Our Ordered Life

Well as I mentioned we are coming to the end of this study and I hope that as we have worked through the various things that you will agree that it has been a very fruitful study.

Now the structure of today's message is going to be a little different than probably what you are accustomed to as we are going to do something more of a survey through a few chapters versus us honing in on one particular passage and unpacking just that piece.

Now don't don't misunderstand me we will still be unpacking pieces as we walk through this but we will not go verse by verse through the entire four chapters.

The biggest reason for that is that as we walk through the instructions that God gave

Moses regarding the tabernacle we dealt with the the tabernacle the implements that were needed for the tabernacle and the service of the priest the priestly clothing itself the the installation of the priesthood all of these things that God instructed

Moses on on Sinai and as we walked through each one of those we saw what they meant both for the

Israelites then what they foreshadowed going forward and how

God even in the midst of all of these things was unveiling and revealing to us his eternal plan of redemption and so chapters 35 through 39 primarily deal with the obedience of Israel coming out of the time that Moses spent on the mount and and then beginning to construct the things and so one of the one of the things that you notice if you read through these four chapters which if you haven't already done recently

I would highly encourage you to do you will notice that if you will take and go back and forth between chapters 25 through 31 and chapters 35 through 39 that the information much of it is repetition and so a lot of times what we ask when we come to these kinds of things is why why would

God go through all of these things with Moses only to turn around and repeat them to us in a little bit later well one of the primary reasons one of the the biggest things is that we will see that they did all of these things just as God commanded them now that's important one of the reasons that's important is because as we kind of walk through this and we'll talk more about this as we come to it and you look you you see that the the

Israelites make no deviances the Israelites take no extra steps they don't add their own artistic flair they don't change the program so immediately that's a message for the church today you see we're caught up in this thing where we need to change the program to invite the people and it's quite clear from God's word that that simply is not the case we have gotten to a place where we literally believe in the church in the in the so -called church today we have come to a place where we believe that anything and everything is permissible as long as it brings people in the door and I'm just going to tell you brothers and sisters that's a false teaching and it is sinful behavior and the church the church needs to repent of that sin now there's another reason as we look at this and in these details one of the other things that we realize as we look at this repetition is that the things which

God plans will not might not could but will come to fruition in other words that which was planned in heaven in the building of the tabernacle in the constructing of the dwelling place of God amidst his people will come to pass so we can look at this and it gives us assurance that when we hear these words and we read these truths and we reread these truths repeated to us in just a few chapters that when we read that there will be a there is a coming

Lord's day where we will be reconciled where we will stand face to face and and we get to the end of the book the end of the library that God has given us and we read that there's a day coming when we will stand face to face then we can rest on that assurance because what

God has planned will be brought to fruition the good work that God has begun in you he will complete it he will not leave it unfinished he will transform you and he will change you the last thing that we'll we'll see as we kind of work through this and this is where we will really kind of dive in today is that we see this demonstration as as Moses returns and as the events begin to unfold in the construction of the tabernacle we see a very ordered way in which things will occur and we've talked about before in here in fact we we just talked about it a few moments ago in in our sunday school work in the catechism regarding God being a

God of order not a God of chaos not a God of of anything goes but a

God that brings us in a very specific manner leading us in our lives in a certain order and make no mistake about it we must follow the order we cannot put the cart before the horse it will not work when

I was a kid I grew up playing baseball we're in the south so you you played one of three sports in in Darlington county

