Covenantal Encampment Exodus 35:30 - 36:38

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November 13, 2022 - Morning Service Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, CA Message "Covenantal Encampment" Exodus 35:30 - 36:38

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Good morning, and welcome to Faith Bible Church.
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It is wonderful to see people interacting before service, after service. Some services at the end of the service, not here, but it's like, you know, everybody splits.
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But here I'm thankful to see that people linger, people try to listen to one another and care for one another and love on each other.
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And that's what God really wants as believers. It's the love that He has shown us in His Son, we can express that to one another.
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So it's a real blessing. This morning, it is a good day, it's the
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Lord's Day, Sunday evening, celebration of Thanksgiving and the church's 75th anniversary, 75 years the
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Lord has been blessing this church. Ladies Bible study is this coming
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Saturday, men's and ladies Bible study, Saturday, okay? 10 o 'clock in the morning for the ladies, 3 .30
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in the afternoon for the men. As we prepare our hearts for worship, I was taken to Psalm 29, verses 1 and 2, and why we worship, that we have been given a heart of worship by God.
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And that's in Ecclesiastes 3 .11, God planted eternity in the human heart, we're all aware of that.
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Psalm 29, 1 and 2 says, give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength.
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Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness.
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And that's really the central function of a church is to worship God through Jesus Christ. That's what we do.
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That's all we know how to do because we want to be true and faithful to God's Word. And we thank
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God that we have a church that we can gather and give praise to Him for 75 years now.
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That's pretty incredible. So we are giving thanks today and let's open this in prayer.
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God, we thank You that You have gathered us together this morning, that we might worship You in an honorable way,
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Father. You are worthy of our praise in every way, Father. We can't hardly express
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Your goodness in response to what You have provided to us through Your Son, Jesus Christ.
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But Father, as we lift our voices, as we hear Pastor give the Word that You've laid upon his heart,
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Father, may the Holy Spirit guide and direct us. May we be aware of Your majesty.
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May we reflect on Your goodness and the eternity that we have secure in You, Father, if we have accepted
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You as our Lord and Savior. So God, bless each one today. Lord, take the cares of our minds and our hearts because many come with burdens and difficult situations in life,
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Father. And this doesn't take it away, Father, but we know that we can put them at Your feet at the foot of the cross, that You will help us through those times.
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And so, God, we thank You for being our ever -present help. So God, bless our time this morning and may we honor
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You and give You glory in all things. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Are you happy to serve the
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Lord? You like to serve the Lord? That's what this song is about. There's joy in serving Jesus.
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Stand together with me. There is joy in serving
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Jesus as I journey on my way.
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Joy that fills the heart with praises every hour and every day.
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There is joy, joy, joy in serving Jesus.
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Joy that throbs within my heart every moment, every hour.
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As I draw upon His bow, there is joy, joy, joy that never shall depart.
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Speak, O Lord, as I come to receive the fruit of Your holy
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Word. Take Your truth, let it deepen us, shape and fashion us in Your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today in the acts of love and our deeds of faith.
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Swing, O Lord, and fulfill in us all
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Your purposes for Your glory.
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We will continue with our Exodus series. Please turn with me to Exodus 35, verse 30.
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And I will read until the end of chapter 36. So Exodus 35, verse 30 to the end of chapter 36.
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And Moses said to the children of Israel, See, the Lord has called by name
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Bazalel and the son of Uri and the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah.
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And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship.
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And He has put in his heart the ability to teach. In him, the Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.
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He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work, of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver, those who do every work and those who design artistic works.
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And Bazalel and Aholiab and every gifted artisan, in whom the Lord has put wisdom and understanding, to know how to do all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, shall do according to all that the
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Lord has commanded. Then Moses called Bazalel and Aholiab and every gifted artisan in whose heart the
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Lord has put wisdom, everyone whose heart was stirred to come and do the work.
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And they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of making the sanctuary.
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So they continued bringing to him freewill offerings every morning. Then all the craftsmen who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work he was doing.
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And they spoke to Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the
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Lord commanded us to do. So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying,
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Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. And the people were restrained from bringing for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done.
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Indeed, too much. Then all the gifted artisans among them who worked on the tabernacle made ten curtains woven of fine linen and of blue, purple, and scarlet thread.
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With artistic designs of cherubim they made them. The length of each curtain was twenty -eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits.
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The curtains were all the same size. And he coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another.
