EXODUS 40 ENGAGE IN GODS PRESENCE2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Exodus 40 Engage In Gods Presence

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. This morning as we look at Exodus chapter 40, I've titled the message, Engage in God's Presence.

engage in God's presence. And as I was reflecting on these things in preparation for this morning, I began to think about that word, engage. And apparently it's a word that I use quite a bit. It's something that I use frequently in my vocabulary. Pastor Cisco has pointed out to me that it's

something that I say quite often. It's one of my favorite words. And I wouldn't have thought that way. I wouldn't have, you know, deliberately set out to make this, you know, one of the favorite words that I use over and over again. But as I look back, I realize that he's right. And I do use it quite frequently. And if you're around a lot, you probably are used to me saying,

using the word engage, but I want to share with you a little bit of what's the background in my mind behind that word engage and visually, like, what am I thinking about?

And it'll be kind of a little bit funny because you guys know me. I don't know anything about mechanics. But I think of the word engage in relation to a vehicle, a motor of gears being engaged. And so when you're driving a manual shift vehicle or manual transmission, you put in the clutch first.

Right? And you put it in gear. And then as you pull back the clutch, you're engaging the gear. You're engaging the gear and the car begins to move. And I think that paints a really important picture for us to consider this morning. Because the idea is you can have your vehicle there.

And you can have all kinds of horsepower. And you can have, you know, the best tires and, you know, V8. You can have an open road in front of you. And you can stomp on the gas and rev the engine and hit 7,000 RPMs. And you have all this power. But if the gear is not engaged, you don't go anywhere. And the idea is that there's this power. There's this, you know, movement that is right there. It's available everywhere.

But unless you actually connect, unless you actually engage, you just sit there. You don't go anywhere.

And I think that's something to reflect on as we talk about God's presence in a similar way as we look at today the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we consider what he has done for us and accomplished for us and the opportunity to have relationship with God and the opportunity to have the presence of God at work in our lives and

It's a similar type of thing in that we have, well, incredible things afforded to us because of Christ. But sometimes we are like sitting there in neutral, not engaging in all that God has for us. We have it all accessible. It's all available to us, but we're not benefiting. We're not moving forward. We're not progressing in that because we haven't engaged.

Another way to look at this perhaps is what's been referred to recently. It's been in the news really kind of for the past couple years, but there's this headline, there's this trend, there's this thought that's being addressed, and the idea is loneliness, and it's being described as a loneliness epidemic, right?

And there's all kinds of studies and lots of discussion about what this means and what the cause of it is and what the solution is. And I'm not attempting to wade into all of that this morning. But I thought it was interesting as I was reading this article. It actually was yesterday it came out from the Sacramento Bee. The title of the article was, We Have a Loneliness Epidemic and Facebook and Twitter Don't Help. And the idea is, okay, there's this huge amount of lonely people

And yet we have these ways to connect like more than ever before. In the article, they make the statement, how strange is it that we live in a time of unprecedented connectivity, yet Americans have never felt more isolated. Tens of millions of us have dozens, hundreds, thousands of friends on social media, yet we have no close confidants, no one to really talk to.

And isn't that interesting? I mean, I remember I was thinking back to when I was a teenager and there were no cell phones, right? I would hop on my bike. I would leave in the morning. My mom would have no idea where I was, no way to get a hold of me. I could be all over Riverside, you know, exploring the orange groves and stuck. I could be dead on the side of the road. You know, fortunately that didn't happen. But you understand, like, I'd come back in the evening just as long as I got back before dark. That was fine. Like, I

Parents would have a fit, right, if that happened today because it's like, I need to be able to get a hold of you. I need to know where you're at. And we have this connectivity now with our cell phones. We have this connectivity with our social media. We have a way to connect by email, by, you know, in all kinds of different ways. And in spite of all of this, like, amazing abilities to connect, there is this loneliness epidemic. I think it's a similar issue.

