Leaving Egypt: True Worship

Exodus 21: 1 - 9

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SPEAKER_01 0:18

You now stand for the reading of God's Word. Our passage is Exodus chapter 25, beginning verse 1. It's page 71 in your Red Pew Bibles. If you didn't bring a Bible of your own, should be a Red Pew Bible that looks like this. If you want to hunt one of those up, turn to page 71. Again, it's Exodus chapter 25, beginning of verse 1. We'd like for everyone to be able to see the passage as it's being preached.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

The Lord said to Moses, Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen, goat hair, ramskins dyed red, and another type of durable leather, acacia wood, olive oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breast piece. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. This is the word of the Lord.

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Thanks be to God. May be seated. Thank you, Shannon. So we do have for young people there's some uh note-taking things over there. If you want to grab one of those and put it in the basket. There we go. Let's pray as we come now to God's word. Father, we pause and still our hearts before you as we come now to your word, Lord, having offered you our prayers, having sung our songs of worship to you, having brought our offerings to you in worship, Lord, we now come to give our attention to what you want to say to us. We want to give our attention to your word that you tell us is alive. It is your very presence, it is your power. So would you come and would you use your word to bring about the renewing change that we need in our hearts through Jesus? In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So a question to get us started here for our young people. Do you enjoy music? Anybody in here really enjoy music? How about have you ever had an opportunity to go to like a concert, a live performance where you get to actually be there and watch live someone's music that you really love? Have you ever had that opportunity? It's it's amazing, isn't it? It it's totally different than than hearing it on the radio or or uh in some other way, or even watching it uh on a music video or on video in some way. To be there live, to actually be in the presence of this person that usually probably for most of us is incredibly talented and gifted. It it's very moving. It's very powerful to witness this and to be in the presence of this. A couple weeks ago, we I I mentioned this before, but a couple weeks ago our family went to a concert, memorial auditorium here in Chattanooga, and we got to see May's favorite, uh, her favorite artist, which is Ella Langley, okay. Hopefully you know about Ella Langley. Country music. We have any country music fans in here? All right. We got one. I got one here. All right. But you know, May May knows just every the words of every song. But usually whenever I go to a concert, I'm in the cheap seats, okay? Now, especially because we had to buy seven tickets. We are for sure in the cheap seats. So we're way up there in the back, and and and and even though you're in the presence of these amazing artists, you there's a lot of distance. Now, it's still better. It's better than than seeing it on TV or hearing it on the radio, but but you're so far away, and they have the big video screens to help you kind of see it closer, but still you're far away. And I look and I'm like, man, what would it be like to be a little bit closer? What would it be like to be in that that front section, right? Where where you're where you're even closer, what would it even be like to be on the front row? Where you're so close to what's happening there that you almost reach out and touch them. I think this is a great analogy of worship. Worship is simply just beholding glory. And one of the reasons that we love live music and we love sports and we love especially to be in the presence of someone who has some really special gift, we're beholding glory. It's a reflected glory, but it's it's glory nonetheless, and there's something in us that's that's drawn to it. We want to get close, we want to be in the presence of glory, we want to enjoy it, we want to see it. Those are good things. But the problem comes that for us and for our hearts, because we're broken, so often we want to chase after, we want to behold, we become more affected by that reflected glory in a person or an athlete or an artist, we're far more taken by that reflected glory than we are by the real and true glory of the living God. You know, so if we're honest, as we come into worship, as we approach God in worship, it's far less moving and affecting for us than maybe it would be at a concert or an athletic event, right? And that's a part of the brokenness of our hearts that we see as we come to Scripture. We have a worship problem. But the thing to see that true worship is an encounter with God. Sometimes in church, you know, as we come to worship, that it's more like a going through the motions. It's more like a, you know, checking a box and I'm coming, you know, this is what I do on Sunday, and I showed up, you know, I'm marking myself present here at church. It's it's good, got that