Every Mundane Act
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Grateful hearts worship
Grateful hearts worship
We are at that point in the book of Exodus where we’ll be looking at great chunks of scripture.
From Exodus 25 through Chapter 31, the Lord is giving directions to Moses on how to built the sanctuary tent.
That’s a lot of detail here that is fascinating and meaningful
But I’m not sure it’s fascinating in the context of a Sunday morning message.
It would be fun to rip this apart for meaning in a small group of folks who really get into the detail
But for our purposes, we are going to focus on Exodus 25:1-9 and glean the driving points from there.
While you are heading to Exodus 25, kids, if you’ll pay attention today, you’ll hear something that will mean something to you later.
Your parents have made some very significant and brave decisions that will impact your lives for years to come.
What you hear today, file away in your memory so that one day when you are thinking of your mom and dad, you’ll have another reason to be proud the Lord gave you to them.
Our three words in your worship guide to help you follow along are Worship, Jesus and Sanctuary.
Please follow along as we read Exodus 25:1-9.
Hear now the Word of the Lord Exodus 25:1-9
The Lord said to Moses,
“Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.
And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,
blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair,
tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood,
oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Let’s pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth.
Please Dear Father, speak truth to us through Your Spirit.
We are so bombarded with so many things .
Lord, pierce the darkness that tries to fill our hearts and illuminate Your Word in our sight.
In beg you in Jesus’ name, Amen.
The starting point is the Lord
The starting point is the Lord
Look at verse 8 Exodus 25:8 “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”
There are a million things to be said here, but let’s net it down to one.
We need a physical place that we return to every week that reminds us that the Lord lives among us.
Yes, the Lord is everywhere and He can be worshipped everywhere.
But that’s not how He wants us to roll.
“Let them make me a sanctuary...”
The sanctuary is a place of safety.
It’s a place where we know that we know that we know that God is there.
When our prayers won’t penetrate the roof
When God feels a million miles away.
In this room, in this place, we can KNOW we can meet God here.
Yahweh designs this on purpose.
He knows us - He created us - and He knows that if we don’t have something physical to hang on to we’ll forget.
Later in Exodus we’ll see the Israelites make the golden calf
And we’ll wonder how in the world, after all they had seen and were still seeing, how could they build a dumb cow and say it was God?
There’s your proof.
They needed something to see, something that says that God is with us.
“Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”
I’m sure you can quote a ton of theology to me about having a new heart and how the Lord operates
But I challenge you to take your Bible and show me where assembling together in God’s house is no longer expected by God.
You can’t do it.
It is not there.
It’s the Lord’s desire that His people meet Him in His sanctuary to worship the Lord that lives among us.
This is our reminder that He lives with us.
So now we need a definition: What is worship?
Lexham Theological Wordbook Theological Overview
Every act of obedience to Christ, no matter how mundane, when done to his glory, is an act of worship
Every. Single. Act. of obedience - of obedience.
No matter how mundane - unglamorous, behind the scenes, invisible to everyone else - Every single act
When done to his glory
Whose glory?
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Every single act of obedience, no matter how mundane, when done to the glory of God the Father through the Son
That is worship.
So what were some things Yahweh asked them to do and what did they do?
Yahweh asked them to give
Yahweh asked them to give
Verse 2 - Exodus 25:2 ““Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.”
Did you hear the statement?
He did not command them.
"Do this or you will die...”
The Lord said, “take for me a contribution.”
Another word for that is an offering
And an offering is something YOU WANT TO DO - it is not compelled.
Listen Exodus 25:2 ““...From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.”
The Lord told Moses to take up an offering only from those folks who were intent to give it.
Don’t ask individual people.
Don’t go to the more wealthy and ask.
Don’t skip the poor because you don’t think they can give.
Simply give everyone who has the desire an opportunity to give.
Give God’s people the opportunity to worship Him and see what happens.
Do you know what?
That hasn’t changed.
The scripture that was read earlier in the service - remember it?
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Tell me how is that any different from what Yahweh said in Exodus?
And here, and here’s what happened.
In chapter 36, starting at verse 3, we read that they started bringing so much that the workers told Moses to tell everyone to stop.
So in verse 6 Moses tells the Israelites Exodus 36:6 “So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.”...”
But look at the last sentence, Exodus 36:6 “So the people were restrained from bringing,”
The story hints that the people didn’t want to stop giving but Moses and the workers had to make them stop giving.
Their giving was worship.
Yahweh let them build Him a sanctuary
Yahweh let them build Him a sanctuary
Yahweh let them build Him a place, a physical place where they could know that they know that the know that He was there.
Yahweh knew when He gave Moses these instructions, He knew that the golden calf was coming.
He knew in a matter of DAYS - not months or years - but DAYS - the people would make something tangible to worship
So he let them build Him a place.
And what did He do?
He gave them instructions on what it should look like, down to the nth detail.
Read chapters 25 - 31 and see just how detailed the Lord’s instructions were.