The opportunity is there. The opportunity to connect with people, all the power is there, the tools are there, but if we don't actually engage and use those tools to really connect with people, we'll end up being lonely. It's not really a new problem. Maybe Rick Dominguez can kind of fill us in. I think the Beatles had a song, All the Lonely People, or something like that, right? I think it was his favorite song, actually. Just kidding. It's not a new problem.

It's always existed because, well, there is that opportunity of people around us, and yet there is that lack of engagement, that lack of connection. And this morning, I want to encourage you to consider that in light of God's presence and what Christ has done for us. And as we specifically look at the tabernacles,

We're looking at the tabernacle because that's what we've been reading about in the book of Exodus as we are working our way through. And in the tabernacle, we have some really important truths revealed by God about our relationship with him. Now, just to kind of give you a quick overview of the tabernacle, this was the structure that God told Moses to build as a place where he would meet with his people. It was about him and Israel connecting.

It was about him and Israel walking together and living together and Israel getting to know God and drawing near to God. It was about God meeting with his people.

And so in order to do this, he set up this structure. And there was this fence. It was basically poles with fabric stretched across, so curtains really, that went around the whole perimeter and formed the court of the tabernacle. And so it was a designated place in the center of the camp of Israel where God would meet with his people and they could come to worship him and to offer sacrifices.

And they would do that at the altar. And so they would come in the gate and there would be the altar and they would be able to offer their sacrifices and worship God there in the court at the altar. Then after the altar was the laver. Now for the typical Jewish person, for the typical Israelite, they would never go past the altar.

The labor and the contents of the tabernacle itself, that was only for the priests. That was only for the priests and the Levites and those who were specifically designated to serve and only when it was their turn to serve. So it was very limited who had access to the tabernacle itself. For most of the Jewish people, their experience would end at the altar.

They would have tables and be able to cook and have a meal from the altar in the courtyard, but they never got closer to God's presence than the altar. But the priests would use the laver to wash, and it was part of their ceremony and for the cleansing as they would offer the sacrifices. And then entering inside the tabernacle itself, there was two compartments, two sections, two rooms, you might say.

There was the holy place, which had a couple of different furnishings, a table, a lampstand, and a smaller altar. And then there was this veil, this curtain that sealed off one section from the other section. And that final section was the holy of holies or the most holy place. And it was there where the Ark of the Covenant would be placed.

This was where God said, I will meet with my people there above the Ark of the Covenant. There was these cherubim, these angels that were on top of the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. And so their wings would cover the Ark. And God said right there between the angels' wings, that's where I will meet with my people.

So God says, this is what the tabernacle is for, to meet with my people. My presence will be here. But there was some distance between the normal Israelites and that presence. In fact, the only one who would go into the very presence of God where the Ark of the Covenant was, was the high priest. And he was only allowed to do that one day a year, on a specific day after following some specific instructions from God.

And so God was there to meet with his people, but there was some limitations as to how much they could meet with him, how much they could experience his presence, and how much they could dwell with him, because this is all happening before the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we'll talk a little bit more about that as we get into these details. But it was foreshadowing something greater that was to come.

The author of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 9, tells us, as he talks about the superiority of Jesus over all these things, in Hebrews 9.24, it says, Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. As we look at the tabernacle, we understand it's not just...

old ancient history that, you know, some details that are just kind of whatever God put together. The reason why God told Moses over and over again, make sure you follow the pattern, follow these dimensions, build this exactly the way I say, is because that was a copy of what actually exists in heaven. And when Jesus Christ died upon the cross and entered into eternity with the Father, he purified the real thing.

He made access to the presence of God for us to a much greater degree than the tabernacle ever could. But the tabernacle we look at, it's still important, it's significant in that it was a copy of the things that exist in heaven. But I would encourage you to think about it this way.