in, right? But how often for us is it an encounter with the glory of God? How often for us is it an encounter where we are enjoying God in all of his glory and beauty, enjoying being in his presence. Here's what we're gonna see as we come to our passage this morning. Worship is coming through Jesus into the intimate enjoyment of God's presence. Worship is coming through Jesus into the intimate enjoyment of God's presence. That's what we'll see in our passage. So here we are. We are in Exodus 25. Now, if you're to think about the whole book of Exodus, real easy way to think about the outline of Exodus is it has three parts. The first part of the book is about deliverance under Moses. Okay, it's it's God redeeming and rescuing his people out of Egypt. And then the middle part of Exodus is all about covenant under Moses. So it's this is what's happening there at Mount Sinai is God enters into covenant with his people. He's marrying his people, and we've been walking through that in past weeks. And then the third part of the book is worship under Moses. That's the part that we're beginning here in verse 25, where it shifts and we begin to see that really this is what God redeemed his people for. God redeemed and rescued his people out of Egypt, not just to say, well, there you go, now you're free. Go, good luck with life. No, God redeemed his people out of Egypt in order that they might be brought into relationship with him, and in order that they may worship him. See, worship is what you're made for. It's what it means to be human, that we were created to be these beings that are the image of God and that we reflect his glory, but we would be those that behold the glory of God and enjoy him and reflect that glory into the world. It's our identity, it's what we're made for. So as we come to this last section of Exodus, we're really coming to a picture of what we're made for. What does it mean to worship God? What is worship and what does it look like? So as we come here in chapter 25 here, what it's introducing is the building of the tabernacle. So if we're going to understand worship in the book of Exodus, we've got to understand the tabernacle. The tabernacle was this temporary tent structure that the Israelites were commanded by God to build. Why temporary? Because they were on the move. They were going somewhere, they were a pilgrim people, they were leaving Egypt and they were going to Canaan. And later in the biblical story, the tabernacle becomes permanent in the temple. But here is that place where the tabernacle is established and built, and it was the place that they would meet God's people. Now, the first thing to notice in the first seven verses here is that this is the capital campaign, the first capital campaign for God's people. You know, as a church, we walk through a capital campaign, and we're kind of in this process, right, of building God's house, building his place, right? But this is the first capital campaign as God tells Moses to go to the people and to invite them to bring offerings to him. Now, an offering was different from a tithe. We should understand those in different ways. A tithe, 10% of one's income, well, that was God's. That was an act of obedience. To bring in God's tithe was to say, God, you own everything, but you're calling in 10% as an act of trust in you, so I'm going to obey you by bringing it to you. But there was also this offering that was above and beyond, and it was to be a free response of the heart. He makes clear here, uh, tell the Israelites, it's verse 2, tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. So God's saying, I invite you to bring your offerings to me, whatever you're moved to give. You know, sometimes we want to say, well, how much am I supposed to give? How much is enough? And it's like, well, I want you to give what your heart's moved to give. That's what the offering is all about. I want you to, I want you to express your love to me, your response of gratitude for all that I've done, whatever your heart is moved to give. And that's what an offering is. It's worship because it's a response to what God has done. So they were to come and they were to bring all of the different materials and elements that were going to be needed to make the tabernacle. But what I want to focus on in our time here is really the last two verses of what we read. I want to focus on verse eight and nine, which really give us a picture of what is worship. Now I want to start with verse nine and then we'll work our way back to verse eight. But here's what I want us to see in verse nine that that worship must be according to truth. You know, sometimes whenever we think about worship, we think about just enthusiasm, right? Just feeling and excitement. And, you know, if we see a gathering and people are fired up, we're like, man, that's their worshiping. Well, maybe. Maybe, but but worship can never be reduced to just an emotion or a feeling or enthusiasm. It must be rooted in truth. Look at what God says here in verse 9. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. You know, it's interesting here that whenever he calls his people to worship, he doesn't say to Moses, Moses, I want you to get together a praise band for me.