South Carolina you played baseball you played football or you played basketball or a combination of the three now as a kid growing up baseball was always my sport you don't walk onto a baseball field stroll into the batter's box and just begin hitting home runs it doesn't work that way there's a order to it you must first learn some things if you really take it all the way back you've got to learn to walk before you can do any of it otherwise you can't get out there stand up swing the bat it's no different than that in our spiritual lives there is an order that must be maintained but for the true believer what we begin to realize is that the order that has to be maintained in our spiritual life is lived out in our physical life this it's not a separated thing it's not like we've got our church life over here and our everyday life over here we see that the spiritual life affects the rest of our life and so our entire lives must be ordered in a specific fashion now as we look at this we see over this course four different markers or themes that are displayed in the life of a believer that will help us realize that the necessary order in which things are to be carried out and so we're going to look at four specific passages we're going to begin in chapter 35 we're going to start in verse 1 of chapter 35 we'll read actually verses 1 through 10 then we're going to go down to 29 through 35 then we're going to flip over to 36 we're going to read verses 2 to 7 and then we're going to go to verse chapter 39 where we'll read the last several verses and so as we move through each one of those i'll give you a couple of minutes to flip obviously we'll begin in chapter 35 like i said so if you will if you have not already done so please take your bible make your way in your copy of god's word to exodus chapter 35 we will begin in the first verse and as you find your place i would ask that you please stand in reverence for the reading of god's holy inerrant infallible authoritative sufficient complete and certain word in exodus chapter 35 beginning in the first verse we read these words then moses assembled all of the congregation of the sons of israel and said to them these are the things that yahweh has commanded you to do six days work may be done but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day a sabbath of complete rest to yahweh whoever does any work on it shall be put to death you shall not kindle a fire in any of your places of habitation on the sabbath day and moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of israel saying this is the thing which yahweh has commanded saying take from among you a contribution to yahweh whoever is of a willing heart let him bring it as a contribution to yahweh gold silver and bronze and blue and purple and scarlet material fine linen goat's hair and ram skins dyed red and porpoise skins and acacia wood and oil for lighting and spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense and onyx stones and setting stones for the ifad and for the breast piece and let every one wise at heart among you come and make all that yahweh has commanded then we'll go down to verse 29 and we'll pick up and read 29 through verse 35 the sons of israel all the men and women whose heart was willing to bring material for all the work which yahweh had commanded through the hand of moses to do brought a free will offering to yahweh then moses said to the sons of israel see yahweh has called by name bezelel the son of uri the son of her of the tribe of judah and he has filled him with the spirit of god and wisdom in discernment and in knowledge and in all craftsmanship to devise designs for working in gold and in silver and in bronze and in cutting in the stones for settings and in the carving of wood so as to do well in every work of thoughtful design he has also put in his heart to teach both he and aholiab the son of ahissamech of the tribe of dan he has filled them with wisdom in their heart to do every work of an engraver and of a designer and of an embroiderer in blue and in purple and in scarlet material and in fine linen and of a weaver as those who do every work and make designs then we'll skip down to verse 2 of chapter 36 then moses called bezelel and oholiab and every person wise at heart to whom yahweh had given wisdom everyone whose heart stirred him to come to the work to do it and they received from moses the entire contribution which the sons of israel had brought to do the work in the service of the sanctuary and they still continued bringing to him free will offerings every morning and all the wise men who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came each from the work which he was doing and they said to moses the people are bringing much more than enough for the service of the work which yahweh commanded us to do so moses commanded and a proclamation