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He made loops of blue yarn on the edge of the curtain on the selvage of one set. Likewise he did on the outer edge of the other curtain on the second set.
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Fifty loops he made on one curtain, and fifty loops he made on the edge of the curtain on the end of the second set.
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The loops held one curtain to another. And he made fifty clasps of gold and coupled the curtains of one another with the clasps that it might be one tabernacle.
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He made curtains of goat's hair for the tent over the tabernacle. He made eleven curtains.
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The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains were the same size.
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He coupled five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. And he made fifty loops of the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and fifty loops he made on the edge of the curtain on the second set.
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He also made fifty bronze clasps to couple the tent together, that it might be one. Then he made a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red, and a covering of badger skins above that.
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For the tabernacle he made boards of acacia wood standing upright. The length of each board was ten cubits, and the width of each board a cubit and a half.
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Each board had two tenons for binding one to another. Thus he made for all the boards of the tabernacle.
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And he made boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side. Forty sockets of silver he made to go under the twenty boards.
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Two sockets under each of the boards for its two tenons. And for the other side of the tabernacle, the north side, he made twenty boards.
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And there forty sockets of silver, two sockets under each of the boards. For the west side of the tabernacle he made six boards.
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He also made two boards for the two back corners of the tabernacle. And they were coupled at the bottom and coupled together at the top of the one ring.
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Thus he made both of them for the two corners. So there were eight boards and their sockets, sixteen sockets of silver, two sockets under each of the boards.
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And he made bars of acacia wood, five for the boards on one side of the tabernacle, five bars for the board on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the board of the tabernacle on the far side westward.
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And he made the middle bar to pass through the boards from one end to the other.
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He overlaid the boards with gold, made their rings of gold to be holders for the bars and overlaid the bars with gold.
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And he made a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet thread. And fine woven linen. It was worked with an artistic design of cherubim.
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He made four pillars of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold, with their hooks of gold.
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He cast four sockets of silver for them. He also made a screen for the tabernacle door, a blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen made by a weaver.
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And it's five pillars with their hooks, and he overlaid their capitals and their rings with gold, but their five sockets were bronze.
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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that you are a
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God who desires to dwell with us, but not only that, desires to take us wherever you want us to go.
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Father, we are thankful that we are never left alone, but you are always with us in Jesus Christ.
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Thank you for sending Jesus to die for our sin on the cross, so that he may be with us at all times, that we're never abandoned by you.
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In Jesus' name, amen. This part of Exodus is the beginning of the construction of the tabernacle that we've all been waiting for.
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The tabernacle is the dwelling place of God, and it is a tent. And the significance of this tent is that the tent does not stay in one location.
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The tent is portable. It goes wherever the
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Israelites went, right? The tent, the tent's purpose was to journey with the
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Israelites. The Israelites at no point were commanded in the wilderness to set up a temple there, and that they had to visit that temple all the time.
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The goal was God's presence dwelling among His people would take
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Israel to the promised land. And God's plan was not that He would be a distant
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God and would give them the plans how to get there, and that He would meet them at the destination, but rather at the fulfillment of the building of the tabernacle,
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God's desire and will have always been that He would be with His people every step of the way.
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And this is an important part that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions.
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Other religions have it so that the practitioner or the believer has to travel far to a special holy location in order to attain understanding or some sort of enlightenment, whether that's in a spiritual sense that they have to, quote -unquote, travel, or in a physical sense like Islam, Muslims have to travel to the
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Mecca. In Christianity, with a true
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God, we have a God who actually journeys with His people. We have a
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God who came down and lived among His people.
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And we have a God who dwells in all of us, the Holy Spirit of God, and through Him we have
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God's presence forever, and He won't leave us.
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And that's a significant difference between the other religions and us.
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Other religions expect the believers to make the journey themselves to reach that high pinnacle.
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The true religion, under the true God, our
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God knows that we cannot make the journey even one step without Him. And this is the significance of the tabernacle.
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In this text, the tent is being built, and it's constructed and it's finished so that God would travel with His people, dwelling in a tent just like His people.
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So the main point of this text, the main point is that when
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God equips us, dwells among us, actually let's go with the first point.
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When the Lord prepares His people to dwell among them, His people respond enthusiastically.
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When the Lord prepares His people to dwell among them, His people respond enthusiastically.