He gave them no room to stray - “This is what will be pleasing to me.”
He gave them instructions on how to build it to keep them safe from offending Him.
He wants to dwell with His people.
What else did He do?
Look at chapter 36 verse 2: Exodus 36:2 “And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.”
Yahweh gave certain people certain skills to be able to do what He asked to be done.
And, did you hear, He called them but He didn’t command them.
“…everyone whose heart stirred him to come to do the work...”
You know, I suspect a lot of people didn’t work on the sanctuary.
But many of them did.
In fact, enough of them came to work so that the sanctuary was EXACTLY what the Lord wanted.
Or maybe we should say it this way: The Lord knew who was going to come to work and He knew the work would get done just as He asked.
So, what does this mean to us?
Let’s start with our definition of worship.
Lexham Theological Wordbook Theological Overview
Every act of obedience to Christ, no matter how mundane, when done to his glory, is an act of worship
So I’ve got to shift gears for a moment - I’m going to talk about me.
Here is why I worship - your task is to ask am I right and if I am, then is this you too?
Romans 8:38–39 says “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I worship because I know the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Now, let me explain.
I know He saved me from death and hell and I’ll live with Him forever in the new heaven and new earth one day, but that’s not real to me.
I can’t see it, touch it, feel it, smell it or taste it.
Just like the Lord had to give the Israelites sometimes tangible, He had to give something tangible to me too.
And that tangible thing is His love.
It is very real to me.
It’s not just the warm feelings from amazing music
Or even a good sermon or book
Or a restful day on the porch on a fall day - anything really can give you those things.
It’s different.
I have seen so many things in my life - pivot points - where things could have sent me permanently off the rails
And for some reason, the right choice made itself very apparent to me and somehow I chose it.
Until finally, the Lord led me to realize that it was Him and it was Him all along.
I believe with all of my heart that He will never leave me or forsake me.
I believe with all of my will, with my intention, with my mind that nothing anyone or anything can do will ever separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
That no matter how anything ends, it will all end with me seeing Jesus.
Because I understand that it is my Lord from Whom all blessings flow
I realize better every day that my ever action is an act of worship.
From the most mundane to the most exceptional
From the most private to the most public
Everything I do, that’s the goal - everything is an act of worship.
I led us to consider and adopt the Elder Deacon model for the church.
Just like Yahweh laid out how the sanctuary was to be built to be pleasing to Him
I believe the Lord did the same thing in the New Testament when He gave us Elders and Deacons.
That was an act of worship.
Today we have a Members’ meeting.
You might think it’s re-branding of church conference but it’s more than that.
You can call a skunk a cat but it will still smell like a skunk.
No, a Members’ meeting will be an act of worship for us.
As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve been told that church conference is where we take care of the business of the church.
But what is the business of the church?
It’s to know Jesus and to make Jesus Known, right?
That’s why we are here, right? And for no other reason.
So a members’ meeting should be a celebration of how we have made Jesus known
And a place to lay opportunities before Jesus’ people for the people to help.
Today, you’ll hear a some ministry leaders report on what we’ve done as a body to make Jesus known in Jones County.
The Deacons will report on how they are re-organizing to help us do our business.
The Elders will report on how they are organizing to teach us how to do our business.
And Dan Page, our treasurer and CFO will report on the state of our finances.
He’s going to tell us that we aren’t making expenses most months
Which sounds like bad news - and it could be
Except, the Lord said to Moses, Exodus 25:2 ““Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.”
Because the Lord knew that He would move hearts and the coffers would fill to overflowing.
Because see, no one is being compelled.
The Lord isn’t putting a gun to your head and say give or I’ll bankrupt you.
The Lord is saying simply, you see my sanctuary.
You know I am living here with you.
You know that every good and perfect gift is from Me.
Do what you know in your heart that you want to do for Me, because
Lexham Theological Wordbook Theological Overview
Every act of obedience to Christ, no matter how mundane, when done to his glory, is an act of worship
And I do truly believe, that when those whose hearts move them to be obedient to Christ, even in the most mundane things, we’ll have everything we need.
Let us pray.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Every act of obedience to Christ, no matter how mundane, when done to his glory, is an act of worship.
Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Take the cup.
Take the bread.
And remember.
Remember His broken body.
Remember His blood and remember
He did it because He wants to dwell among us.
He wants to be our protector and provider.
He wants to be our shield and our comfort.
He wants to be our ever present help in times of trouble.
He wants to see us thrive because of Him.
Jesus is not out to get you.
Jesus is out to keep you from getting got.
It is imperative we remember Him.
This morning, let us sing our prayer to Him.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Amen
Please exit your pew to the left and move to the station closest to you.
The gluten free wafers are at the middle station.
When you are served, you may eat the bread here or take it back to your seat.
After all are served, we’ll sing a song and then we’ll have our members meeting.
As you come forward, please look deep into your heart and ask yourself
“What does my heart want to do for Jesus?”
