What Have We Learned?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
At the Veteran’s Day event yesterday, our own Hannah Foval won first place in her age group in the 5K.
Veterans’ Day - we appreciate what each of you who have served has done for us - have them stand
Election day - the fallout from that will take months, if not years to settle - Don’t stop praying that the Lord uses His Church to cause an awakening in our land
Election day - We will have package sales in the county, we’ll have a brewery right up the street. I saw some Facebook posts and folks reasoning of why should other counties get the tax revenue from our citizen’s alcohol purchases. I don’t have a beef with that. Listen, the world’s not going to come to an end because Jones County is in the alcohol business. But what it did do was simply make us like everybody else when the Lord calls us to be distinct. I pray everything turns out as those who plan and lead these things intend.
The Lord is in charge
The Lord is in charge
Can you remember back to January of this year?
We started our journey through the book of Exodus on the first Sunday of this year.
What all has happened to you in the last 10 months?
Where have you gone?
What have you done?
What have you seen?
Who’s missing that was here then?
A lot has happened, hasn’t it?
This is one of those neat little God teaching us something things
We will be closing out our study of Exodus today
Almost exactly in the time frame it took the Exodus to happen.
When they finish building the tabernacle, one year will have passed from the day the Lord showed up at the burning bush.
Talk about a crazy year - THEY had a crazy year.
So here we are, having traveled with Moses and the Israelites for 11 months.
What have we learned?
That’s what we’re going to be looking at today.
Our text is a lot - Exodus 35:1 - 40:38.
We’re not going to read it all although you will want to at home.
It’s not an easy read because it’s really a journal of how they build the tabernacle.
You know, it’s the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone kind of reading.
But when you do read it, you’ll have a phrase that will jump out at you.
The phrase is “as the Lord had commanded.”
It’s repeated 17 times in these 6 chapters.
It’s there for a reason.
It’s said 17 times to drive home the point, “The Lord is in charge.”
Go ahead and turn to Exodus 40:34-38.
Kids,
What I hope you learned from studying Exodus is that the Lord is not out to get you.
The Lord is out to rescue you.
You may not understand it just yet, but you need rescuing.
I certainly did and so did your folks.
The book of Exodus is a book about rescue.
How the Lord stood His ground and saved His people
Just like He will save you one day.
This morning, you’ll be listening for three words for your worship guide, Lord, Exodus and Remember.
If everyone has their Bibles open to Exodus 40, hear now the word of the Lord from Exodus 40:34-38
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.
But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up.
For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Would you pray with me?
Dear merciful Father,
Today, please remind us how You’ve rescued us.
Open our ears to Your Word, so it will pierce our hearts
So that we will fall more deeply in love with You than ever.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
What have we learned from Exodus, number 1
Worshiping the Lord is a decision
Worshiping the Lord is a decision
Look at Exodus 35:3 “You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.””
We’ve talked a lot about the Sabbath day in Exodus.
It all begins with the 4th commandment, Exodus 20:8 ““Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
The Lord is serious about us having a day of rest where we stop and get re-focused.
It’s so easy running a thousand miles an hour to start getting the wrong idea about how we got where we are.
The Lord says, “every seventh day, stop.
“Rest, recharge and remember.”
But remembering the Sabbath doesn’t just happen.
Consider what the Lord said, “You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”
“OK, that’s no big deal. I won’t build a fire on the Sabbath.”
So what does that mean?
It means if you are going to eat, you’d better cook twice as much on Saturday.
It means if it’s cold outside, you’d better be thinking about how you are going to keep warm.
It means if you plan on having a fire on Monday, you’d best gather everything for it on Saturday, so you’ll be ready to start your work week.
Remembering the Sabbath doesn’t just happen, you have to plan for it.
That reminds me of something a pastor friend posts on his Facebook every now and then.
“Sunday church is a Saturday night decision.”
Especially if you have kids, rights?
You don’t just get up on Sunday morning and decide to go to church if you have three little curtain climbers.
There’s WAY too many things that have to be in place for Sunday church to happen.
And listen, I’m a realist.