It's not so much that you need to learn about the pattern. Okay, memorize this diagram of the tabernacle, okay? So that when you get to heaven, you know, you don't look like the foolish tourist who doesn't know his way around. You know, you need to learn this so that, you know, you're not confused and you have to ask for directions, you know, to some angel. Like, hey, can you tell me how to get to the altar? Like, that's not why we need to learn these things. I would encourage you to consider that we need to learn these things because we're

God wants to speak to us about our relationship with him right now. And through this imagery, he's speaking to us about what it means to dwell in the presence of God. He's speaking to us about what it means to enjoy and engage in his presence. And I want to encourage you this morning, don't wait until heaven to start spending time in God's presence.

Don't wait until eternity to then, okay, yeah, that's when we're going to spend time with God. That's when we're going to be in his presence. But God has given us these things to let us know that we can walk with him and be in his presence right now because of the work that Christ has done for us upon the cross. We have this incredible opportunity, this incredible power. It's available to all of us.

But not everybody experiences it because not all of us engage in God's presence. And so this morning I would challenge you to engage in the presence of God. We're going to work through four points here in Exodus chapter 40, looking at some different elements of the tabernacle and learning what that means for us today as believers in Jesus Christ. The first one we'll look at is receive the cleansing of Jesus. Here we're going to look at verse 6 and 7, and let me read that for you again. It says...

Then you shall set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. And you shall set the lever between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar and put water in it. Here, God is giving Moses instruction of the altar and the lever and where to put them. And there was a specific order that God had set. The altar was...

Well, it was the primary place where they would be offering sacrifices to God. He gave them instructions to build it five cubits long and five cubits wide. So that's about seven and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide. So seven and a half foot square, three cubits high. It's about four and a half feet high. And so it was this pretty good size altar that would sit there in the courtyard.

And this would be the place where they would offer their sacrifices to God. There was a variety of sacrifices they offered, and there's great symbolism in all of that. We're not going to get into those details this morning, but...

There were sacrifices for their sin, to be forgiven of sin. There were sacrifices to give themselves to God and say, Lord, I want to serve you. There were sacrifices to say thanks to God and offerings that they would give in rejoicing over the work that God has done. As I said before, this is as far as the normal Israelite could go. They would come to the altar and that was it. That was their experience. They would offer their animal sacrifice.

Along with the priest, they would be part of the process of slaughtering the animal and putting it on the altar. Many times there would be a piece that they would put on the altar and then the rest they would take there in the courtyard and they would go have a feast with their family and they would, you know, celebrate God's work and the relationship with God that they had with a meal together in the courtyard. That was it. That was their...

experience. That was as far as they got to go in their relationship with God. But it was that process, that experience by which God said they could be forgiven of their sins. As they would offer their sacrifices by faith and in obedience, they would receive the forgiveness from God. Beyond the altar was the laver. And this basically was just a huge washbasin

And the priests would use this to wash. They were part of the sacrifices. And so, you know, their hands would be bloody. They would be dirty from the work that was going on. And so they would wash and cleanse themselves before they would enter into the sanctuary, before they would do the work that God had set before them. I think it's interesting to note that the laver did not come before the altar, right?

That it wasn't God saying, okay, you can come to me and offer a sacrifice, but first you need to clean up. First get your life together. First, you know, cleanse yourself and then you can come and be forgiven. Cleanse yourself and then you can come and offer yourself to me. Cleanse yourself and then you can come and we can worship. You know, that was not the message of God. The message of God was come to the altar. The priests themselves, they would come to the altar to offer sacrifices for their own sins and then...

they would go to the laver and be cleansed. That it's after you come to the altar that the cleansing takes place. Many times people try to clean up their life. They know they need to get right with God. They know they need to, you know, try to get things in order and have the right priorities. They know they need to walk with the Lord. But as soon as I, you know, kick this habit and deal with this situation and clean up my life, then I'll be able to come to the altar.

And that's not the way the Lord calls us. He calls us to come to the altar where he paid the price. For us, the altar is replaced with the cross. And there on the cross, Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, the once and for all sacrifice, so that no more sacrifice is needed. There is no sacrifice required for the forgiveness of sins.