unknown 13:28

Right?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

I want you to get people together, and we're gonna need a smoking machine here, we're gonna need some good lights, we're gonna need, we're gonna need all these things that, you know, set up that really happening experience here. And in Moses, whatever you want to do, however you want to do that, y'all just get everybody excited and worshiping me. That's not what he does. When he calls his people into worship, he says, you're gonna build a tabernacle and you are gonna build it exactly according to the pattern I tell you. Now, what's interesting is if you will just look from this, the end of this passage, if you were just look over the next few chapters, I want you to, if you're looking at a Bible here, just notice here these headings. You're gonna see right underneath this the ark. And in that whole section, he's gonna go through and listen, there's crazy detail here. I mean, it he is specifying. Here's how you're to build the ark, here's what it's to look like, here's the material that you're to use, here are the measurements of it. It's very, very specific. And then he moves to the table, the table of the bread there. Then he moves to the lampstand, then he moves to the tabernacle itself, describing here's what the tent is to look like. There's an inner area, and then there's an outer area for the tabernacle, and here's what it's to be made of, and here's what the material is to be embroidered with. Right? It's crazy detail. Then he moves into the priesthood and the garments for the priests into very specific detail. Here's what they're to look like. Here's uh the gemstones that are to be used for the breastplate for the priest as you walk in, as you walk through this, you see that worship is very intricately ordered and patterned by God. One of the things that he repeats over and over throughout these sections is what we see in verse 40. Just look over at verse 40, the end of chapter 25. See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. Next chapter, chapter 26, verse 30. Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain. Chapter 27, verse 8. Make the altar hollow out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain. You see that repent that repetition there? Worship is to be according to what I have commanded you. I'm defining how you will worship me. It's not just it's not just emotion, it's not just enthusiasm, it must be rooted in truth. Look at this description in verse 17. We didn't read this, but chapter 25, verse 17. Just just look with me for a minute at the description of the atonement cover. The ESV uh translates it as mercy seat. But the ark was the holiest place and the holiest peace in the whole tabernacle. Now, over the ark was an atonement cover. It was a cover. And it was on that spot that the high priest would bring the sacrifice once a year to make atonement for the people. Look at verse 17. Just walk with me through this description. Make an atonement cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide, and make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover, make one cherub on the one end and the second cherub on the other end, make the cherub of one piece with the cover at the two ends. The cherub are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking towards the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the car ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. There above the cover between the two cherubim, they are that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you my all my commands for the Israelites. I mean, isn't that stunning the detail that it goes through? And what a picture. This this atonement cover, the cherubim, these these angelic beings, uh, with their wings overshadowing this spot that was pure gold, all one piece. And it was in that spot that the sacrifice would be made. It was also in that spot that that God described the ark as his throne, the place where his special presence resided. It was in that place that that in other places he calls it his footstool, you know, of a great king, the very spot where his where his foot touches the earth. It was the holiest place in the planet. But just take in the detail with which they were to worship God. Now, why? Because it was all about communicating truth. The truth of who God was, he was holy, he is set apart, the truth of who they are, they are sinful and broken, and in order for them to come into God's presence, in order for them to bring an acceptable worship to God, it must be through sacrifice. That's the only way. Right? That was central in that, and every detail of the tabernacle was meant to communicate those truths, who they were and who God was, and how is it that we can come into his presence. So the thing to see right off the bat here is that worship is not just an emotion or a response or enthusiasm, it must be in truth. But there's another very important truth, uh, truth to see here about worship. Not only must it be in truth and according to God's specifications, it also must be of the heart. It must be a heart engagement with God. Now look at verse 8. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. That's the description of the tabernacle. It's a sanctuary for God, a dwelling place for God. This this is where I will be in their midst. The whole purpose of the tabernacle was that God might be near his people. The tabernacle was the place that that God's people would come and encounter his presence. Worship is an encounter. It is not just truth, it is not just doing the right things, it's not just knowing the right theology, it's not just having correct hymns and correct words and all of these things, it's not just about going through the right motions, it must be a heart encountering the living God. It must be an enjoyment of God, it must be a delighting in God in the heart. If there is no delight, if there is no enjoyment, it is not worship that God is calling his people to. That he actually wants to be present with his people. It's amazing. This is the God who cannot be contained in any space in the universe. He is above all of creation, is beyond our imagination of how big and how holy and how exalted and raised up he is. And yet he longs to be in the midst of his people. He doesn't just say, Hey, worship me from a distance. Hey, know the right things, do the right things, serve me from a distance because I'm God and in and you are. Owe this to me. No, God longs to be in the midst of his people, to be near. And that's what the tabernacle was all about. That God wanted his people to encounter him, that he wants intimacy with us. That he wanted not just for them to offer praise, but for it to be in his presence. Worship is an encounter with God, it is enjoying him, delighting in him, enjoying being in his midst