Preparation for Worship Exodus 3011 38

We will be continuing in our series for Exodus and of course even in Exodus there is a subsection

Which we started in chapter 25 and it will end in chapter 31 and it is this whole section for Israel to prepare themselves to live

Among the Lord, what does it mean for God to live with Israel? right and We are nearing the end of that subsection.

So please turn with me to Exodus chapter 30 verses 11 through 38

Exodus chapter 30 verses 11 through 38

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying When you take the census of children of Israel for their number

Then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord When you number them that they may there there be no plague among them when you number them

This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give half a shekel

According to the shekel of the sanctuary a shekel is 20 geras The half shekel shall be an offering to the

Lord everyone included among those who are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an

Offering to the Lord the rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel

When you give an offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves and you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting and it may be a

Memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord to make atonement for yourselves

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying you shall also make a layer of bronze

Laver a bronze with its base also a bronze for washing You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar and you shall put water in it

For Aaron and his son shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it

When they go into the tabernacle of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister to burn an offering made by fire

To the Lord they shall wash with water lest they die So they shall wash their hands and their feet lest they die and it shall be a statute forever to them

To him and to his descendants throughout their generations Moreover, the

Lord spoke to Moses saying also take for yourself quality spices 500 shekels of liquid myrrh half as much sweet smelling cinnamon 250 shekels 250 shekels of sweet smelling cane 500 shekels of cassia according to the shekel of the sanctuary and a hand of olive oil and you shall make from these a holy anointing oil an anointing anointment

Compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil with it

You shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the testimony the table and all its utensils the lamb stand and its utensils and all the altar of incense the altar of burnt offering

With all its utensils and the laver in its base. You shall consecrate them that they may be most holy

Whatever touches them must be holy and you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may minister to me as priests and you shall

Speak to the children of Israel saying this shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations

It shall not be poured on man's flesh nor shall you make any other like it according to its composition

It is holy and it shall be holy to you Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people and the

Lord said to Moses take sweet spices stack tea on Nika and gal

Benham and pure Frankincense and with these sweet spices There shall be equal amounts of each you shall make of these and incense a compound according to the art of the perfumer

Salted pure and holy you shall and you shall beat some of it very fine and Put some of it before the testimony of the tabernacle of meeting before I will meet with you and it shall be most holy to You but as for the incense, which you shall make you shall not make any for yourselves according to its composition

It shall be to you holy for the Lord whoever makes any like it to smell it

He shall be cut off from his people. This is the Word of the Lord Let us pray

Father we are Grateful that we can worship you through your son

Jesus Christ Who died for our sin to atone for our sin so that we may be redeemed and that we can?

Worship you not in our own righteousness, but in Christ's righteousness Thank you so much that the preparation has been done through Christ and in Christ in Jesus name

Amen as I started This morning.

This is one of the ending parts of the Subsection of what does it mean for the

Lord the Holy God to dwell among his people? Israel and It was it's close to six chapters it is six chapters long of the whole preparation of the tabernacle and all the utensils inside the tabernacle and even outside the tabernacle the altar of bronze and the reason why

Moses and of course God Put so much emphasis in this section is because it is important to worship the

Lord correctly according to his way Now we have reached one of the final sections of what it means for the

Lord to dwell among his people and this text teaches us

How? must God's people Prepare to worship the

Lord and as you know Preparation is important for worship

For Christians we prepare our hearts we prepare our minds before we go to worship the

Lord and For the Israelites they had to do physical preparation

Because under the Old Covenant the physical phenomena Pointed and taught the spiritual reality the spiritual truth, and I've been repeating that phrase over and over again that's because the physical phenomena phenomena were not just for a ritualistic do -nothings they meant something and they taught something to the ancient

Israelites and this section teaches us how God's people must prepare in order to worship the

Lord and preparation is very important to us because certain

Religions their preparations look much different and more self -centered right if you think about meditation that many false religions or even a lot of secular people often do

Meditation is about emptying one's mind But in the Bible meditation is filling up one's mind with God's truth

There's a huge difference in preparation before worshiping right and and even in certain churches they might whether intentionally or not shift the focus in preparation to something or someone else than God right and and that becomes tragic when the focus is on the pastor or the focus is on Me having a good time or the focus is on a certain program