Because, well, Jesus on the cross bore the penalty for all sin of all humanity. It was a once and for all sacrifice because he was the sinless and perfect man who died upon the cross for us. But we come back to that idea of engagement because here we have Christ being God, became man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for us,

His sacrifice is so significant that the sin of all humanity, past, present, and future, all of your sin that you've ever done, as well as all the sin you'll ever commit, and everybody else who've ever lived and will ever live and has ever lived, you know, all sin. I mean, this is a huge payment that is made when Jesus said it paid in full. It's forgiven. It's washed away. And yet, not everybody receives that forgiveness.

There's all the power there. It's all accessible. But the Lord says you must engage in order to receive that forgiveness. Jesus says you must believe in me. You must receive this sacrifice. You must believe that I died upon the cross on your behalf. You must accept that for yourself in order to benefit from the payment that was made.

He doesn't require any sacrifice and you don't have to, you know, give yourself 30 lashes or walk around the block or put yourself on timeout. You know, the sin that we commit and we commit sin, it's paid for, but it's forgiven when we allow Christ to cleanse us. The apostle John puts it this way in 1 John 1, verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We come to the cross, the altar, the penalty is paid. It's done. And then we get to go to the laver and Jesus just washes us and says, your sin is forgiven. It's removed. The filth, the junk, you confess your sins. It means to agree with God about your sinful action, your sinful condition. It's an ongoing, continual repentance and confession that we get to come to the laver. We only need to come to the altar once.

Jesus Christ died once for all. He doesn't have to die over and over again. His death was sufficient to cover all of our sin, but we get to keep coming back to the lever and saying, God, I've messed up. I've blown it, and I need your forgiveness. And he is faithful and just to wash us, to cleanse us, receive the cleansing of Jesus. I want to encourage you this morning to receive that.

Come back to the Lord. I don't know where you've been or what you've been doing or where your heart's at, where your mind's at, but this is an ongoing thing for us. We come back to the labor. We come back to this place where we invite the Lord to wash us of our sin. And we can do that because it's paid in full. We don't have to clean up ourselves. We come and ask the Lord to do that work. Don't just stay in the courtyard. Don't just stay at the altar. Okay, I believe in Jesus. That's it.

But to come to him with confession, to come to him with the request for forgiveness, to come to him agreeing with him about our sinful condition engages that work of cleansing that he desires to do in our lives. If you just stay in the courtyard, understand there's so much more that God has for you. I was thinking about it this way in honor of Jonathan. I was thinking, what if I could give you a lifetime pass to Dodger Stadium?

Jonathan would like that, right? What if I gave you a lifetime pass to Dodger Stadium, and then Jonathan knocked you out and took that away? No, I'm just kidding. No, what if I gave you a lifetime pass, but you never went beyond the parking lot? You went to every game. You were part of it. You were there every time they were, you know, it was a home game. You were there every time the doors were open, but you never went beyond the parking lot,

You got to cheer with the fans as they were coming in, like, yeah, go Dodgers. And you got to wear the gear and have the flag and your finger and whatever. Got to be part of all that. Maybe you had a good time. And perhaps you got to enjoy some things. But at the same time, you also missed out on so much if you never went beyond the parking lot. Maybe the Dodgers don't do it for you. So what if I got you a lifetime pass to Disneyland? Or the Angels? I don't dare say that. I don't know. The Raiders? I don't know. Jordan.

But if you don't go past the parking lot, it's the courtyard. And there are a lot of people who would say, I believe in Jesus, but they don't move past that. They just kind of camp out in the parking lot. And God would say, listen, there's so much more that I have for you. I want to do an even greater work in you than just the forgiveness and the cleansing. There's so much more that I have for you.

When Jesus died upon the cross, something really significant happened within the temple. It's recorded for us in the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 15. It says, So this tabernacle, which later became the temple, same design, same elements, but

There was this veil that separated the most holy place where the presence of God was from the holy place where the other furnishings were. And as Jesus hung on the cross, because his work there upon the cross was the dealing with sin once and for all, there was a change that took place that enabled humanity to have access to the presence of God like never before.

