership finally had to say, sorry, guys, we got to cut you off too much. John, have you heard of churches doing this? I love it. It's interesting how our stuff more important to us than experiencing the presence of God. Jesus knew this. He said, it's hard to serve two masters. You can
Speaker 2 00:14:59 Serve God or you can serve money. It's gotta be one of the two.
Speaker 1 00:15:04 It's an interesting thing. How stuff has a way of capturing our hearts? That's why Jesus said where your heart is, is where your treasure, where your treasure is, where your heart will be. Also stuff can encapture us or it can make us, it can reveal to us how important God is to us.
Speaker 2 00:15:26 It's interesting how our stuff often becomes more important. There's
Speaker 1 00:15:29 A story of a woman and who unexpectedly received a large inheritance. She immediately gave
Speaker 0 00:15:34 A 10th of it to the church. When she died,
Speaker 1 00:15:37 They found her diary. And in it, apparently in her diary, they read about the time she gave
Speaker 0 00:15:43 This check to the church and she wrote in there quick, quick, before my heart gets hard.
Speaker 1 00:15:52 You ever notice how God doesn't just redeem us, but he allows our stuff to be redeemed as well.
Speaker 0 00:15:58 All the stuff
Speaker 2 00:15:59 That we're using here this morning is being redeemed for God's glory in your home. The stuff that you have is redeemed for God's
Speaker 0 00:16:05 Glory. I mean, it should be, we should be in a process
Speaker 1 00:16:08 Of redeeming. All that God gives us this iPad, hopefully is redeemed for God's glory. Use it to preach. God's
Speaker 0 00:16:15 Word, all the stuff that God gives you has the potential to being used for God's glory. And it wasn't just stuff
Speaker 1 00:16:24 That God is redeeming extra 35, 1 chapter, uh, before you get to the end of all of this Exodus, 35 verse 10 says, let every skilled craftsman among you common, make all that. The Lord has commanded. God not only is revealing stuff. He's revealing talent as well,
Speaker 0 00:16:41 Time as well. He's
Speaker 1 00:16:44 Redeeming all of the people, what they own
Speaker 0 00:16:47 And who they are. In fact, this
Speaker 1 00:16:50 Is going to kind of blow you away. Did you know that there are two people highlighted for the time and talent and work they put
Speaker 2 00:16:58 In on the temp on the tabernacle? Did you know that
Speaker 0 00:17:01 It wasn't chipping Joanna to
Speaker 1 00:17:04 Two different people? I'll show you about these because these two people are pulled out of the crowd and they S and God says, I need these two people because they're talented. And because they have, they have, they have an attention to detail. And because they are able to teach others, listen to this Exodus 35 verse 30 Moses said to all the people of Israel. See the Lord has called by name. <inaudible> the son of URI son of her, of the tribe of Judah. And he has filled him with the spirit of God, was skill and intelligence, with knowledge and craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze and cutting stone for the setting and carving wood for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach both him. And here's the other one, or wholly AB the son of whatever his name is. Ash <inaudible> of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them these two guys with skill to do every sort of work done by engravers or designers, or by embroiders in purple blue and Scarlet yarns and fine twined Lin linen, or by a Weaver and Everett by any sort of Workman, skilled, uh, or skilled designer. These two guys were pointed out by God, says, I want these guys to work on my home.
Speaker 0 00:18:17 And their
Speaker 1 00:18:18 Names have been in the, in, in the annals of Hebrew history. Ever since God, doesn't just want to redeem your stuff. He wants to redeem your time and your talent. The reason you do
Speaker 2 00:18:30 What you do well is because God has given you the ability to do it well. And he wants you to use it for his glory.