Where when the focus is on those things? But the church loses focus on God and who he is and how wonderful he is

So today we will be going over four different points that teach us in principle

How we ought to prepare Worshipping the Lord as God's people

So first in order to prepare to worship the Lord God's people must be atoned for at the same price

In order to prepare to worship the Lord God's people must be atoned for at the same price

Atoned for is a Christian and Jewish language. It means to be accounted for There's the sin that prevents us from approaching

God is Accounted for we are bought from that enslavement

So that's what atonement means So after describing the altars the main means of worship under the

Old Covenant God reveals to Moses what must occur in preparation for worship verse 12 introduces the necessity for a census

When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the

Lord When you number them that there may be no plague among them when you number them

In the Old Testament census was not taken every 10 years just like in this country under the

Constitution The census was taken either in preparation for war to count how many eligible men there are to fight anyone above 20 or for an institution of a new tax

Both reasons were taken seriously and had to be done according to God's command

Even a king could not willy -nilly Put census as an agenda.

In fact when King David commanded a census to be taken Against God's will

God punished him for it. It was according to God's will not any human will and verse 13 to the first part of verse 15

Detail how it must be done First verse 13 tells us how much is must be collected by each man half a shackle according to the shackle of the sanctuary and a shackle is 20 garras and half a shackle shall be an offering to the

Lord a Shackle was about 0 .4 ounce So not a huge amount

But with precious metal a 0 .4 ounce is not something to laugh about right although it's not an exorbitant amount that people could not pay

But it was not a small amount where people could just throw away as if they're pennies, right?

So it was not a small. It was not a huge sum, but it was not a small sum. It was an important amount

Now verse 14 to the first part of 15 tell us from whom the census offering must be taken

Everyone included among those who are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering to the

Lord The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than a half a shackle the offering to the

Lord will count everyone who is old enough to be counted in Israel and It is significant that the census offering did not discriminate against based upon the social status of the giver

Right whether rich or poor the same amount would be collected Now contrary what to what our current culture might say to that, right?

They are this was not regressive at all this command actually was impartial and equitable

Remember the offering here is taken in order to build the tabernacle the very dwelling place of God and it was symbolically important that Anyone who is old enough to contribute to their wealth to build the tabernacle the

Lord's dwelling place that they were contributing the same amount

Now for those who could give more Logically you would expect more would be given

But God forbade that and this is because in Israel God could not be bought

Right in Israel. God could not be bribed No single individual could claim that the tabernacle was built because of him alone

It will it was a communal effort and the tabernacle belonged equally to all of Israel God would not have an elite group of people taking more credit among his people and That is significant

Now what was the reason for the census in this context the census has two purposes

First it is an offering for the tabernacle when you give an offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves

Right this census collection had an atoning effect

This was a way for Israel to purchase their lives back from God so that they may live

The half a shekel was given to redeem one's life back from God Right, and this would have taught them two lessons one all of their lives belong to God Right.

There was no such thing as it's my life my way My way or the highway, right?

There was no I did it my way in Israel They all belong to God to the

Lord graciously allowed his people to buy their lives back from him so that they may live in an

Abundant life that God has provided Right. It was an act of grace

Could God take away all the lives of Israel whenever he wanted? Yes But through the census offering they would buy their lives back this act of redemption

Was in play for Israel That's what they would remember My life was bought back from the

Lord so that I may live and It was at the same price as anyone else

Even if I'm poor same price Even if I'm rich my price my value to before the

Lord was the same as the poor guy outside my gate second purpose is introduced the second purposes is introduced in verse 16 and you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of a

Meeting that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord to make atonement for yourselves

As mentioned above the offering would contribute to the building of the tabernacle

It was so that everyone contributed to God's dwelling place

There will not be a big plaque for the giant donors and some honorable mentions for the poor donors

Whenever an Israelite would walk by the tabernacle whether poor or rich young or old that Israelite would know that he contributed something so that the

Lord may dwell among them that God used him that God Required him to give something in order for God to dwell with them

It was very special Now how is this relevant to the new covenant people

After all, we do not pass by the tabernacle nor has anyone given to the tabernacle the census offering although the theme of Ransom for all of God's people without discrimination based upon social status starts here