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After the materials are collected, the Lord appoints and equips
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His people, His professional workers to start building the tabernacle. So verses 30 to 33 introduce the main workman in charge.
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See, the Lord has called by name Bazalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
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And He filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels, for setting and carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship.
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Now, note that the Lord did not choose some random participants among Israel who was available, but specifically skilled workers.
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However, it is also important to note that in order to follow the
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Lord's blueprint for the tabernacle faithfully, He filled
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His chosen workers with His Spirit. The Lord personally prepared them for the task of building the tabernacle.
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And verses 34 to 35 broaden the scope to more than just the couple workers, but all the workers who are available.
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It will not just be two chosen specialists, but they will be gifted to teach others for this impressive project.
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After all, they were building the Lord's dwelling place. And although professional builders had unique functions in the establishment of the tabernacle, the normal Israelites participated in this huge enterprise as well.
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And verse three tells us that the children of Israel, so all of Israel, generously offered the materials needed for the construction of the tabernacle.
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And they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of making the sanctuary.
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So they continued bringing to Him freewill offerings every morning.
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And verses five to seven describe the manner of Israel's generosity and participation.
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First, the workers tell Moses of the overabundance of the materials brought.
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The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the
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Lord commanded us to do. And this drives Moses in verse six to command them to stop bringing the materials.
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Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. This is enough.
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We have more than enough. And the point here is that these people were not threatened to do it.
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These people were not even bribed to do it. Right? They were not threatened you're going to get another plague lest you bring the fine threads of blue and purple and red and gold, silver and bronze and all the wood.
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No. They brought it out of the generosity of their heart.
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And they weren't bribed to do it. They weren't specifically told, okay, if you bring the materials, your generations of people will be forever blessed and they will not die.
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They will not get sick. There was no promise of such there to bring the materials.
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The materials were brought so that His people may experience
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God's dwelling presence. They wanted to bring them.
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They wanted to bring the precious materials because they wanted
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God. It was about the relationship. Not anything that came with the relationship.
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This is a picture of a genuine relationship that God's people are capable of having with the
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Lord. And this is the picture a glimpse of what we can have as the church too.
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Of course, we're not bringing blue and scarlet threads. We're not bringing gold, silver and bronze.
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But in ministry, everyone who is of willing heart takes part in ministry so that they experience
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God's dwelling presence. Anything you bring for the sake of ministry has to come from the heart.
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And it has to come from the desire that it is for God. It's not for me.
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It's not for even the church building. You bring your services and goods to the church in order that we all experience
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God's dwelling presence. And this is important because the temptation is there to think that only a few people with specific roles that are public, they do everything.
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That's their job. However, that has never been true.
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Worshiping the Lord who dwells among His people always involved every willing individual of God's people.
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Right? And it was not just the professional workers. It was just anyone among the children of Israel who wanted to participate and partake.
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And this is not just in the matter of giving. It's so much more. It's more than just financial giving, but giving of your services, giving of your time.
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Right? And we have musicians who serve that way. We have tech people who serve that way.
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And they're specifically gifted in those areas that other people may not be.
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And we have people who disciple other people. We have people who teach.
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We have people who comfort, visit, show hospitality for those who cannot make it to the worship service.
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Everyone is given some sort of gift by the same Spirit of God to make the dwelling presence of God possible.
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And this is really important in this culture where technology always seems to interrupt or even intervene the worship experience.
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Now I'm not talking about if you're really sick or injured that you cannot make it in person to worship with us.
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But I'm talking about this overwhelming culture in the church where people think it's just fine to do church online.
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The reason why it's important for us to gather is that each one of you has a significant role to play for us to experience
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God's dwelling presence. Sure, you do experience God's presence when you individually pray and read the
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Bible. That's true. But we don't get this full picture unless we all come together from various generations, various cultures, and various backgrounds and ages, right?
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And that's when we experience God's dwelling presence. And that's really important today because everybody has a role to play.
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No one is left out from ministry. No one is too insignificant to serve the
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Lord. And it's a privilege to freely offer our gifts and talents for the ministry of the
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Lord. It comes from the joy of our heart as we sang this morning.
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It's when your heart throbs at the excitement of serving the
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Lord. When I do this, someone else, someone else in the church, my brothers and sisters in Christ, may experience
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God's presence even more. When I play that one note, when I change the slide, when
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I type up the music lyrics for the slide, when I teach that one women's study, when
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I serve the communion, prepare the communion table, when
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I visit the sick, when I drive those who can't drive themselves, you're allowing the body of Christ to be completely equipped to experience
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God's presence. And that's what we see here. And I'm really happy to say we do this really well in this church.