Speaker 1 00:18:38 <inaudible> a holy app we're doing, and not only were they doing skilled to do it, they were also skilled to teach others to do it. Also, I love how this is such a great picture to us of what it means to serve the Lord. There were possibly many qualified
Speaker 0 00:18:53 Workers, but these guys, these guys were the best. They were,
Speaker 1 00:18:58 They were skilled and they, they honed
Speaker 0 00:19:02 Their skill
Speaker 1 00:19:04 So that what they did was extremely well done. And they were skilled so that they could teach
Speaker 0 00:19:10 Others so that they're
Speaker 1 00:19:13 By, by using their gifts, God would enjoy a beautiful home, but others would be able to use their gifts by learning from the best or learning from these guys. And that God had blessed listen in the church. It's the same thing. And let them build for me a sanctuary that I would dwell dwell in their midst. We, we are, we are called to serve in the church to serve God's people so that we can use our gifts to bless God
Speaker 0 00:19:41 And teach others. It's an amazing concept. Here is simply this. Why does God need a home at all? He was fine where he was wasn't he does. He really
Speaker 1 00:19:54 Need humans to put together a tent. He literally is asking them for a very large tent in a very barren desert.
Speaker 0 00:20:05 Why,
Speaker 1 00:20:06 Why does he need a tabernacle at all? Isn't heaven. Good enough for him. Like I said, a dozen chapters after this, tell us about what God wants in his house. And it's everything. Furniture, construction plans, dimensions, how the house would be used, who would be invited to the house? What colors went on the wall. This is a fixer upper episode. He is telling them, this is exactly the home that I want you to build. Why do you think furniture takes up so much time in the, in these 12 chapters, because God is building not a cottage to visit, but a home to live in one of these that he actually gets, the folks there to build was called the table of the presence, the table of the presence. And you know what went on top of the table of the presence. You already know this. It was called the bread of the presence.
Speaker 0 00:21:01 This bread was to remind them that God is with them all the time.
Speaker 1 00:21:06 Stick that candle stick that you see the juice. It was one of those in the temple, always lit to remind them that God is with them and the placement, the placement. What do you know from real estate? Three words. What is it when you sell your property? It's going to be worth a lot because everything depends on location, location, location. Do you know where God wanted this location to be? I had a picture of this and I forgot to put it on here. Do you know where the, the picture of this? Which I should have, like literally right here, but I forgot to put it on. Do you know where God's tent, where God's home would be
Speaker 2 00:21:43 Right in the middle of all the other homes,
Speaker 1 00:21:48 Literally all the tribes were around the outside and God's house
Speaker 0 00:21:53 Was in the middle location, location, location. Why does God create
Speaker 2 00:22:01 A home among his people? Exodus 29, 46,
Speaker 1 00:22:04 It's all over the place. Here's another passage.
Speaker 2 00:22:06 And they shall know that I am the Lord, their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord, their God, there, you have it. The whole
Speaker 1 00:22:14 Reason God wants a dwelling place. A home is so his people can be reminded
Speaker 0 00:22:20 That he is with them. He
Speaker 1 00:22:23 Is their Lord. He is their God. And he's right in the middle of the tent. Listen, I know for us, this is kind of weird, cause we don't live in this kind of thing. But if you had a tent and you're at the bottom of Sinai and you saw God's house being built, it'd be right in the middle and you could open the flap of your tent and you could point
Speaker 0 00:22:40 Or your children, or you
Speaker 1 00:22:42 Could look out yourself and you could see in the middle of the tent, in the middle of the, the, the, the encampment, you could point it there. And you could say, look, look, kids, God is building his house right there, right in the middle of us. And we
Speaker 2 00:22:55 Can go see him whenever we want to. That's
Speaker 1 00:22:59 Crazy, right? God is moving. He's going to be in a home in the middle of it. The people that they will know that I am the Lord
Speaker 2 00:23:10 And that I am dwelling among them in every
Speaker 1 00:23:14 Way he wants them to be reminded of this. If you were to go to the temple, you would smell oil. This oil would be, would be burned to remind them that your, your, your senses would pick up. God is here. Animal skins and wood would be used so that they could feel cool when they went to sea to, to, to visit God's house blue and purple yarn, fine linen so that they could see so that they could experience by seeing you, you, you got the feeling of the cool, you've got the smell. You've got the, you've got the sight, the songs that they would sing in and the dying animals as they cut the throats of the animals and the gurgle, the death gurgle would remind you, sin is what's being cleansed here so that you can have God in your presence. They would hear this as they brought their children and then sacrifice that they would take. When you made a sacrifice, you'd take a piece of that home. You cook it with your family and you would taste that God, that God is with you in every way, God is God is impacting their census through, through what they hear through what they see through what they taste or what they, they feel through it. They smell in every way. God is saying, when you come to my house in every way, I'm going to try and remind you. I'm here. I'm right here.