It does not end here It is ultimately fulfilled by Christ in the

New Testament this theme of ransom redemption bought with a price is ultimately fulfilled when

Christ died for our sin so that our lives would be bought at a price at A at a price much higher than a half a shekel

At the price the cost of the life of our Savior Jesus Christ That redemption theme is caught on and intensified in the

New Testament It's not just gonna be a half a shekel anymore, but God himself who shed his blood for us but also the

Discrimination the lack of discrimination would also broaden Remember under the

Old Covenant the tabernacle offering was only it only applied to the Israelites The Canaanites didn't pay for this the

Egyptians didn't pay for this right the Babylonians didn't pay for this however under the

New Covenant that price paid Affects not just one ethnic group but every ethnic group

That's why in 1st Timothy 2 5 through 6 Paul can proclaim For there is one

God and one mediator between God and mankind the man Christ Jesus Who gave himself as a ransom?

for all people This has now been witnessed to at the proper time

All people here means every ethnic group It's not just some it's not just a couple

But all people are redeemed At a different price now at the same price at the highest price the life of Christ crucified on the cross

Bearing our sin so that we may be purchased from the enslavement of sin

The greatest slave master of all and that redemptive theme starts in Exodus For all people not just the sum

Second in Order to prepare to worship the Lord God's people must be purified in Order to prepare to worship the

Lord God's people must be purified Instead of the term laver,

I will use the more commonly used term Basin, right wash basin

Now one may claim that the bronze basin is placed out of order because it should have been

Introduced along with the bronze altar, which is outside the tabernacle

However, I believe this section is exactly where it needs to be

Because the basin just like a

Basin unlike unlike the bronze altar was not used for worship

But in preparation for worship right basin was not used for the

Worship itself. It was to prepare the priests for worship through the sacrifice

Now the altar Was the crux of the Old Covenant worship?

The bronze basin was to prepare the priest for that verse 18

Introduces the basin the bronze basin filled with water is for washing

It must be placed in between the tabernacle the tent and the altar outside Now verse 19 through 20 give us the instruction for the priests

They shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it when they go into the tabernacle of meaning or when they come

Near the altar to minister to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord. They shall wash with water lest they die

Under the Old Covenant as I mentioned before the physical phenomena taught the spiritual reality

Here the physical washing continual washing before approaching any of the

Lord's artifacts showed the cleanliness and the purity of the

Lord Before attending though any of the Lord's items The priests must be cleansed

Before setting a foot inside the Lord's house. The priests must be purified

Any contact with the Lord's items That body part must be washed

That's why the hands and the feet had to be washed Because he will be walking into the tabernacle and he will touch the bronze altar when making the sacrifice

Right. That's why the hands and feet had to be washed to teach them over and over again

This God is so holy. I will die if I don't

Purify myself the physical dirtiness must be removed before approaching this holy

God and Hence the warning of death is repeated in both verses 20 and 21 lest they die

So they shall wash their hands and their feet lest they die Even if the priests who are anointed and set apart apart from the whole community for the ministry

Even if he attempts to approach the Lord in an impure manner they risk their lives and This is because no one can withstand

God's holy presence in their impurity No one unclean can approach the

Lord and expect to live This taught the importance of purification among the old covenant people

Now, how do we cleanse ourselves as the new covenant people before approaching the

Lord And the short answer is you don't Under the new covenant washing is not done by us.

It's done to us Moreover the cleansing is not just external its internal and in fact

This was anticipated in the old covenant When the post -exilic prophet

Ezekiel Talks about the demise and fall of God's people Judah he doesn't leave thing hanging as if to be continued he actually discloses

God's redemptive plan for the sinful rebellious people of Judah in Israel And he catches up in Ezekiel 36 to talk about the reality of a new covenant

How it will be different from the old covenant while the old covenant was about physical washing.

The new covenant will be internal Ezekiel 36 25 This is

God speaking. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean

I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols

Notice the subject of this beautiful promise. I Will sprinkle clean water.

I Will cleanse you the subject Here for purification.