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We don't have a lot of people. We haven't had a lot of people in a while. But God has brought the right people at the right time to fill that role so that everyone who is of willing heart serves in ministry.
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And this morning if God is working in your heart and you feel like the
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Holy Spirit wants you to serve in a certain way or give in a way that you have not been used to, ask
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God, what does this look like, God, in my life? And he will make it clear to you.
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And let us know. There are always places in ministry that we would gladly welcome your help, welcome your support.
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Second, when God's people commit themselves to God, he encamps among them.
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When God's people commit themselves to God, he encamps among them. The first thing that Israel builds is the tabernacle proper, the tent itself.
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The dwelling tent of the Lord. And now these verses are very similar to the instruction for the tabernacle in chapter 26, the blueprint that the
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Lord gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. The main difference is that in chapter 36 it shows the fulfillment of chapter 26.
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Chapter 26 had a lot of future tense. You will do this. You will build this. You will make it like this.
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Chapter 36, however, has the past tense. They did this. They made this.
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They built this. It's the construction. It's the actual construction.
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And one other major difference between chapter 26 and 36 is that the tabernacle is the first object constructed.
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Even though God's blueprint from chapter 25 to 31 starts with the
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Ark of the Covenant and the furnishing related to that. And why did the order switch?
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Now, it is speculated that the switch, the reversal in order was for a practical reason.
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The reversal of the order shows that the tabernacle encapsulates everything that's inside the tabernacle.
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And because of that, the tabernacle proper, the whole tent, represents everything that's in it and also the covenant relationship with the
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Lord. It is the tent that will symbolize the dwelling presence of God.
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Because it contains the important furnishing like the Ark of the
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Covenant, which is the main furniture of dwelling for the Lord. In one sense, the house is prioritized over the furniture because the house contains all the furniture.
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And now, what does the Lord's house look like? And because I've preached through the whole tabernacle proper, the blueprint of that in chapter 26,
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I will summarize most of it without reading through the chapter.
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So, if you have more questions on this, we can talk after the service or you can also find the
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YouTube sermon online of chapter 26. That's what it specifically echoes.
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So, verses 8 to 13 start with the innermost layer of the curtains that make up the tabernacle.
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So, remember the tabernacle was made out of multiple layers. And the innermost layer was actually the most precious and also the most delicate and most decorated part of the tabernacle.
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Verse 8 starts with the materials used, fine linen and of blue, purple, and scarlet thread with artistic designs of cherubim they made them.
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So, as explained before, the blue and purple colorings were actually very, very precious because it required thousands of marine snails to produce one rope, one rope of blue or purple.
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So, that's a lot of work, effort, and time. And so, in the ancient times, blue and purple colors represented royalty.
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And the first layer of the tabernacle will be decorated as such.
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And the cherubim designs are significant because these are the angelic beings that were first introduced as guardian angels of the
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Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve rebelled against God and they were kicked out of the Garden.
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God set up the cherubim to guard the paradise afterward.
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And this would show that here the cherubim design on the innermost covering would be a symbolic guarding of the house of God.
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God's dwelling place would always be protected like a palace. And verse 9 shows the dimensions of these curtains.
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And in modern measurement, each curtain would measure 42 by 6 feet. So, each individual piece was massive.
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You can tell that this would have taken a long time and a lot of money.
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Yet, Israel gave so much that they had to ask them to stop. That tells you how much their hearts were stirred to give for the ministry.
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Verses 10 to 13 describe how these curtains assemble to make a one giant structure.
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The 10 inner curtains connect by golden clasps and loops.
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And the salvage means that the edge of the fabric of the curtain were designed to not unravel.
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It was designed to last long. And the clasp for the most inner layer is of course made out of gold.
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And this pattern we will see later on. The closer you get to the inside of the tabernacle, more precious metals would be used.
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Gold will be used in the most holy place and the holy place. So, here we get the most inner layer and then we'll get to the next layers.
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But the most inner layer it was the most colorful and the most precious and symbolically rich layer.
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Verses 14 through 19 detail the subsequent layers of coverings to protect the inner covering of the tabernacle.
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Now, unlike the inner covering, there is one more curtain for the next layer, the goat's hair.