Speaker 1 00:24:28 Unlike we would do God begins with furniture. Do you know what the main piece of furniture God builds the house around? This is the crazy thing is when you buy a house, you kind of look at the house. And I don't know what you look for first in a house. What's important to you. I remember when we moved into our house, it was the layout because it was wide open. We could have a lot of people in, and we knew that we'd love to having people over. And so we looked at that. We said, yeah, winter, this is, this is what we're looking. When God built his house among his people, he built it around one piece of furniture. Do you know what that one piece of furniture was?
Speaker 0 00:25:01 What was it arc of the covenant? God says, here's what I want you to do. Put the arch here and build around it. The arc
Speaker 1 00:25:11 Of the covenant held the, the staff of Aaron that budded, it held the, the tablets that Moses smashed, those were put into there had some mana, some, some, a jar of manna was put into there as reminder to them of, of these. It was like a, it was like a chest of a reminder to them of how good it, God had been to them. And if you've ever watched Raiders of the lost Ark, if you watched this Indiana Jones, that dah dah, dah, that didn't one of my favorite movies of all time. Right? Pretty accurate on top, you had, you had a seat that was covered by angels with their outstretched ring wings. And that seat was actually a throne. I don't know if you know that it's a throne like, like you would have a throne where the king set, this would be the arc arc of the covenant. The throne goes on top covered by the angels wings. And that seed had a name. Do you know what that seat was called? It was well, the
Speaker 0 00:26:01 Mercy seat. And at once
Speaker 1 00:26:04 Week, a year, every time the high priest would go behind the curtain where that piece of furniture was that nobody got to see except him once a year, he would pour blood over the mercy seat. And unlike a throne that you, we would have where we sit a king on the throne, this throne was unoccupied with human eyes, the glory of the Lord, Lord dwelt
Speaker 0 00:26:25 There in some way. And we don't know how, but
Speaker 1 00:26:28 The smoke there and the fire was there above the tabernacle so that you could know God still with us, God, still with us. But if you went into that, holy of Holies, you would get to see a piece of the glory. Lord, I can't explain. I don't know what it looked like, but there's no made of God. So they don't put an image on that throne because our hearts are led to idol worship so quickly. So no, no, no faults, no images of God were to be made. It's in the top 10, top 10 commandments, no images, an empty seat to be reminded that God was among them. God wanted to be in their space.
Speaker 2 00:27:07 And he wanted them to know it. And church, nothing has changed.
Speaker 1 00:27:16 God wanted to be in their space and he wanted them to know it, to taste it, to smell it, to see it, to feel it. He wanted them to experience it. And nothing has changed. If I were to ask you, where is God today? What would, where would you say? Yeah, a lot of people, if I were to start out the message and say, where is God today? A lot of people would just kind of go
Speaker 0 00:27:38 Up there. He's
Speaker 1 00:27:41 He's up there, right? Isn't that where God is, that is not where God is. God is not here. We have a tendency to point and, and to say, well, I think God is out there. Our God is up there or something. But if you were to look at Matthew 1820, you would be reminded exactly where God
Speaker 2 00:27:58 Is. It says for where two or three are gathered in my name. Jesus says, what does he say, church? There I am among them.