It's not us. It's not Israel. It's God himself

And how does God cleanse his people? from some of the impurities

Some of our idols No, it's an internal power wash all of our impurities and all of our idols are washed away by God When you belong to God, there is no square inch inside you that that God leaves unclean

And how is this done? God sent his son to carry all of our uncleanness all of our impurities all of our sins and all of our filth and he carried that on the cross and God the

Father poured out his wrath that we deserved on Jesus the Son the purest being of all and When you believe that Jesus died for your sin and has risen

God does not just forgive you and leave you hanging He also purifies you he does not leave you in that filth that you grew up in and The best of luck to you try to live cleaner

But he cleanses you From the inside and out and we see that in Jesus his desire to cleanse us

Jesus desire to cleanse us did not just bubble out on the cross His desire to cleanse his people

Was seen even from the beginning of his ministry His job his ministry was undoing the dirty work of sin

Right even before the cross Jesus went around cleansing the unclean Mark 1 40 verses 42 and a leper came to him

Imploring him and kneeling and said to him if you will you can make me clean

Moved with compassion Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him

I will be clean and immediately The leprosy left him and he was made clean

The word for compassion that Jesus had upon seeing this leper

Here means he was moved from his guts His inner parts

When he saw the leper When Jesus the cleanest being of all who has ever walked the earth

Encountered the unclean people He was not disgusted by them as we may when we walk across some unclean people unclean animals worms bugs spiders

But from the death of Jesus core He desired to cleanse and restore them

He was affected at the gut level to see the unclean made clean to see the impure made pure and This is important for us because too often we paint

Jesus in our image and think how disgusted he must be with us after we sin for the umteenth time and Brothers and sisters that is not at all what

Jesus is like when Jesus sees the sinner His gut instinct is to touch and restore them

You may say but you don't know what kind of sin I'm committing You're right. I don't

But Jesus does and his heart is not changed After you sin

Jesus does not lock you down as you as as if you're some sort of plague rats

But he welcomes you to himself to be cleansed This means when you when you sin the first person you run to the first person you seek out is

Jesus himself He desires to purify you more than your desire to be pure He desires to make you clean more than you ever imagined possible

That's because that's who he is Even if you've sinned the same way over and over and over again

Even when you are disgusted with yourself when you are tired of your own sin

Jesus is not tired of you Jesus is not tired of cleansing you once again

That's in his heart he cleanses and purifies from his core being third

In order to prepare to worship the Lord everything must be consecrated according to his way

In order to prepare to worship the Lord Everything must be consecrated according to his way verses 23 to 24 go over the materials used for the anointing oil as The list goes on the value of the spice actually decreases

The mer was an aromatic gum resin right the tree sap and from trees probably from Southern Arabia or even

Somaliland, Northern Africa and 500 shekels were required and this was about 200 ounces

For those of you who've ever tried to make essential oil You need a lot of the product just to get even a little amount of the essential oil

That's why it is so expensive to buy this amount It's a lot of materials right and the finer the quality the more precious it is and for the anointing oil

God required really fine quality materials and a lot of it, too

Next hundred ounces of the sweet smelling cinnamon it came from Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia The reason why they

Distinguish sweet smelling cinnamon is that there is a type of cinnamon that doesn't smell so to make that distinction

God calls it a sweet smelling cinnamon and Third it is uncertain what the sweet smelling cane is because a cane

Plant is pretty broad. So it is unknown Where that came from or what it could be?

And cassia is a type of calamus plant So they're they're from various regions and they're from various plants and Then of course a hint of olive oil was required for the base of the oil and that was about a gallon of olive oil

Now verse 25 states how the anointing oil must be made and you shall make from these a holy anointing oil and Ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer.

It shall be a holy anointing oil All the precious ingredients weren't just blended together in a giant tub willy -nilly, right?

It wasn't just pour it all together I'll mix it with my hands but it was by a

Professional perfumer and he had to mix it skillfully In a specific order that we don't we actually don't know how to make this and verses 26 to 28 lists what must be

Anointed with the anointing oil it is to anoint and to consecrate to set apart make holy in order to prepare

Worshiping the Holy God Everything involved in worship must be consecrated verse 26 starts with the most important of the furnishing right the

Tabernacle and the Ark of the Testimony the very meeting place of the Lord, right?