And God signified that change by ripping the veil in two, from top to bottom. He didn't just like tear a little hole. So, hey, you, you know, you can kind of like peek in and get a little glimpse of the presence of God. No, he ripped it open to say, listen, access is now available. The gates are open. You don't have to stay in the courtyard anymore. You can come in to the presence of God.

It's important for us to understand these things because, well, the presence of God for us at this moment, it's not something that's incredibly tangible. We're in the presence of God right now, but you may not be conscious of that. You may not be aware of that, but we get to experience the presence of God. And it's just as sure as you're experiencing the influence of gravity, right?

You can't really see gravity. You can't, and a lot of times you're not even really conscious of it. You're not thinking about it. You're not bracing for impact with the ceiling right now. You're just in the influence of gravity. In a similar way, we have access to the presence of God. It's by faith. It's because of what Christ has done for us, and the veil has been torn, and God invites us in, but in order to experience it, we do need to engage. Again, not everybody is forgiven.

Because not everybody accepts that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for their sin. And some accept that, but then that's it. They just kick back in the parking lot and it's like, that's enough. But the Lord invites you in and he says, look, there's much more. I've ripped the veil so that you would know. You're welcome to come in and see all that I have for you and experience my presence. And so that brings us now to point number two this morning, and that is,

Spend time with God privately. I've removed the veil in the diagram now. It's just one room now. Again, he didn't just rip a little hole so you can kind of peek through. But he invites you into the sanctuary. And when you enter into the sanctuary, you're in the presence of God. There's no divisions. You have access to God himself coming through the altar, coming through the work of Jesus Christ, the cleansing of the Lord, and

You now have access to God and there's no divisions. There's no holding back. God wants to meet with you. And I want to encourage you to spend time with God privately. This is looking at verse five. Here's what it says. You shall also set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony and put up the screen for the door of the tabernacle. So here we're looking at a second altar. It's a different kind of altar, right?

made of similar materials. It's acacia wood underneath, but the one on the outside is overlaid with bronze. This one, the altar of incense, it was overlaid with gold. The significant that it's gold. It's talking about, well, a closer relationship with the Lord. There's a couple of things that we could look at.

Lots of symbolism that we're not getting into, by the way. You can dig into the different aspects of the tabernacle. But I would call your attention to the size. The size of this altar was one cubit long by one cubit wide. So that's a foot and a half long by a foot and a half wide and about three feet tall. As opposed to the seven and a half feet wide and seven and a half feet long altar on the outside of the tabernacle, this one was a foot and a half long.

Much smaller. And it speaks about the personal nature of this altar. Now, the purpose of this altar was for burning incense. They would not offer sacrifices on this altar. Every morning, the high priest would come and he would put incense on this altar and it would burn throughout the day and fill the tabernacle with the aroma. And then in the evening, the high priest would come back in. He would refill the incense and then it would burn all night.

With the aroma filling the tabernacle. And then in the morning, the priest would come back in and refill the incense. And then in the evening, he would come back in, he would refill the incense. You get the point, right? Every morning and every evening, the high priest would come in and it would be this continual burning of incense there upon the altar. And it would be refreshed and renewed and refilled every morning and every evening.

evening. This provides a powerful picture for us of our need to spend time with God privately, personally. It's a small altar speaking about our personal times with God. The altar on the outside, it's seven and a half feet wide, seven and a half feet square, right? So that wasn't like you would just come in with your sacrifice, offer that. Okay, now everybody has to wait while Jonathan's sacrifice burns, okay? Just watch it burn for a

Maybe you should come back in a couple hours when that's done burning. It wasn't one at a time. That altar was shared by all who would come to offer sacrifices at that time. And so Jonathan's would be here, and then George's would be next to that, and then mine would be next to that, and then yours would be next to that. The different pieces and elements that were being offered on the altar would all be shared on the altar. It was all taken care of at the one altar. But this one, there's not room for...

multiple people to be involved. This is a very personal aspect to your relationship with God, to your access to God's presence. It's that one-on-one time between you and God. And you could look at this in a few different ways. I would include prayer in that you are talking to God as well as prayer in that you are listening to God as part of these personal times with God, spending time with God privately.