was passed throughout the camp saying let no man or woman any longer do the work for the contributions of the sanctuary thus the people were strained were restrained from bringing any more indeed the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work to do it and we'll finish with exodus chapter 39 beginning in verse 32 reading through verse 43 thus all the service of constructing the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was completed and the sons of israel did all according to all that yahweh had commanded moses so they did they brought the tabernacle to moses the tent and all its furnishings its clasps its boards its bars and its pillars and its bases and the coverings of ram's skin dyed red and the covering of porpoise skins and the screening veil the ark of the testimony and its poles and the mercy seat the table all its utensils and the bread of the presence the pure gold lampstand with its arrangement of lamps and all its utensils and the oil for the light and the gold altar and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense and the veil for the doorway of the tent the bronze altar and its bronze grating its poles and all its utensils the lava and its stand the hangings for the court its pillars and its bases and the screen for the gate of the court its cords and its pegs and all the equipment for the service of the tabernacle for the tent of meeting the woven garments for ministering in the holy place and the holy garments for aaron the priest and the garments of his sons to minister as priests thus according to all that yahweh had commanded moses so the sons of israel did in all their service and moses saw all the work and behold they had done it just as yahweh had commanded so they had done then moses blessed them almighty and gracious and most holy father lord we are truly awed by you we are most grateful for your word for these truths you have given us to guide and to do our lives lord again as we study your word together may we be guided by your spirit that we would know and we would submit to your truth in all things father we are beyond grateful for the opportunity to come together as your people to glorify your name to honor you above all father we ask that you forgive us our many shortcomings and lord we ask now that you draw us deeper into the sweetness of communion with you we commit this time to you and we ask all of these things in the name of our precious lord and savior jesus christ to him be honor and forever amen may be seated well some of you may or may not be aware that in theological circles there is an area of study that is called numerology now numerology looks at the significance of numbers throughout scripture and to see if there are theological meanings behind them and as with any area or section or study of scripture there is of course a potential and those who do absolutely abuse this field they take it to a degree that it was never intended to take however although there are those places and those times and we cannot place theological significance on every single number that we find in scripture there are some numbers that are representative symbolic numbers of things that we see for example as we look at the structure of the writings in scripture we we are drawn to repetition to understand that it elevates the importance many of you are familiar with this from isaiah's writing in isaiah 6 where the the antiphonal response of the seraphim around the throne of god is holy holy holy elevating that to the highest degree of holiness and so it's this use of that term to demonstrate the severity or the importance and so we know that doing that does that and another number that we see often in scripture that does have some significance is the number seven number seven stands for fullness or completeness or this perfection and so as we come to chapter 35 at the very beginning of this uh closing few chapters we see for the seventh and final time god giving a command reminding the jewish people of a command to observe the sabbath now this takes significance for the people of israel but brothers and sister i'm here to tell you it should also take significance in your life we've talked about this command before we we've talked about um how the the sabbath works and we've talked about you know it was originally on saturday and and we've talked about the arguments for uh the sabbath the christian sabbath being considered the lord's day or sunday but what we see here are some little bit of nuances that's a little different than we see in other places it's not entirely different but there are some minute things that we need to pick up on first of all we are reminded that this is to be a day of complete rest to him now that to him is an important piece it's not just a day to set aside to to catch our breath and and give the work animals a much needed