Hope, Tribulation, and Prayer

Intro: Have you heard the old saying, “We are creatures of Habit”? It is true. We are, we get into routines and a rhythm of life. Ill: In my job what makes painting trees easy is a consistent pace. Meaning when the trees are consistently the same distance apart you get into a good pace. What is hard is when they are inconsistently off. Sometimes life is has a consistent pace, it is easy, you have a schedule and a routine, but it gets tough when that pace gets altered. Its the rhythm of life. God meets us when life is consistent and when there is a wrench thrown in along the way. Because God pursues. But let’s turn this on ourselves, “Are my habits shifting to pursue Him?”

Habit Shift of Entering Holy Places

Understanding Tabernacle and Temple, God comes to dwell. Shifting our habits on where we encounter the presence of God!

Thus in referring to the temple or the tabernacle, the terms (in Greek and especially in Hebrew) connote four interrelated concepts:

(1) the temple/tabernacle is the residence of God, stressing his presence;

(2) the temple/tabernacle is the place where God reigns and rules as king, stressing his power and his sovereignty;

(3) because God dwells there, the temple/tabernacle is holy, stressing God’s holiness; and

(4) the temple/tabernacle is a place where people can approach God and worship him.

These four interrelated components—presence, power, holiness, worship—are always swirling around in the biblical texts that reveal God as dwelling in the midst of his people, whether in the tabernacle or in the temple, and these four interconnected components serve as the themes that drive the biblical story of the temple/tabernacle.

This is an important shift because while we can encounter God in the building of a church we also encounter God everywhere because we are the temple, we are the tabernacle.

Meaning God has made His dwelling place with me.

God rules and reigns as King in my life

God’s holiness now resides inside us and His presence makes us holy. That is the building was a building until the presence of God rested upon the building, from that moment on it is a holy place, not in and of itself, but because of the presence of God.

We can approach and worship God anywhere.

If we are now the temple, that should shift the way you live life. It is putting on a life of virtue for all to see.

****What this does is lend itself to the individualization of Christianity, but there is also a corporate dimension. Corporate did not have to be stressed in Scripture because of the culture of corporate. Even among the Romans there was still a corporate dimension that we miss.

Q: Can all of our meeting together be done online?

If it is merely the transference of information then there is no need to come to a localized place. But if there is something mystical that happens when a group of believers gathers together in a localized placed, not through technology, but personal proximity then there is a good reason to meet together.*****

Habit Shift of God and Damage Control

Going to God when things are bad vs going to God on how to live life. God meets us in both places. But when we go to God for how to live life we experience life God’s way, when we go to God to at the moment of damage it is sometimes because we have lived life our way. Why do I say sometimes? Because sometimes the place we find ourselves is our own fault (Cain). And sometimes the place we find ourselves is life is not our fault (Job). What Scripture calls us to is to be discerning of that difference in ourselves. The problem is we are often blind to where we are in life. Sometimes we avoid a lot of things if we would come to God and other people. Sometimes things cannot be avoided.

Jobs friends said what they said for one of two reasons. They secretly harbored resentment towards Job all this time. Or it is a way to deal with their fear, that if stuff like this happens to the most godly guy I know what is to keep it from happening to me?

Habit Shift of Meeting Together

The habit of meeting together is important, we need to meet together.