and in his presence. You know, there's a tension here in worship, you see. There's a tension that must be maintained. Because the temptation in the church is to really go to one of these two sides of this tension. You know, some parts of the church are like, you know, it's it's it's just worship is just feeling things. It's just getting excited. You know, it's not hard to create a really moving kind of experience. I mean, there are specific things you can do to just work up the human emotion. I mean, look at a music concert, right? It's easy to do that certain ways to manipulate emotions. And as you look across the world and across cultures, like there's lots of worshipers. Like all people are worshiping something. Worship in and of itself is not true worship. You know, just because you're enthusiastic about something, just because you're fired up, just because you're feeling something, that doesn't make it worship. It must be according to truth, the truth of who God is and the truth of what he's done. But the opposite tension is also true. And for Presbyterian types is probably the more important one to understand. This is an encounter with God. It's not just going through the motions, it's not just knowing the right things, it's not just showing up and checking the box, and I go to church on Sunday, and that's what I do, and I sing hymns or I sing songs, and that's what I do. It must be an encounter with him. You gotta enjoy him, delight in him, praise him with joy, with delight, beholding him. That's worship. And so sometimes we can think if I'm just getting it right, I'm okay. But worship is always encountering and enjoying and delighting in the living God. You know, in the church there's things called worship wars, right? And it's these arguments, these little arguments that happen between within the church and within denominations that are about how are you supposed to worship? And some are like, well, it's gotta be just this way, right? It's gotta be so regulated and you've got to look this way, and here's who's the only people who can talk, and all of those things, right? So it's that emphasis on it's gotta be truth. And then there's others that's like, no, it's just, it's just, it's anywhere, it's just getting fired up and getting your praise on, right? But the thing you see here is that it's a truth intention. It must be both. It's not just an enthusiasm, it must be rooted in truth, but it can't just be rooted in truth, it's not just a duty. You gotta enjoy him, you gotta encounter him. That is what worship is. So, how does this point us to Jesus? That's really the ultimate question in we're reading the Bible. How does this point me to Jesus? How does the tabernacle point us to Jesus? It was interesting what John says in the Gospel of John, right at the beginning of the Gospel of John, that he says in chapter 1, verse 14, that the word became flesh, the eternal word of God. God himself, the divine, became flesh, became a human being in the person of Jesus. But then he said this, and our English translations translate it this way, and made his dwelling among us. You know the actual word in Greek? The word became flesh and tabernacled among us. You see that connection John wants us to make? Jesus is the tabernacle, the real tabernacle, right? That old tabernacle, and he's assuming we have knowledge of this. He's assuming we know what the tabernacle is, that we know about the ark, and we know about the altar, and we know about the priesthood, and we know about all of these things. He's assuming that, and he's saying, You know, you know all of that. It was all pointing to Jesus. In fact, the tabernacle was just the shadow. It's not the real thing. The real thing is Jesus. It was temporary. It was intended to point to Jesus, same with the temple. This was a huge thing in the ministry of Jesus, because the the Jews in Jesus' day felt like we have the temple, so we're good. The temple is everything. We have the temple, so we're set, right? And Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again. And they were like, All right, we're gonna kill him, right? Because you don't call out the temple. And Jesus was trying to say, listen, this town ain't big enough for the both of us. I am the temple. That's the temporary thing. The intention of the temple was to point to me. So as we look at the tabernacle, we're looking at Jesus. Jesus is the very dwelling place of God with us. Right? As Paul says in in Colossians, in Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in human form. He is the dwelling of God. He is the presence of God. He is the holy of holies, he is the ark, he is the very place where God's presence intersects with our world. He is the very place where heaven and earth touch. It's Jesus, right? He is the table of the bread. He is the priesthood, he is the sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice. You see, what the New Testament wants us to understand is that in the New Covenant isn't out of place. Worship changes from geography and form to Jesus. He is how we worship God, and the only true worship is to worship God through Jesus, in Jesus, understanding Jesus, in union with Jesus. Worship outside of that is not worship. It is enthusiasm, it is excitement, but it is not intersecting with the living God. It is only through Jesus we meet God. And yet through him we are brought into the very presence of God. We are united with God. His presence is with us. We're told in the New Testament when we're united with Jesus that his spirit comes to dwell within us. That now, for a Jew, that would just be mind-boggling. You know, it's kind of like, well, yeah, sure, to us, it's kind of a something we're familiar with. But just think of the incredible reality of this. The Spirit of God, the very presence of God that was only, that only came on the Holy of Holies, when we are in union with Jesus, it comes to live within us. That we are the temple of God. We become the tabernacle because the very presence of God is within us. You know, as Paul says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Right? That's true. And then we, as we gather together, we are God's temple, God's spiritual house that God lives in us by his spirit. You know, this is not just some exercise of coming and talking about ideas, right? The very presence of God is here right now. The Holy of Holies, right now. How? Through Jesus. Right? So it transforms worship. You know, it it worship in the Old Testament, as you could see, was all about geography. It was all about a spot, it was all about form. But in Jesus, it's all through him. The spot doesn't matter. Right? In worship this morning, we we didn't have to bring goats. We don't bring goats. I often we bring donkeys, but not goats, right? You didn't have to bring a sacrifice today. Why? Sacrifice already happened.