Speaker 1 00:28:09 Whereas God, today he's right here. He's right here. Jesus wants to be with us. Jesus, Jesus is desperate to be with you. His name reminds us. He wants to be with us. What is Jesus' name? I'm going to do a flashback to Christmas. His name shall be called Emmanuel, which means
Speaker 2 00:28:35 God with us,
Speaker 1 00:28:37 God loves to be with us. God wants to be with us. And he wants to be revised to remember this regularly. Tabernacle literally means God's dwelling. And what's true in the old Testament about God is true in the new Testament about God is true today. God's desire is to be with us. God wants us to remember this regularly. God wants to be in our space. You remember what he said to the disciples? When he went back to heaven, he died. He rose from the dead, and then he went back to heaven. The last thing he said to them is in Matthew 28, verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I've command. This is where he says, go into all the word preach. Do you remember this? Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold church. Would you say this with us, with me? I am with you always to the, to the end of the age, whereas God, today
Speaker 0 00:29:30 He is with us always
Speaker 2 00:29:32 Until the age ends. And then he is with us for the rest, for the rest of the time Jesus
Speaker 1 00:29:39 Died so that we could have the, of God with us constantly, without him going to heaven, he couldn't send the holy spirit. And now with him going to heaven, ascending into heaven, God is with us in the person of the holy spirit God's plan has always been in
Speaker 2 00:29:57 To be with us. Did you know that
Speaker 1 00:29:59 Now this is where this whole thing. That's all introduction. This is amazing. In point God's plan has always been
Speaker 2 00:30:07 To be with us, always
Speaker 1 00:30:12 Do you know, heaven as a result of the fall. The fact that we die and go to heaven is a problem of sin. We shouldn't die. We die because sin lives in the world, lives in us, separates us from God. And when we die, we go immediately into the presence of God. That's not the way that it was intended to be. God was always intending to be with us. Not the other way around. I know you might have to buckle it up for that statement because heaven is a result of the fall is kind of a weird thing to say, but it's absolutely true. Think of it in the garden. Where was God, God came to walk with them in the garden. And the Coolah today. Remember that in the tabernacle, God comes to be with his people in the person of Jesus Christ. God comes to be with us, Emmanuel God with us.
Speaker 1 00:31:04 God says to Thomas, have I been with you so long? And you say, show me the father, yo dude, you're looking at it. God with us means Jesus came to be with us when Jesus ascended into heaven and gave us the holy spirit. That's God with us, God. Now, instead of Jesus, just being, because Jesus is just one person. So Jesus would be in this room with us, which would be cool. But then he wouldn't be at Bartlett church and he wouldn't be at the church up the road. He'd just be with us. He'd have to go from our church to another church and visit all these different churches. Jesus said to his disciples. It's for your benefit that I go away. Because if I go away, I can send the holy spirit and then I can be in every church. Every single Sunday I can be with you always, even to the end of the age, his intention has always been to be with us at all times, John one 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory. The glory is only the son from the father full of grace and truth. God dwelt among us. The holy spirit, Ephesians two verse 22 in him. You also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. Do you understand we are being built into a dwelling place for God because the spirit lives in us.
Speaker 1 00:32:23 Jesus says where two or three are gathered in my name. There I am among them. You ever wonder why? Like I could go into the, into the kitchen and Renee could be getting communion together and I could go up to Renee and say, Renee, I'm starving. I need something to eat. Give me something that she says, all I got is these crummy communion, crackers. Just give me a handful of those. And I can scar from in the kitchen and she'd be like, well, Craig, you should've stopped and got him a muffin or something on the way to church something else, but he's eaten all the community and crackers, but it would kind of be a weird thing, but it wouldn't be like a really weird thing, right? It just to be kind of like a weird thing. But once a communion is brought out, excuse me, it's set in front of our church.