break it is a day of rest to god it was not a day to to just catch up on chores around the house it was not a day to read the book that we've been wanting to get our hands on or or stretching out in a nice hammock in the shade of a tree on a beautiful spring day but a day that is set aside from the rest of life to god a day that is given over to him again as we talk about the sabbath and if you have conversations with very many people about the sabbath you you will very quickly see the conversations move to specifications right so we've got to have the conversation about what's what's a proper what's not proper what should you do what shouldn't you do all of those things and what we miss is the bigger picture regarding the sabbath now i'm not here to say any of those today we're not going down that path but what we are going to talk about is the larger picture of what the sabbath is and if if we take that step back and we look at the the institution of the sabbath the the purposes of the sabbath as as it's described for us in scripture what we begin to see is that it is a statement of where all things should begin it is a statement of what is to be the center what is to be the focus of our lives what is where our lives are to be grounded and that is in him you notice we we've moved into a section that begins talking through the obedience of the people of israel building out the things that god has commanded moses to do but but god didn't begin the section with work he didn't begin it with craftsmanship he didn't begin it with productivity he didn't begin it with this labor he begins it with rest not not a rest that is defined merely as an absence of labor but a rest that is defined as devotion a devotion a day of devotion to the lord that means that the point of today is not just stopping the point of the sabbath is not just pausing the point is turning turning away from our own ways turning away from our own pleasures turning away from our own words and thoughts and actions and turning to him placing ourself in him resting in him but then you'll notice in verse 1 or verse 2 of chapter 35 that there's an additional statement added now i want you to understand that the additional statement is covered in the other places it's not new in the sense of it's something a complete new revelation it is simply a very specified statement that is made and the statement reads in this manner it says i'm sorry it's in verse 3 you shall not kindle a fire in any of your places of habitation on the sabbath day now that seems like a very small statement it seems like something that's almost shall we say uh legalistic that's how we would view it in today's world right you mean to tell me i can't even turn my fireplace on what am i supposed to do freeze to death on a sabbath but the focus isn't the fire the focus is your comfort the focus is your natural consideration for yourself aw pink points out that there is this refusal being carried in this a refusal that says i'm going to refuse those things that are natural to me for the sake and purpose of arresting in him now i don't know about you but several things come natural to me one of those things is eating now we've done a good job here lately we haven't stopped eating of course we've just curbed the eating and changed what we're but the eating still got to happen right but there are other things right we we want to go to oh well you can't tell me i can't eat but but what about what i want to do with my time that maybe doesn't bring honor and glory to him you see we're not free to take this rest and turn it into a day about us that's why it says to the lord ask yourself this question what is it that most people are really chasing when they won't rest what is it that you are chasing when you won't rest most people are not going to define rest as god defines it most people are looking for relief for escape think about your weekend right you work all week long for what the weekend how many songs can you think of off the top of your head to just talk about working for the weekend i can remember some really young one really new songs and some really old songs that are pointed and focused at getting to that break that relief that escape we want we want this break from pressure so that we can go right back to living for ourselves but with more energy versus living for him that that's not sabbath that's not worship that's not delight in god that's not the ordered life of a believer for a believer the order life begins at rest the sabbath sits at the head of this entire movement that we see happening in scripture this entire result that will occur that will result ultimately in the building of the tabernacle the construction of the implements the fabrication of the priestly clothing of the tents and the curtains and the walls it's it's drawn out very plainly for us by a .w.