If I’ve been running ragged all week long, and I just allow myself to wake up on Sunday without an alarm
Well, waking up - that’s not going to be a happening thing - the Lord Himself only knows what time I’ll wake up
And then getting ready - when I’ve been warm and snugly in my bed.
It’s not going to happen.
Preparing for worship should come with thought.
You can just come last minute to check off the church box.
But the Lord wants us thinking about worship.
Don’t build a fire on the Sabbath.
Got it - so as I cook for two days, He wants me to think about how He provided the food.
As I prepare warm clothes, He wants me to think about how He has provided everything I own.
As I prepare on Saturday for work on Monday, He wants to think about How - not only about the job He’s given me
But He wants me to think about how He wants me to rest physically - and rest in Him.
Remember the other week, Exodus 33:14
And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Yes, we have serendipitous moments of worship like when the Young at Heart went to Driftwood beach on Jekyll Island the other week.
But the Lord wants us to have weekly moments where we “Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
The Lord makes it very plain - Worshiping Him is a decision. Number 2:
The Lord provides in order to provide
The Lord provides in order to provide
Sounds kind of wonky, let me explain.
Look way back to the very beginning of their journey.
Do you remember what the Lord told them to do way back in chapter 3?
And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,
but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
The Israelites did that - Moses confirms it in chapter 12.
Now why?
Did the Lord simply want to look down from heaven and say, “My, My, I’ve got a fine looking bunch of folk?”
Did the Lord simply want to hear conversations like, “Where in the world did you get those earrings girl?”
No - we know the story.
The Lord provided that in order to provide something else.
Let’s follow the arc of the story.
Before Yahweh told Moses His name at the burning bush, Yahweh knew Aaron would make a golden calf.
It wasn’t a surprise to the Lord at all.
Before Aaron told every man to rip the jewelry off their families’ ear, before Moses smashed the first edition of the 10 commandments to dust
Yahweh knew what He needed to provide for His people.
He need to provide for them a place for them to meet Him.
Remember us talking about this room.
Lot’s of places call this a worship center but I’m old and I’m old fashioned.
It will never be a worship center to me - that’s focused on me.
This room will forever be a sanctuary.
This is a place I can come and know - know - that the Lord is here.
The Lord knew they needed that.
Listen to me, let me remind you of a truth.
When your heart is breaking
Someone you love desperately dies
Someone you love more than air is sick or hurt and you can’t help.
You don’t care what you are wearing.
It doesn’t matter if it comes from Saks Fifth Avenue or a sack from Sonrise.
What you want to know, is that God knows and God cares
And the Lord hears you.
So what did the Lord do to help them know He hears?
He provided them with everything they would need to build a place that, just by seeing it, it would make you think about the Lord.
So of all of the things he told them to ask of the Egyptians and the Egyptians provided, the Lord told Moses to do this:
Exodus 35:5 “Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze;”
So what does it take to have a generous heart?
You remember where your blessings came from in the first place.
Exodus 35:21 “And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.”
Exodus 35:29 “All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.”
So many came with so much that Moses had to stop them from bringing the offering.
So what does that say to us?
We are currently working on our 2025 budget.
It’s going to be significantly less than previous budgets in order to reflect our current giving trends.
It could be time to panic and worry that the world is coming to an end, but that wouldn’t be Godly.
Godliness recognizes and lives by what the Lord promises.
He provided for Israel before they knew they had a need.
He moved His people’s hearts to give generously.
He provided people that knew how to do the things He needed done.
And how did it end up?
They had more than they needed to get the job done.
That’s not Pollyanna thinking.
That’s not ridiculous faith thinking - “Let’s write a budget $200,000 higher than we have in offerings - God will provide!”
No, we are doing our due diligence calmly, reasonably, rationally.
And we are watching for the Lord to work.
He wants His name to be made known.
He wants to show the world that His people are distinct.
The Lord will provide.
Number 3.
Following the Lord is a decision
Following the Lord is a decision
OK, we said worshiping the Lord is a decision meaning you have to make up your mind to do it.
Following the Lord is no different.