Speaker 1 00:33:04 If I were to go over there and scarf on the communion, uh, on the community, uh, wafers. At that point, you'd probably be gone. Craig, that's just doesn't look right. Do you want to know why there's something different about when the church gathers? There's something different. The cracker, the juice doesn't change. There's no cellular change. It takes a supernatural weird mystical thing going on. But when the presence of God is among way, when we are gathered in his name, that communion cup becomes something more than just a piece of bread and a cup of juice. It becomes a representation of what makes
Speaker 2 00:33:38 Our, our lives function becomes a representation of why we can be friends with God, became the representation of the blood in the body of Jesus Christ that he gave so that we could be right with God. There's so much theology in all of this that I,
Speaker 1 00:34:02 I don't have the time to, to cover it all.
Speaker 2 00:34:06 But what I love most about it is exactly what I've already said to you. God's desires to be among us. Did you know, in the end times, that's exactly. I was going to be, how many of you, you think that when you die, you go to heaven and that's the end of the story.
Speaker 1 00:34:20 That's like if the, if the book has 12 chapters, that's like the 11th chapter, the 12th chapter, the last chapter is the fact that God finally gets to be with us for all
Speaker 2 00:34:32 Eternity. We don't go to be with him. He comes to us.
Speaker 1 00:34:37 If you've never heard that before, you should read the last chapter of the book
Speaker 2 00:34:41 Of the Bible revelation 21 verse one says, then I saw lard a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven. And the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Speaker 1 00:34:56 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, hear it now, behold, the dwelling place of God is what church is it up there? It's up there. Behold. The dwelling place of God is
Speaker 2 00:35:08 With, uh, with men, with women,
Speaker 1 00:35:10 The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with
Speaker 2 00:35:13 Them and they will be as people. And God himself will be with them as their God church. We don't go to be with him. He constantly comes to be with us. Why? Because he wants a home. He wants your space as his home. That doesn't, that blow you away.
Speaker 1 00:35:40 It's so interesting to me that most Christians saying that the whole story is about living a good life here so that I can go to be with Jesus Sunday. Jesus is already here in the person of the holy spirit, where two or three are gathered my name. I'm already there.
Speaker 0 00:35:54 He's here.
Speaker 1 00:35:56 And like the tabernacle, this portable shore, you, you, you're gonna walk out this door and you're going to go to your home. But the Lord goes with you wherever you go. That's why Jesus said in law, I am with you always, even until the end of the age, we need this today.
Speaker 2 00:36:16 As a reminder, constantly more than ever, God wants to be in our space. Church.
Speaker 1 00:36:21 Second Corinthians six, 16, it's all over scripture. If you look for it, second Corinthians six 16. What agreement has the temple of God with idols for? We are the temple of the living. God asset. God said, I will make my dwelling. What does it say? Church? I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. And I will be their God. And they shall be my people. That's talking about us. The church, God will make his dwelling among us. God will walk with us. You take God where you go. God is with you. God wants to be with you. Just like the tabernacle. We are portable. That's why we say go, grow and overcome. Because when you go, you take the presence of God with you.
Speaker 1 00:37:08 This is the presence of God. And this is what makes the difference. Listen, how different do people behave when they have the presence of an individual with them? Let me give you a scenario. When the teacher is in the classroom versus when the teacher is not in the classroom, how do the children behave differently? Right? When you're working at work with the employees and the day the boss shows up, how do employees behave differently? Or the same different? I worked at a place called Canadian tire and we had a manager and he was kinda, he was, he was a lot of fun to be around. His name was Bob. We had a great time with Bob. He was just like one of us. But once in a while, the owner would show up of that franchise. He would show up. And on that day, man, we are Dustin and cleaning and doing all kinds of awareness, make sure everything's pressed. Everything needs to repress. The boss is going to be there. When you know the presence of somebody is in among you. You have a tendency to behave a little differently.