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The sixth curtain would double over the front of the tent and also the clasps here are made out of a less precious metal bronze.
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And this is because the goat hair curtains purpose is not for decoration but for protection to protect the precious inner covering.
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Now, however, similar to the last covering, it is to be united as one.
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Despite the various individual parts, the coverings of God's dwelling place all work together as a complete whole.
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The outermost layers then are red ram skins and badger skins to weatherproof the tent.
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Now, the idea of making the tabernacle as a one whole structure is important because we will see later on that God's dwelling place is never just separate parts but rather it's always going to be a complete whole thing.
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And the New Testament authors picked that up really to describe the church. The church is supposed to be one whole body, one whole temple, right?
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It's not just a body part here and there and here and there but it's a complete whole.
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Lest the dwelling experience of God be less than that, right?
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The dwelling experience of God is a complete whole for the church just as it was for the tabernacle.
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Now, verses 20 to 34 detail the skeletal structure of the tabernacle.
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So, first, verses 20 to 30 describe the boards that are propped up propped up to support the whole tent.
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The boards are made out of acacia wood which was light and durable wood found in the area.
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Now, verse 21 tells us the measurement 15 by 2 feet and 3 inches.
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So, verse 22 tells us that each board is connected through two tenons which are like joint -like features holding the boards together.
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And then verses 23 through 30 show how many boards cover each side of the tabernacle.
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20 boards on the south side, right? So, the tabernacle itself is not a square, it's a rectangle.
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So, 20 boards on the south side and they're all attached on the ground by silver sockets, right?
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The silver foundations. And the same amount for the north side.
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So, the parallel side they're the same, they're both 20 with the same amount of silver foundations doubling each board and then same amount of tenons, joint -like features holding them together.
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But on the west side, the west side has only 6 and then 2 for the corner pieces.
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So, 8 boards total but 6 are covering the west side. And verses 29 through 30 show us how these boards are held together, right?
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And they were coupled at the bottom and coupled at the top by one ring. Thus, he made both of them for the two corners.
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So, there were 8 boards and their sockets, 16 sockets of silver, 2 sockets under each of the boards.
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The reason why there's no board on the east side is because that's the entrance.
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You don't close off the entrance. And the importance of the east side is prevalent in the
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Old Testament. People faced that direction to pray because that's where the temple was.
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Now, verses 31 to 34 show that all of the boards will be fortified by gold -overlaid acacia bars.
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So, these are the bars and they're gold -covered. And there will be 5 bars for each side, north -south, north side, south side, and the west side.
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And all these wooden bars and hooks and rings will be overlaid with gold. So, it's going to be a very magnificent structure even though people won't see much of that after it's built.
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Now, after covering the external features, we return to the inner coverings.
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So, verses 35 to 36 describe the making of the veil. The veil is right here.
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It would be complete, but of course because it's a diagram it shows the opening, right? The veil was a magnificent curtain with the same cherubim design, right?
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And it was very similar to the ornamental inner covering of the whole tabernacle.
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And the protective cherubim were woven on the veil to remind us that they're the guardian angels.
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They're guarding the access point to God. This cherubim woven veil will be the dividing line between the most holy place and the holy place.
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And this is important because with any sovereign king, you do have guards at the door, guarding the access point to the king.
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And this veil will be the sole access point in the whole world to the
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Divine. If you cross that veil, you stand before God. And in fact, out of all the holy people of Israel, right?
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Israel is itself a holy nation. Only one person, the high priest could go through this veil once a year to atone, to cover the sin of the nation.
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And that's really important because without that, the nation of Israel would not be able to have a relationship with God.
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The holy God cannot just look away from the people's sin.
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That veil was significant. And the problem was when the temple got destroyed, the first time, that was a national tragedy.
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Because there was no way in which God's people's national sin would be atoned for.
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And in fact, it's a huge dilemma now for the Jewish people. But for Christians, we don't have to worry.
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Because when Jesus died on the cross, bearing all of our sin, the veil was torn from top to bottom.
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It was not bottom to top, lest we think it's from human effort that we tore it from us sitting at the bottom.
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Of course, the veil is huge, right? It's tall. No, the tearing happened from the top to bottom.
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And that access point to God has been opened like a floodgate for anyone who believes in Jesus, who died for your sin and was risen on the third day.
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We have access to God that all of Israel only dreamed of.
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We have access to God that even the high priests of Israel did not have.