That's where the Day of the Atonement would occur Verse 27 branches out to the tools used inside the altar, right?

Inside the tabernacle rather the table and all its utensils the lampstand and its utensils and the altar of incense all these golden furnishing inside the tabernacle

Now verse 28 branches out to the outdoor ministry Artifacts the bronze altar and there and its utensils and the basin and its base, which we just went over previously now verses 29 to 30 state the purpose of anointing you shall consecrate them and they may be most holy whatever touches this touches them must be holy and You shall anoint

Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may minister to me as priests It is not just the artifacts, but also the people ministering directly to the

Lord Had to be consecrated with his anointing oil In order to worship the

Holy God God's people must prepare everything involved in worship by consecrating them

Nothing unclean nothing unholy must be allowed in worship

Verses 31 to 33 prohibit the improper ways to fabricate holiness and you shall

Speak to the children of Israel saying this shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations

It shall not be poured on man's flesh The first part of verse 32

Prohibits the improper use of the consecrating anointing oil. It must be done according to God's way and the anointing oil if we remember from Last couple of chapters was anointing oil for the head of the priest

Not the body It had to be poured on the high priest's head

Therefore it had to be done according to God's way. You couldn't just try to consecrate every part of you

Second the divinely decreed oils recipe must not change

Nor shall you make any other like it according to its composition It is holy and it shall be holy to you whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it in on an

Outsider shall be caught off from his people Only the

Holy God has the prerogative to consecrate everything he gets to choose how what when and whom and any attempt to play

God any attempt to Make something or someone else holy not according to God's will

Resulted in excommunication if you defile what is holy you can no longer be part of the holy people and Of course to defile the consecrating oil itself would have been idolatrous

How dare you Think that God's holy anointing oil is not holy enough that you have to edit that Or use it a different way than what is prescribed

That is a form of idolatry to think yourself higher than God to know better than God And this is important to us this morning

Because the sinful desire to attempt to seize the authority to consecrate from God's Prerogative is quite rampant all around First it starts with false religions.

They get to set up what it means to be set apart and holy It's about avoiding certain foods, right?

It's about eating certain foods It's about not eating period Right. It's about what you wear

Right, that's what makes you holy. That's what they lie to you Not according to the

Bible not in the New Testament and then

Sadly that idea seeps in to the church

What counts as holy what counts as good what counts as set apart

During the worship service on a Sunday morning Unfortunately, the examples are too many that I To bring up all this morning but when you have a pastor and A dance team behind while the pastor is dancing with them

That's not holy We're not against dancing, but let's not use the worship time

The holy time when we have to be devoted to God or when you have a church service and there's a giant rocket behind that's getting launched off or When a pastor is preaching through a movie instead of the

Holy Scripture that's taking God's mandate of only he can make things holy and us faking it and And fortunately faith

Bible Church does not have any of those problems Where we try to incorporate something that's not holy, but try to pretend it is fabricating holiness and This is because in the end

God is the one Who makes us holy? It is not our effort.

It is not our will it is God's will it is

God's power Who works through us in our obedience that we become holy?

set apart from the world and That's God's job

The world has no business Changing that Fourth in Order to prepare to worship the

Lord God's people present only the authorized offerings In order to prepare to worship the

Lord God's people present only the authorized offerings after describing the preparation of consecration for worship the

Lord prescribes the holy incense for the golden altar Not only was it necessary to consecrate everything related to worship, but also what was offered

By the consecrated priest had to be authorized by God and thereby holy

Verse 34 lists the ingredients sweet spices right quality spices stacchi the

Annika galvanum and pure frankincense all of equal amount

Stacchi refers to a resin maybe a balsam or or a persimmon tree

On a cause identity is uncertain, but it is thought that it is From a snail that is a nail shaped snail because the

Greek and Latin translation of the Old Testament Used the word for nail Galvanum was a gum resin also right sap from the tree that dried from a plant grown in Persia and Crete and frankincense is also a gum resin that is native to southern

Arabia or Northern Somaliland right and we're used to frankincense because it's part of the

Christmas story now verse 35 through verse 36

Described the procedure for making the incense You shall make of these an incense a compound according to the art of the perfumer salted pure and holy and You shall beat some of it very fine and put some of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of meeting

Where I will meet with you and it shall be most holy to you The repeated term here is holy.