Speaker 1 00:38:17 When you know, there's a cop parked around the corner, you might hit the gas or there, or we might hit the break, right? I don't want to know how fast my car goes from a hundred or one from 60. I want to know how fast it goes from a hundred to 2 55. That's what I want to know. God is with you church. And let me tell you, it's not to scare us into submission. It's to remind us we are free it's to remind us of who we are. This whole thing is <inaudible> explained. This whole experience is explained in second Corinthians, three 15, Paul, the apostle writes to the church at Corinth and he explained all of this much like what I'm doing today. He explains all what's going on at Sinai in verse 16, he says, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord, his spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is what church. If you take the spirit of God, wherever you go, if he lives in here, if he lives in your life,
Speaker 2 00:39:17 You should know no freedom. Freedom it's not to scare us into submission is to remind us that we are free. We are not slaves to sin. If
Speaker 1 00:39:33 You go out of here and you think to yourself, Craig, I can't possibly be better. You do not know what the presence of God can do in your life. If you go out of here and you're thinking yourself, I'm so depressed, I can't overcome. I understand there's some chemical things in the brain and all of that's comes, comes into play. And, and sometimes we, we, we need to get some professional help. I'm not downplaying any of that. I'm just encouraging you to be reminded constantly that whatever you struggle with, whether whether it's it's, it's the idea that I can overcome my sin, or I just got to get God to adjust to me or, or, or, or, um, I'm, I'm sad. And I can't get over. I think for us, we just need to be reminded that God is with us wherever we go, God
Speaker 2 00:40:12 Wants to be with you. And he's done everything in his power to make us understand that even sending his own son, God with us is the crescendo of scripture
Speaker 1 00:40:31 In the new Testament. It's in the person of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel God with us, the incarnation in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. It's the crescendo of the new Testament. And it's also the crescendo of the old Testament. When they plopped Jesus a home in the middle of all of their homes, it was
Speaker 2 00:40:54 So that they could be reminded God was among them and he wanted to be there. So what number one, God wants to make your home, your house, your heart, his home
Speaker 1 00:41:11 No longer was God on the scary mountain, no longer was he outside in the tent. Now, when he wanted to be in the middle of their lives,
Speaker 2 00:41:20 God wants to be in their space and God wants to be in
Speaker 1 00:41:22 Our space. And he doesn't want to just use you as a cottage. He doesn't want to just come and visit your life once in a while and say, Hey, I'm here. Let's, let's clean this up. Let's fix this area over here. Let's open this closet. See what's in here. He does want to just visit once in a while. He wants to make your heart, his home be with you always. It's always been in his plan from the garden of Eden to the tabernacle, to tabernacle with us through Jesus Christ and the holy spirit to all eternity God's plan was to be with us. When the veil was torn in the temple, maybe it wasn't so much of God inviting us into his house. Maybe this was maybe this was like God saying, okay, I'm tearing away the barriers so that I can, I can expand it in my home to include
Speaker 2 00:42:07 Your life and your life and your life. Our life has meant to be filled with his presence now. And always
Speaker 1 00:42:15 You take Christ with you
Speaker 2 00:42:19 Wherever you go.
Speaker 1 00:42:21 And if you'd like to do that, and you never have, you should ask him because he is willing to make any heart his home.
Speaker 2 00:42:28 There's no prerequisites, just a humble enough heart to ask. So ask and God will make your heart, his home too. Number two, God can redeem your space. If you let him
Speaker 1 00:42:42 All the time. Those items used for evil in Egypt was now being used for God's home building project done by all the <inaudible>, whatever his name was, not chipping Joanna, but these two amazing, amazing people, God redeemed the stuff they had. The time they had the talents they had, whatever their lives were previously now could be used for God. And
Speaker 2 00:43:07 They would all put their hands to the good work and they would make a difference. They would, they would build a home for God.
Speaker 1 00:43:15 So my question is, how have you allowed God to redeem your stuff? How have you allowed him to redeem your time? How have you allowed him to redeem your talents? Have you? Because if you will, God can use all of those things
Speaker 2 00:43:28 So that you can be a blessing to others and a blessing to him, which brings us to number three. God can use her life spaces to bless others.