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Because whenever you go to God in Christ, when you pray in Jesus' name, when you go to God in Christ for Christ's sake, you have unlimited access to God because the veil's been torn.
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It means you get to spend time with God at any time for however long, whenever, with whomever who's a believer all the time.
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That's a privilege that's been won for you through the cross. So whenever we read that veil, we ought to thank
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God that there is no longer a veil standing between us. And for all of us, right, we don't have any priests,
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Jewish priests here. For all of us, we wouldn't even be able to go even near the tent.
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That would be inaccessible for us. And then verses 37 to 38 describe the entrance of the tent, which is decorated in the same manner as the veil, but without the cherubim.
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So there is this theme, this royal theme of blue and purple covering God's palace -like tent.
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And this tabernacle is important for us today because in other religions, the presence of God is the destination.
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Right? The presence of the divine is the goal. Right? Buddhists in Hindi, they have to do well enough in order to reincarnate to a higher and higher and higher being so that they may reach a certain point of nirvana.
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And the odds of that happening is so slim. I've heard someone say that it's if a turtle were to come up and there's one lily pond flower, right, and a turtle in the whole ocean came up and hit that flower.
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What a drastically slim chance.
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But that's the destination. That's the only way you get some sort of presence of the divine.
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That's when you know you've made it. And other religions, they put the burden on your works.
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You have to be kind to one another. You have to be generous givers. Ultimately you have to be good enough.
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And after you die, that's when you get to find out whether you were truly good enough or not.
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Right? When the balance shifts to one side. And their reward is of course the presence of the divine through their good works.
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Of course there's no assurance whether whatever they've been doing was good enough. And there's of course ignoring of the bad things they've done.
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Because in the end good things do not cover the bad things. Only the blood of Christ covers the bad things that we've done.
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However the true God encamps among His people the moment they believe.
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The moment we become His people, the true God journeys with us.
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And takes us to the destination Himself. And this was true for Israel before Christ.
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And it's true for us now. And this is why in John, the
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Gospel of John, when Jesus has on the last few days before the crucifixion
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Jesus reassures His people, His disciples, that they're not going to be alone.
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Right? They're not going to be abandoned. Just because Jesus is crucified and He's resurrected and He ascends to the
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Father's side they're not left alone like other religions. That's why
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He reassures of the divine presence. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper that He may abide with you forever.
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The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows
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Him. But you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans.
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I will come to you. Another helper here does not mean
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Jesus' lesser presence. Because in the same book
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Jesus says it is better that I go away. When Jesus goes away, when
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He ascends, more people can experience His presence through the dwelling presence of the
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Holy Spirit. People like us here this morning can experience
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God's presence, Jesus' presence now through the Holy Spirit just as people in Africa can.
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And this is important because the Holy Spirit is only set aside for the blood -bought people of God so that they're never left alone.
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God has never been about giving a blueprint or travel agenda to His people as He waves, good luck, see you on the other side.
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He goes with them. Just as He went with the Israelites through the wilderness to the promised land,
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He goes with us through the wilderness and to the greater promised land.
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And that concept is very clear in a very old book called
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Pilgrim's Progress. There's a man fittingly named Christian who hears the gospel, sees that he's a grave sinner, leaves this doomed city that's bound to be judged and he goes to the heavenly city.
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The journey is not easy. There are temptations and trials. He comes very close to death multiple times.
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He gets betrayed, he gets fooled, he gets tricked, and he steps on traps.
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Yet, Jesus has never left His side. And Jesus fully brings him to the heavenly city.
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And that's for each one of us today. God encamps with us.
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He dwells with us. A God who doesn't have to takes us on the journey
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Himself so that we arrive safely to the heavenly city that's been promised for us by Christ.
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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that You are a
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God who doesn't abandon us, that we are never left alone, that we can always look to You.
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We can always know that You are here. Father, we pray that whatever we're going through this week, this life,
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Father, we pray that we only know that You are there. And that's enough. Other people may leave us.
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Other people may betray us. Other people may hurt us. But God, You are with us.
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You dwell among us. And that's enough. And we thank You for that.
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That our journey is guaranteed. Our destination is sealed.
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In Jesus' name. Okay? The message is great. God forgave my sin.
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In Jesus' name. I've been born again.
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In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.
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I come to share His love as He told me to.
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He said, freely, freely, you have received.
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Freely, freely, give. Go in my name and because you believe, others will know that I live.