pink when he points out that before we are fitted to work for him we must rest in him before we can bring things to him we must rest in him this order in our lives is not a suggestion this is not the advanced discipleship track this is basics this is placing your faith in him this is you laying down your life for him that's day one christianity that's not advanced that's not well i gotta be a christian for a whole lot of years before i get that that's number one the fact that we repent and believe and have faith in christ doesn't happen without this true laying aside of yourself now you're not going to get it all the way right we talked about that again this morning in sunday school there'll be days when man you may knock it out of the park and be as obedient as a person as you can be and then there's going to be those days when you can't find obedience with a magnifying glass and you fail and falter at every turn and god's grace is there for those days just like god's grace is the grace that brought you through the other days you didn't do it of your own strength your own power you did it by his but you did it because you rested in him listen this is where so many people who are professing christians get twisted up when you when you talk to them we they they talk about serving god giving to god building the kingdom doing great things for god but do you ever hear them talking about resting in god this is why the work that happens in so many churches feels frantic it's why that there's this endless motion urgency programs pressure this restlessness that comes up in the life but but that's not fruit of faith that's fruit of self listen this the flesh can be very busy pride can be very busy fear can be very busy competition can be very busy guilt can be very busy but only the spirit of god produces peaceful obedience that flows from him listen i don't know how many of you in here are competitive people but we see it all the time i've got to do better than so and so why just because they fed this many we got to feed this many they work this many hours we got to work twice that many they gave 40 shoeboxes at christmas we've got to give 500 because it is in those things that we feel successful but what we are really demonstrating by our motion is that our hearts are far from god listen god's not impressed by our motion he's not impressed by our assembly line ability he's not impressed with our ability to create output he's not honored by activity that is really about us he's not pleased with worship that is built on human invention and human energy and the the movement of emotions within individuals to draw out a response that is neither genuine nor does it have anything to do with him this is why exodus begins in verse in chapter 35 where it starts the people of god need to be reminded once again that god is their portion how often do we need to be reminded that god is our portion i don't know about you but for me i would say at least once a minute if not every other second we can never be reminded too frequently that god is our portion because the flesh is there and it's waging a war and so unless we recognize that he is our portion then our life becomes chaotic it becomes about striving about earning about working i also want you to notice that this comes right behind the events that occurred in chapter 34 you may remember moses is back up on sinai he's back up on sinai because the people sinned and because the people sinned and moses destroyed the tablets of the ten commandments then he went before god interceded mediated on their behalf god said well carve out another set of tablets i will display mercy i will display grace he brought moses back up to that mountaintop the covenant has been reaffirmed the mercy demonstrated in the covenant has been declared the glory of the lord shines remember we talked about last week that it was shining so brightly was shining through moses and impacting the people that were around him it matters because rest is not as just a bare law this is not a a thing that is isolated it's not a thing that is is by itself it is a a response to grace the rest that we have in god is a response to the very grace of god the privilege of the covenant the the enjoyment of god's glory all require require the setting aside of flesh it must be done to truly enjoy god it must be done to enjoy the covenant only as we rest in god only as we heed the command of the word that says mortified therefore your members which are upon the earth put to death that which remains of the flesh that's what mortify means it doesn't mean terrified in this sense it means to literally kill what remains of the flesh and as we go through that we become free to enter the enjoyments of god so let me let me give it to you plainly if your christianity is about striving but not much resting you're out of order if you're working hard for god but you are not resting in god you are out of order if it's mostly busy with no delight or very little delight you are out of order if it's doing but not receiving you're out of order the ordered life of a believer begins resting in him not not a laziness resting not an indifferent resting not a spiritual sleep resting not treating the lord lightly resting it is faith it is worship it is your heart coming to god and saying you are my good you are my life you are my peace you are my portion it's the soul saying with the psalmist whom have i in heaven but you and besides you i desire nothing on earth and so what happens is when the soul rests in god when we truly understand what this means then our heart begins to move and as our heart begins to move our hands will follow so we move from the first marker of the ordered life of a believer being rest in god to the second marker of a order life of a believer is this willing service that results from the work of god in our lives immediately after the sabbath command verse four moses immediately turns to a call for contribution he says in verse uh five take from among you a contribution to yahweh whoever is of a willing heart let him bring it now when we begin talking about money in church everybody gets all antsy because we we're asking for something but but notice moses is not coercing anybody he's not taxing anybody he's not manipulating anybody he's not working the crowd he didn't give them this revelation regarding the sabbath and say okay now every eye closed and every head bowed and we're going to play a little tune and as you feel led you're going to come down yes sir i see you over there yes sir i see you over there in an effort to to grow this thing that doesn't exist it's it's not this manipulation