Speaker 1 00:43:37 It's ability to build this tabernacle was given a skilled workers who had sharpened their abilities over time. They had to be able to do the work that'd be known for being able to do the work. And they had to be excited about teaching others, how to do the work. And this is exactly what meant to do in the church. Did you know that second Timothy, two, two. It's an easy one to remember, just remember 2, 2, 2 second, Timothy, two, two. You know what it says, you then my child verse one be strengthened and grace of Jesus Christ, verse two. This is second Timothy, two, two. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust to faithful men
Speaker 2 00:44:13 Who will be able to teach others. Also, the reason we have a church here is because other people have shoulders on which we stand and they have taught us and we have learned,
Speaker 1 00:44:27 And our job now is to teach others
Speaker 2 00:44:29 So that we can pass on blessings to others.
Speaker 1 00:44:33 Your life has meant to be a tool for God to use
Speaker 2 00:44:37 So that you can teach others. Also,
Speaker 1 00:44:40 What's the point of all of this? Well, how many of you have heard of chip and Joanna? And before today you've heard of chip and Joanna before today. Most of you you're right. How many of you have heard of Oholiab and Bizzabo Bizzabo before today? And if you, yeah, maybe, maybe a few God knew them. God knew them by name. And he asked for them, these two guys, I'd like to work on my house. You may never know the, in the annals of history, all of the steady faithful
Speaker 2 00:45:13 Lives that has passed on before you, but
Speaker 1 00:45:16 God knows it. He records it and he blesses him for it. You ever think to yourself how many faithful people have walked this planet? We've never known about before Hebrews six, 10 reminds me is actually one of my favorite verses for God is not unjust. So as to overlook your work and the love
Speaker 2 00:45:35 That you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do, do you love it? God is not unjust to overlook the service that you give to him as the tabernacle was portable. So is our lives.
Speaker 1 00:45:52 We do not build a house for God to dwell where we go to meet God. We have this place called fountain view, but tomorrow we may have a different place. The thing that makes us a place where God we know God is, is because we are here. You're here and you're here and you're here and you're here. And you're here. That means where two or three are gathered in my name. There I am among them. It could be here. It could be my house. It could be a backyard. It could be the picnic area that we used when we gathered together. It's reminder, God is with us, but we don't go to a place. You don't have to go on a pilgrimage to some Basilica somewhere in order to have an experience with God, God goes with you. When you go, you're portable, just like the tabernacle.
Speaker 2 00:46:40 And when we go, God goes with us. God wants you to take the presence of God out there. And let me tell you church, if there's ever a time, this world needs to be reminded that God is here still at work. It's. Now it is so dark today and is becoming darker by the moment. And it's up to us to be the presence of God in the darkness.
Speaker 1 00:47:06 You may think yourself, I'm not making much of a difference. Ah, ah, don't be fooled.
Speaker 2 00:47:11 You are. Oh yes you are. Jesus said, when I light a candle, it brightens up more than, you know, I never stick a, what do you call those things? The table, a shade.
Speaker 1 00:47:27 I never stick a little shade over. When I light a candle, I wanted to brighten the whole room. And if Christ
Speaker 2 00:47:33 Lives in you, you are meant to be a bright light in the dark world. And you can do more than you think this
Speaker 1 00:47:42 Idea of tabernacle God wants to be with us. God is with us, blows me away. You may think to yourself, well, Craig, you're a preacher.
Speaker 2 00:47:52 So basically you, you basically do your thing on Sunday.
Speaker 1 00:47:56 This is where you, where you share the presence of God in you with others. This is how it's done. Not even I qualify in that range. You may not know this, but I drive Uber
Speaker 2 00:48:11 On the side. I used to do it a while ago. I'm doing it again.
Speaker 1 00:48:14 One of the reasons I decided to do it and that I kind of wanted to get back into it is because I have an incredible
Speaker 2 00:48:19 Opportunity to talk to people that are literally captive in my backseat.