The incense has to be holy. What's offered up to the Lord is holy You can't offer up just anything you'd like it had to be set apart just for the

Lord and In order to meet the

Holy God God's people offered up what was authorized by God only and Similar to the last section this section also ends with the same warning

But as for the incense which you shall make you shall not make any for yourselves according to its composition

It shall be to you holy for the Lord whoever makes any like it to smell it

He shall be cut off from his people if Anyone could make the incense

There would be a temptation to worship the Lord any way he wanted to Why go to the tabernacle when you could offer of the instance at home the pagans do it just fine

How about adding a statue in front of the incense it would be nice to have something to visualize right

There that's just the idolatry Soon enough the incense would be offered up to false gods

Because the wrong people seized the control of the worship procedure The prohibition was to prevent any attempt to hijack the worship procedure

It was to prevent that because that would be committing an apostasy rebellion against the

Lord worship of another God Therefore it was limited to a certain individuals on how the incense must be made and You got to really appreciate the

Jewish tradition because they really Whether how true or not? They really should give you that impact of how seriously they took it, right?

It's a powerful illustration. So according to the Jewish tradition The secret recipe for the incense was heavily guarded

By one family called of Tina's Only they knew how to make the incense properly and how they made it allowed the supposedly, right?

I've never seen this incense Allegedly made the smoke just go up like a column like a pillar

Of course no one alive has seen it to verify this but that's how

Unique it was how they made the incense according to Scripture That they followed right and this is a

Jewish tradition. So you won't see this in Scripture so only they knew how to make it and One time a sage asked one of the family, right?

Why the recipe is kept so secret and the family replied

Perhaps an unworthy man will learn this art and will serve an idol therewith

They were scared they were cautious That if this secret art gets out that it would be used improperly that's some serious dedication and The secret art is lost now after the fall of the temple in 70

AD and The family did not disclose it even till the end now

That story does not mean that's how we need to burn our incenses, right?

that story Illustrates what it looks like for God's people to take seriously

What they offer up to the Lord and we have to do it according to his way and keep it holy

For Christians, we do not rely on a secret incense in fact, if we try to attempt to make a secret incense that would be idolatrous and this is because Under the

New Covenant God commands us to offer up something other than an incense

And it's us God commands us to offer ourselves up in Romans 12 1 through 2

Paul Exhorts the church I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service and Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God Under the

New Covenant, we do not offer up the physical sacrifices or incense to God But our whole lives are offered up to God Everything with we everything we think everything we say everything we do

Are holy and acceptable to God That's what that's the standard

We do this not by being conformed to the evil world By desiring what they desire by pursuing what they pursue by speaking the way they speak by reading and enjoying watching what they enjoy but By being shaped by being transformed to the image of his son

Jesus Christ and That we do this by continually renewing our minds

Constantly filling up our minds with God's Word Continually saturating our minds with Scripture Right continually meditating on the beauty of God The delights that are in God in Christ the love of Christ that abounds

What he's done for us what God has provided his church and God's characters his love mercy

Patience Everything his goodness his gentleness his kindness

When we renew our minds like that God transforms us We partner with the

Holy Spirit in this transformation journey when we rely on God and Fill our minds renew our minds actively and Give ourselves up to God and ever since chapter 25 one thing

That has been common It's in order to live with God who dwells with you

You got to do it his way We have gone over how

God's people must prepare in order that the Lord may dwell among them Even preparation for worship.

They could not just follow their heart. They could not just choose what's practical and easy cheap accessible

That's not even their consideration. That's not something to even think about Over and over again.

We have seen that it is the Lord's mandate how his people relate to him he will decide and Today, we also see that establishing the proper preparation for worship is also the

Lord's prerogative We do not compromise. We do not trust our feelings.

We do not rely on practicality our Preparation even for worship depends on his instruction not ours

Let us pray Father, we're so grateful that you make it's crystal clear who's in charge and You prevent us with your instruction prevent us from idolizing someone or something else

By teaching us what it means to worship you in a holy manner Father may you prepare our hearts every day to worship you to fill our minds with the things of God in Jesus name