I would include your time reading the scriptures. It's part of your private time, part of your time connecting with the Lord and hearing from the Lord. There also can be private times of worship. We usually think of worship in the context of we're at church and there's music before the message kind of thing. But you singing to God and praising God privately and personally, there's a lot that God could invite you to do personally and privately just between you and him.

as part of your relationship with God. And if you want to experience the presence of God, again, coming back to this idea of engaging, the access is there. The invitation is open. Whoever wants to come and have a private audience with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you're invited. You come by faith in Jesus Christ. He cleanses you and you can go right to the personal private altar and talk with God and

You can invite God to speak to you. You can worship God. You can get to know God personally, privately, because of what we celebrate today, the finished and completed work of Jesus upon the cross. The Israelites, when they would come to this tabernacle, they would pray to God in the courtyard,

It was, you know, amidst all of the hustle and bustle of everybody bringing in their sacrifices and coming and going and other people having feasts. And, you know, there was all this stuff going on. They would have their prayer. They would be able to connect with God. But God invites you in to an even greater degree in that you get to connect directly with God because Jesus Christ has removed the veil. Now, he didn't have the veil there forever.

to exclude you from God or exclude humanity from God. He had the veil there for humanity's protection because we couldn't handle God's presence because of our sinful nature, our sinful condition. The veil was there for our protection, but now because of the cross, there is the opportunity to go beyond the veil and to experience the very presence of God. And listen, you get to do that

As you spend time with God privately, I would encourage you to not wait until heaven to start spending time with God in his presence. That is going to be an aspect of our eternity as believers in Jesus. You're going to get to spend time with God in his presence. But don't wait till then. God offers that to you right now. And you can experience God's presence in your times of prayer, in your times of worship, in your times of

being with him in his word. That's not the only way that we get to experience the presence of God. Looking at the other furnishings here in the tabernacle, we get some insight into some other aspects of our relationship with God as well. That brings us to point number three. Looking at verse four, point number three is fellowship with God's people. Another way to engage in God's presence is to connect with God's people.

There is an aspect of our relationship with God and our walk with God that is personal and private. It's just between us and God. But you can't take that to then mean, all I need is me and Jesus. I don't need you. Get out of my life. Right? You can't just have the attitude of, that's all I need is just me and Jesus. That's it. Because God has also designed us to experience his presence with others.

fellowship with God's people. And this is looking at the table in verse four. It says, you shall bring in the table and arrange the things that are to be set in order on it. And you shall bring in the lampstand and light its lamps. So the table and the lampstand are mentioned here. We'll look at the lampstand in the next point, but here we're considering the table. Now the table was just a pretty simple object. It was a table.

Kind of like our folding tables, you know, our little black folding tables is about that size. It had the top and had four legs. Real simple, not elaborate, not difficult to understand. What really made the table significant, though, was the bread that was placed on the table. The table was just the instrument to showcase what was referred to as the showbread, the

And the show bread, it was these loaves of bread that God instructed Israel to bake every week. And so what they would do is they would bake the loaves of bread and they would set it on the table. And those loaves of bread would stay on the table for all that week. And at the end of the week, they would bake a new batch of bread.

And they would replace the old showbread with the new showbread. The old showbread would come off and then that would become a meal for the priests. They would be able to partake of the bread that has been there in the tabernacle for that week. It was only for the priests to eat, but there was an exception made. You might remember when David was running away from Saul and he ran to the tabernacle and

David said, I'm hungry. And the priest said, sorry, there's only the showbread here. And they made an exception and said, okay, well, you can have it. It was that leftover bread, the bread that had sat there in the presence of the Lord for a week, showbread. This word showbread, though, literally it means bread of faces because it sat there in the presence of God, but it also spoke of that fellowship. And so I would put it this way. As we talk about fellowshipping with God's people, as we talk about the showbread, it's

You might think of it as showing your face, sharing faces, and I don't mean kissing, but being able to see each other face to face. It speaks of that presence in that kind of personal connection between people. Now, a lot of times we think of fellowship, we use that word a lot in the Christian world, right? We use fellowship to describe watching a football game together. We use fellowship to describe, you know, anything that we want to whenever there's just more than, you know, me involved.