unknown 31:41

Right?

SPEAKER_01 31:42

We come into worship through a sacrifice. You better believe it. It's the only way for us to worship him. The only way into the very presence of God is through a sacrifice. But it's not one we're bringing, it's him. You see that? It's all through Jesus. And in New Covenant worship, the building is not a big deal. In the old covenant, it was. It was the tabernacle. It was, it had to look just right. It had to, all of the designs exactly according to the pattern. But in the new covenant, who cares about the building? It's not a big deal. It so easily becomes a big deal. Right? It becomes a big deal when you lose your center on Jesus. Like we can do this anywhere. We could do it in a park, right? We could do it in a school cafeteria, you can do it anywhere. That's why church planting is so powerful. Like we could build like a huge building here and try to fill it up with people. Why? Why not take these little communities of Jesus and just put them everywhere? Because you know what? You can meet anywhere. You can meet in the Guthrie's. We've done it. Right? The building is not a big deal. What is Jesus? When we come to God in Jesus, you're in the tabernacle. You're in the Holy of Holies. Now, a couple just quick application questions to work this out. Where are you with worshiping and enjoying Jesus? Are you encountering his presence? Are you enjoying him and delighting in him? Are you drawing near to him? I mean, John read that from Hebrews chapter 10 earlier. The conclusion of Hebrews chapter 10 that is all about the old covenant was a shadow of the new, the real things here in Jesus. And his conclusion, let us draw near. The curtain has been torn. The way has been opened. You can go all the way into the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God. So what's the application? Draw near. Go to Him. Go into His presence. I think it's so easy for us in worship to just be going through the motions. For it just to be a duty, for us to not even recognize that He is with us. We are in His very presence. So is worship for us more than just showing up and going through the motions? Is it more than that for us? Do we sense His presence? I think too often we'd rather play golf. Or we'd rather surf our screens. Or we'd rather work. For a lot of us it's work. Man, it just feels good to get stuff done, doesn't it? I mean, work can be an amazing way to avoid the presence of God. I know it every time I sit down to have a quiet time with God, I'm like, man, those windows need a little attention there. Right? I don't care anything about cleaning. Ashley can confirm that. But something's wrong with my heart that whenever I sit down in the moment to encounter the living God, somehow these other things are just grabbing. Right? What is it for you that you run to in place of the presence of the living God? Because worship is what we're made for. Now here's the amazing thing about worship. When you go to him, encounter his presence and worship him, you know what? It actually grows your desire for him. It grows your hunger for him. When you encounter God, you want more of God. When you're in his presence and you enjoy him, you want him more. Literally, the way to change in any area of our life is to worship him. It's just to see Jesus. We're not very good at changing things about our life. The way to deeply change in our life is to behold and enjoy Jesus. That's why it's the mission of our church to enjoy Jesus. So here's what we're going to do in application today. A little bit different. Normally we do the QA. And I just, I was praying through this and I just felt lad. I was like, we don't need to talk about it. We need to do it. Right? So instead of discussing it, we're just going to go into the presence of God and we're just going to worship him. So let me call up our musicians. We're going to have extended, a little bit of an extended time of worship here. And I just I want to encourage you in this time to offer your praise to him. To believe the things that are true. What things are true? Christ is in me. I'm in his presence. We are in the throne room. Through Jesus. How are we in the throne room? Through Jesus. It's all through Jesus, right? So in this moment, he's present. We can encounter him in this time. We're going to start with Agnus Deia, which is Latin for the Lamb of God. And this song, we've sung it before, you're probably familiar with this song before, but it's taken from Revelation 4, chapter 4 and 5, where John is brought into the throne room, right? And he comes into the throne room and he gets to see the real worship service that is constant and perpetual in heaven right now. It's happening right now. So we can join with that right now. We can join them. And in the throne room, I mean it's just amazing. There's these creatures that are just there and beholding before the throne, beholding the glory of God, and they're just like, they're delighting. They're not just going through rote discussion of things. They're not just repeating things empty. They're just like, all they want to say is, God, you are holy. You are absolutely holy, and they are delighting in Him. And then there's this scene in chapter 5. It's my favorite part in the whole book of Revelation, where you have all of these creatures surrounding around, and there's the throne, and all of the 24 elders representing all of God's people, all circled around the Lamb. He's in the center, the Lamb that was slain for us. And they're just falling down before him. They're like, oh my goodness, you would do this, and you did it for me. It's the center of worship in heaven is the lamb who was slain. And we get to go now and we get to enjoy him. And like you can offer God your praise right now. You just offer it to him. So let me let me pray as we move into this time. Father, we need you to help us with the imagination of faith to understand that in this moment we're not just sitting here, we're not just waiting to get out so we can go to lunch or whatever we got planned. That Lord, we are in your very presence. And that, Lord, our praise is valuable to you. And that in this moment, Lord, we can behold you. We have access to the very throne room. So we come now to offer you, Lamb of God, our praise and our worship.