playing this right music crafting in the right pitch finding the right pressure point stirring the emotion of the people it's simply god speaking through moses to the people demonstrating that he is willing to receive the response the response is beautiful look at look at the response and all of them all the men and women whose heart was willing brought this free will offering to yahweh now to be sure their heart was not willing because it was in the flesh their heart was willing because it was resting in god and god was transforming them and their desires but when their desires are transformed they respond matthew henry makes a point about the thing that makes these gifts acceptable you see these these gifts aren't acceptable based on their value moses never said well make sure everybody brings me x amount moses never said make sure you bring me a whole yard and a half of whatever fabric he didn't place those demands all he said was that the lord is willing to receive if you have a willing heart give and we see a response god's not interested in the value he's not interested in the amount of time of money of service of anything he is interested in the fact that their spirit was made them willing made their hearts willing and they responded god wants to see what's happening in your heart not in your hands we need to take this to heart in our world today especially in the church listen we have inherited some ugly ugly ugly ugly practices in modern evangelicalism and what's interesting is we have done them in the name of not doing these things so i don't know how how many of you have spent a long time in church but many churches and some i know some that still use pledge cards and so each year at the beginning of the year you would get your pledge card and and you would write down on that pledge card what you pledged to give that year and it's the way that they built their budget and so some churches simply used it as a budget marker and nothing else but many more churches begin to use it as a measuring tool of where you stood and if you didn't give appropriately then there were repercussions there are churches even today that at the end of the year you you must submit your w -2 for verification that you gave 10 of your income if you did not give 10 of your income you are subject to church discipline these are the ugly things that we have inherited in modern evangelicalism but but those are the very obvious ones we've done a lot of other ones you see we've assumed that the work of god cannot happen unless we raise the funds that that it must be funded and it must be funded in the same manner using the same tactics that the world uses this is not a marketplace it's not a business it's not a fundraising machine listen the church of god the bride of christ is the people of god redeemed by christ indwelt by the spirit governed by the word that means our giving and the way we give and the way we serve must must be according to god's way it's got to be shaped by god's word it's got to be shaped by god's order not by ours i've been privy to conversations in the past where certain individuals and in churches gave more and they were aware that they gave more than anyone else and they felt like that gave them a bigger stake there's a theologian named dennett who wrote what has wrought more ruin than worldly schemes of raising money and what more humbling than the fact that solicitations and pressure tactics are used to induce the lord's people to offer their gifts now there are people who say well if we don't pressure people nothing will happen if we don't remind them to give nobody will give if we don't hound them that they got a tithe nobody will tie it we've got to remind them and remind them and remind them and hound them but but if the work depends on pressure it's not god's work it's not god's way moses is not pressuring anyone look at what it says take from among you a contribution to yahweh whoever is of a willing heart let him bring it as a contribution to yahweh you see god stirs the hearts of the people god lays his burdens on the hearts of his people god moves and god is abundantly more than capable of bringing in all that he needs and then some what happened when we got over here a little further when we got to the fact that they were bringing too much can you imagine a church today responding in the way that moses and the elders responded here can you imagine a a pastor getting up into a pulpit on a sunday morning and saying listen brothers and sisters we love you we thank you for all of the gifts but don't bring any more we've got more than we can handle they're not going to do it but literally the people were bringing so much because their hearts were stirred that they were not just told to stop listen to what it says here they were restrained from bringing more verse 6 chapter 36 thus the people were restrained from bringing any more i just told to stop made to stop forced to stop kept from doing it wouldn't it be amazing but you see we don't believe that can happen why because here's why we've trained ourselves to to believe and and to see something called scarcity thinking what's going to happen if we run out of money you know what's funny it's a little over a year ago we started christ reform baptist church we met in somebody's house and the stuff that was bought was donated by the people we didn't have any money but we had a church we're always worried about well what will we do if we run out of money the doors will close the doors of the church can never close that's when we've got the mentality of the scarcity thinking we won't have enough to provide we won't have enough to pay the light bill then turn them off lights don't make you worship it comes as a result of resting in him of of a changed and transformed heart go back 100 years ask them how they worshiped you see as scripture shows the pattern that that when the spirit of god stirs the hearts of the people of god his work will not be starved giving is not a burden it becomes a joy you don't walk up to the offering plate with with the check in your hand shaking terrified to give you don't hesitate over the button on the app to give oh man i don't know if i can give all of that this week you hit the button why because it's joy because you delight in him not because you care anything about recognition for the gift not because you think that that amount matters beyond you but because you simply delight in him and as a response you desire you see if it feels like work if giving feels if giving to the church feels like resentment you should have a a warning bell going off in your head something's not right and i can speak