Speaker 1 00:48:24 I, and I can talk to them. And you would be amazed at what people share with somebody that I don't even know. And I've gotten into some of the most amazing conversations in my car. I don't wear a color. I don't tell them. I'm PR I'm a preacher. I don't know, like my hair might be a giveaway, but that's about it. They sit in my back seat and they share all kinds of stuff with me. And I've got into amazing conversations. July 4th was one of my, one
Speaker 2 00:48:54 Of the ones that will stand out in my mind. I shared this with my family. I picked up a guy. He was drinking with his buddies, big guy,
Speaker 1 00:49:05 Probably around, right around my age, a little bit younger. Gotten my car, started sharing with me. Not totally drunk. He, he was there. I mean, he was, we were functionable here. He started talking
Speaker 2 00:49:19 To me. He said, it's been just a horrific day. So why what's what's going on, man?
Speaker 1 00:49:25 Is that I've been with my buddies and all, we talk about all
Speaker 2 00:49:27 The friends that didn't make it back from Afghanistan. And nobody cares. Nobody cares
Speaker 1 00:49:33 All these people around here just doing their own thing. They think they got the day off. Nobody cares. So I got to talk. I listened. I listened. And then when I dropped him off and he's, he's crying, big guy, big guy started crying in my backseat. I just
Speaker 2 00:49:49 Listen and try to encourage him listened. As he got ready to get out of the car, I turned around and I stopped the car. I turned around and I looked him in the eye. And I said, listen, I just want to tell you buddy, I, his name, I found it, his name. I wanted to tell you to call him by name. And I said, listen, I just want to tell you, I appreciate the service that you've put in for our country. Peace because of you that we enjoy the freedoms that we have. And you should know that. And if people don't tell you that I'm telling you right now, and he sat in my car for another 10 minutes and just started talking about how his life had fallen apart. Since he got back from Afghanistan, we had a great conversation. He got out of my car. I told him I pray for him. When he got out of my car, he thanked me.
Speaker 1 00:50:27 So you never know how
Speaker 2 00:50:30 Your life can take the presence of God into somebody else's life. But if you're conscientious of it, you'd be surprised how often you can do it. You'd be surprised
Speaker 1 00:50:44 At the offhanded opportunities that God gives you to share with
Speaker 2 00:50:49 Somebody else. That life is more than what they bring home. Every week in a paycheck. Life is more than their boyfriend or their girlfriend. Life is more than a worry and about the politics of our day from people who don't care about anything, but their own jobs. Life is more than what they perceive with their eyes.
Speaker 1 00:51:08 You will have an opportunity to do that. I don't know where God gives you an opportunity, but church, you are the portable tabernacle presence of God, wherever. There you go. And so I'd encourage you. God dwells among us because you go out there, you take his presence into the darkness. So take it boldly and light up the dark. Make a difference in somebody else's life. And you may think I've done nothing.
Speaker 2 00:51:40 You never know. You never know. You may have 10 minutes with them in a car and they may get out and you may never see them again, but you never know what your love and your encouragement can do in their lives. Take the presence of God with you because that's what we're meant to do. We are the dwelling place of God. Let's pray. Father. I love this, this constant reminder that you give us that you love to be with us. It blows me away. Just the whole concept
Speaker 1 00:52:18 That from the beginning of time is exactly how the end of time will be. You created us so that you could dwell among us. And you show us constantly in scripture from the garden. When you walked with Adam and Eve to the tabernacle, when you built a home among the midst of your people, right in the middle of them to Jesus, throwing him in the middle of us so that we get touch him. So we could hear, we could smell him and be reminded that you love to be here among us.
Speaker 2 00:52:50 And when Jesus went back to heaven, father, you reminded us that you are still among us in the presence of the holy spirit. Now you were in our hearts in our lives and we take you with us wherever we go, light us up, light us up. So we may make a difference in this dark world, help us
Speaker 1 00:53:09 Never to buy the lie. That darkness is greater than light.
Speaker 2 00:53:13 Remind us constantly, father, that you can move mountains and you can do wonders through us through our lives. No matter what age we are, how long we've been following Jesus Christ. You call us to use us. So use us and let us be willing to be used. Thank you for this reminder this morning through tabernacle. And I thank you for your word that reminds us of your love for us in Jesus name. Amen.