Like we said in the introduction, 17 times from chapter 35:29 through 40:29 you’ll hear the phrase “the Lord had commanded.”
Do you think they learned their lesson from the golden calf?
They didn’t do as the Lord had commanded then and how did that turn out for them?
But now - as you read through these six chapters, the instructions on how to build the temple are very precise.
The Lord is taking pains for them to be able to see His presence in the way He wants them to see him.
He was teaching them how to be different from every other religion on earth.
He was teaching them how to be distinct.
And the people now understood how good a thing that was.
So they took pains to construct this tabernacle exactly as the Lord commanded.
Just as the Lord had commanded.
They learned just like we do - the hard way, right?
Following the Lord is a decision.
And they learned that
The Lord keeps His promises
The Lord keeps His promises
Do you remember a long time ago, we talked about the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy.
The chapter starts this way: Deuteronomy 28:1
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
For 14 verses the Lord describes what living in the peace of the Lord looks like.
Blessed are you in the city and in the field (Dt. 28:3)
Blessed are your children and your cattle - even the bread you eat (Dt.28:3-4)
Your enemies will be defeated and the Lord will make you abound...
And then He lists all of the things you’ll abound in.
But as you read down a bit and get to verse 15, the Lord makes a different kind of promise Deuteronomy 28:15
“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
And all of those things He blesses when we obey His voice, He curses when we disobey.
Verse 20 sounds particularly appropriate to me when I think of the state of our country Deuteronomy 28:20
“The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.
In the story of the Exodus, we’ve seen a picture of this.
When they made the golden calf, their society completely broke down.
There was chaos and confusion - remember that Joshua thought what he and Moses was hearing was the sounds of war
But it wasn’t - it was the sound of a giant, drunken party.
When we live by the golden calf, chaos and lawlessness will follow.
We might get away with it for a season - the evil one blessing us with counterfeit things just long enough to hook us.
But then we find out truth and our life spirals out of control.
We think we’re having fun, but we can’t understand why we feel so empty.
Because the Lord has cursed what we are doing.
The flip side of that coin is right here.
Listen to the last verse of Exodus Exodus 40:38 “For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.”
Do you remember what the Lord promised Moses back in chapter 33?
And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
It’s been a year.
Their 400 years of slavery is over.
They are fed every day with miracle food.
They have plenty to drink everyday with miracle water.
They have a promise, a purpose to life - we are going to the promised land.
And they know they will succeed because they can look right out of their front door and see
That the Lord is with them.
They can see the tent of meeting that the Lord provided for them.
What about your Exodus story?
You were in bondage - you were a slave to sin just like they were slaves.
What did that look like for you?
Some of us made our mama’s lives miserable
We did everything she told us should never be done and we thought we were having a good time
Until one day when the Lord called us
And He showed us where we were going
We asked Him to rescue us -and we knew He would - He had already planned it.
He led us to His promised land.
For some of us life couldn’t have been more respectable.
You did good in school - got in just the appropriate amount of trouble.
Graduated, got a good job and created a good career.
You did all of the right things all of the time.
Everyone wanted their daughter to marry you
Or they wanted you to marry their son.
But somewhere along the way, the Holy Spirit came to you too.
He showed you that you were in just as much bondage as any drunk on skid-row.
Oh, you didn’t think of it that way at first but you learned over time that was right.
All have sinned - do you remember that word from last week?
Sin is where you do wrong and it is your fault.
There is no way to wiggle out of it - it’s on you
And you couldn’t stop yourself.
Until one day the Lord called you
And He showed you where you would end up if you kept living like you were.
You asked Him to rescue you - and you knew He would - He had already planned it.
And He led you to His promised land.
In all of the high drama of the Exodus story, I hope you caught of glimpse of yourself.
In bondage in Egypt.
Walking through the Red Sea.
Drinking miracle water and eating miracle food.
Sinning again because you thought you remembered how fun it was
But then it wasn’t.
And it scared you how easily you fell back into the wrong stuff
Until you looked out the front door and there you saw the presence of God.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Let us pray.