from experience because i can tell you there was a time when man i was terrified to let lisa write the check that thing will bounce if it don't bounce another one might some of y 'all don't have any idea what it means to bounce a check it's serving in the church it feels like pressure it feels like this weight resting on you that's a warning light if being obedient to the commands of god makes you feel like you're cornered that's a warning that's a warning obedience giving serving all come from glad hearts joyfully delightfully being done because you see the the fruit of the heart that's been restored is this this everyone whose heart stirred him up every one whom his spirit made willing that's the language of grace working inside listen god doesn't crush the will god renews the will he makes it new he makes it where you desire these things he doesn't demand from the outside he transforms you on the inside so that you desire to respond why does it matter because this willing service is not just about being cheerful right you see this is something you can't fake till you make it you can't walk in skip down the aisle singing tra la la all the way to the offering plate drop them in be all excited about things if it's not genuine you you can do it but you know god knows you see it's theological it's evidence that the order in your life is correct you rest then respond rest then give rest and your heart is drawn out towards him and as your heart is stirred and drawn out there's this willingness this is again goes back to devotion it's worship expressed through your obedience worship expressed through look they didn't bring spiritual things they brought the things that were needed they brought linen skins wood oil spices some brought too much some brought too little but that didn't matter the point was they gave and they were equally devoted these things that were given could have been kept they didn't walk around with gold bars in their pocket we read in scripture about each one of the silver bases being made out of a talent of silver that's not something you walked around with on your person the talent was made up of silver melted down from other things yes there may have been some coins but more than likely it was the the jewelry and the things that were given to them as they came out of egypt they didn't need necessarily to part with them in fact some of the things that they had may have even made them feel secure i know we put a high price on the security that we find in the money that we have right turn on the tv let it go an hour and i guarantee you see two or three commercials that are talking about your retirement yeah they're rushing it they want you to go dump a lot of money in their stuff so you make them a lot of money and maybe get something but what we find because what they advertise is not a return what do they advertise security peace of mind they they're advertising rest to you by the way that's what they're advertising not not like rest home rest like being able to rest in that security we've got eternal security we rest in it we don't need to rest in it what's the worst happens if you end up bankrupt you're homeless you're out on the street you're on the street you go hungry you go hungry you die you die you go where before the lord to be hesitant with the body is to be present with christ paul said listen for me to die is gain but i'll remain here because it's profitable for you but for me it's better to be there the things of this world the hold that they have over our life is is false so the second marker of the order life of believer is a as a life uh where where you are resting in him and you are serving and giving not out of guilt not out of fear not out of oh well i better respond if i don't the church police are going to come and lock me up but out of a responding to the grace of god that has moved in your life driven by love paul says the love of christ controls us if he loves us if he has given himself for us if he has rescued us from judgment if he has brought us near then giving is not the first what do i have to do giving becomes how can i honor the one who loved me first and when we are truly resting and that willingness to give and to serve becomes real it doesn't stop there it actually moves into working for his glory and according to his word exodus 35 doesn't just mention being willing to do in the context of the giving it also mentions it in context of those who are wise at heart who came to make all that yahweh had commanded we're reminded of bezalel and oholiab the two craftsmen that were given the task and i love this line that's kind of added in here it's a little different than the way it's written in earlier text in the earlier text it makes it clear that they are to instruct those who are doing the work but here it literally says in uh to that they are to teach verse 34 of chapter 35 he also has put in his heart to teach both he and oholiab their desire wasn't just to know they weren't just given the spirit to contain the knowledge they were given the spirit to contain the knowledge and to teach the information and as they did this and as the spirit of god moved in the people and the the wisdom and discernment and the knowledge and the craftsmanship were contained in them then moses calls everyone whose heart is stirred to come and to to do the work we go back the heart stirred the people respond the work is done why because the spirit moves in the life of the people and they respond to the movement god works we respond from genesis to revelation in all things that's the way it works god moves we respond because if we respond without god moving we are responding according to ourselves not according to god even if it's something that seems to be the work of god so we get this thing about the nature of service you see we get a lot of misunderstanding about service and nature of service when it comes to church we think that anything we do as long as we are wearing a church shirt or we have a church banner or we have church bumper stickers or we have church something then we're doing it for the church we're doing it for god but service is not always true service for god biblical service is not about doing religious things it's about doing the things that god commanded them the way that god commanded them and for his glory you see you can do the things that god commands you can even do them the way that god commands but if you're doing them for personal gain or attention you did not do biblical service you merely did religious functions over and over and over in exodus chapter 39 as you continue through we read where as Yahweh had commanded

Moses eight times eight different times you go through and count them eight times in chapter 39 we we read those words as Yahweh commanded

Moses and then we see thus according to all that Yahweh had commanded Moses so the sons of Israel did listen this is not again it's repetition it's not repetition to to just fill the page god didn't say

Moses now i'm just telling you as you write the book of Exodus you have a 30 ,000 word quota make sure you get every single one of them because i'm gonna count every jot and tittle and if you are at 29 ,999 you're gonna have to do it over again

Moses so make sure you hit at least 30 ,000 that's not what happened it's not there just to fill the pages it is there to demonstrate for us that obedience is not approximate it is exact i was told a long time close didn't count in anything except for a long time ago that close didn't count in anything except for horseshoes and hand grenades it certainly doesn't count in obedience you can't almost be obedient you get pulled over by the cop and you say what i was going 56 in a 55 i was close guess what he can still write you a ticket because you still broke the law you see we have in our society this thought process that says things bend right oh we can bend obedience we can we can massage what it didn't really mean xyz it really meant as long as we get close to that as long as we approximate that reread these passages how do they do it exactly as God commanded it to be done and if you go back and you read when

God's giving the commands maybe you'll recall God told Moses over and over be sure that you do it how exactly as i am instructing you no deviance no variation no slipping no no let's adjust this for the culture no let's take the pews out put padded seats in because padded seats are more attractive to people let's take the suit off the pastor put him in some hip clothes give him a coffee table put a cup of coffee up there some cool lights behind him maybe a little fog machine because the world likes that and it'll bring them in the door in fact you know what let's just start the service with a whole rock and roll concert to bring them in then we'll slip christianity in the back door smack them around for a couple minutes and call them all down front because we've worked their emotions up and now they're ready to submit their lives to Christ when in truth they're not they enjoyed the light show and the concert and as long as you keep giving them a light show and a concert and you keep throwing in extra things like oh next time we'll put those cool little snap them glow in the dark things where everybody can wear it and they can be waving their hands and we can all see it in the dark right you keep growing it that way you're moving further and further but it only takes one step

Daniel mentioned this morning that we believe and practice the regulative principle of worship if you're not sure what the regulative principle of worship is it basically states that we worship the way that God has ordained it in his word and if God's word doesn't ordain it it really shouldn't be part of our worship why because obedience is not approximate obedience is full you can't be obedient in anything less than full measure we also need to balance things out because people hear that and they go well count me out man that's got to be boring joyless stuffy stuck up cold -hearted

I like Daniel's words this morning chosen frozen right we've frozen chosen we've all heard that before you guys were just so rigid man being obedient that's legalism oh it's being obedient we're not doing it to obtain salvation that would be legalism doing it because we have been saved we don't see the people of Israel moping around we don't see them responding in sad sack ways we don't see them living joyless lives we see them responding in joy in abundance in zeal in free will in heart stirred whole community engaged and we see them doing all of these things and being very careful to be obedient to the commands of God you say but wait wait wait wait wait wait wait they were living bc right before Christ so now we live a c so things changed no they didn't

Jesus himself said if you love me you will keep my commands

I love that argument because here's the next thing that always comes out of my mouth yeah but Jesus said there's only two commandments love the

Lord your God with all your heart and soul your mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself yeah uh -huh let's go back to the ten commandments see how many of them you can do without doing number one over here in fact he also goes on to say that in this is the whole of the law of the prophets meaning that it covers everything obedience should be joyful it should be orderly it should be free it should be all of these things why because that is what the spirit of God produces in the people of God again

God moves we respond the production of this in our lives is what we see flesh flesh will give you something all right it'll give you chaos but it'll call it freedom it'll give you legalism but dress it up as holiness spirit produces joy and order but if you'll notice listen service doesn't come first you don't get served bam

I gotta serve you have to rest you have to be transformed service is not the beginning it is the fruit it is the result of the transformation it is a result of the heart being made willing it is a result of this movement of God we need to look at it and understand that the questions are different we think the questions are does it get results well

I haven't seen that ministry produce any results if it doesn't produce any result gotta go that's money we're spending shouldn't be spending that money oh that website over there man that's not producing results we don't see anybody getting saved off of it we haven't seen any growth off of it we haven't seen any of this off of it that off of we haven't seen results come out of it go to a pastor's conference have a conversation first question you get asked every time you talk to a pastor if you if you're not in the same group like if you leave one group go talk to another group first question ask you how your church doing let me tell you what they're not asking you they're not asking you are your people growing spiritually what they're asking you is how many people have you had come in the door how many people have you dumped under the water that's what they're looking for that's the response they're looking they're looking for a a result versus was it faithful were you faithful to the word the question is not did it impress people the question should be did it honor

God the question is not was it innovative question should be was it obedient question is not did it draw a crowd but did it conform to the word those are the differences in an ordered life ordered by God versus those that are not pink made a very astute statement faithfulness not success is what our master requires faithfulness not success is what our master requires there's a lot of things that we can do in church to have church activity and be failing because you could teach a class with pride you could preach with self -love i could get up here and tell you how i can correct the