And there's aspects of fellowship to that, and not to diminish that entirely, but also to say that there is a face-to-face component of fellowship that is part of what God has designed us to experience in experiencing his presence. That there is something in the presence of God that you get to experience. There's a different aspect of the presence of God that you get to experience when you spend time face-to-face with

with another believer in Jesus Christ. And there's side-by-side time that we have fellowship together, right? As you come to a service, we have fellowship in some aspects, in some ways.

But I would caution you not to think of, okay, I come to church, I get here at 10.30, because that's when the music starts, or maybe 10.15, because that way I don't have to say hi to anybody. So I get here at this time, and then service ends, closing prayers at 12 or so. And so then, there, that was my time of fellowship. And there's an aspect of truth to that. But I would ask you to consider that

There's not much face-to-face happening here. I mean, the only face you get to see really is my face, and that's not pleasant to look at. So there's better faces for you to look at. But in order for you to experience that, there needs to be some connections between you and other people aside from just sitting in the service together. There's sometimes Bible studies that take place. The men's study is going to be starting up again. It's more of a smaller circle format where you actually get to see each other's faces. That

That's a face-to-face type of relationship. Going out and grabbing a meal together, you get to have a face-to-face kind of connection. You get to share in the bread of faces. You get to share in that show bread. Part of the way that we experience and engage in God's presence is by having those kinds of connections with other believers. God has designed us that way, and he uses illustrations to help us understand that. He describes us as a body.

talking about how we are individual members of the body, but that we are collectively joined together to form the body of Christ so that it's not just me and Jesus. That's all I need. I don't need anybody else. No, God has shown us repeatedly and in these illustrations that there are these connections that we have that he calls us to have with others around us that make us form the body of Christ and make us experience God's presence in unique ways.

He describes us as family. He describes us as a body. He describes us as a building where there's all the individual elements of the building, but they come together and they make the whole building. That we are those pieces, those members, those elements that were called to join together, to be united in life, in sharing struggles, in sharing victories, in sharing face-to-face time with other believers that are

Well, we could be part of their relationship with God and they're part of ours as well. The author of Hebrews put it this way in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25. He instructs us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. He cautions us, don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Now, I think again, typically we would look at this verse and equate that with make sure you show up for church, right?

And that's appropriate, and it's important for us to be involved. There's good reason for us to participate in church service. But again, if you're just thinking of church and the time that service starts to the time that service closes, you're very limited in your understanding of fellowship and our assembling together because he talks about the exhorting one another. There's not much of the one another happening right now. There's the one to others happening,

but there's not the one another, the exchanging of ministry that takes place between the individuals of the body of Christ. And that can happen before service and it can happen after service. It can happen at lunch. It can happen later on in the week during dinner. It can happen at smaller occasions and smaller Bible studies. But the point is, we need to have those kinds of connections. And the author of Hebrews says, don't forsake those. There is a tendency, there is a temptation to neglect those

those kinds of connections with God's people. And you need to be careful to not do that because you need to be part of other people's lives.

And it doesn't mean that, you know, Bible study is the only form of fellowship. That's, you know, you're going to have lunch, but, you know, if you didn't quote verses the whole time, then you didn't have fellowship. No, that's not it. We can joke and enjoy making fun of Jonathan and the Dodgers and have a good time and talk about the Lord and pray for one another. And, you know, it's all part of sharing faces, experiencing life together, stirring one another up and helping each other to grow in our relationship with God.

You get to experience God's presence in your fellowship with God's people. He shows up, he reveals himself, and he ministers to you in unique ways as you connect with his people. And I would encourage you to consider the timing.

We looked at the altar of incense. That was every morning and every evening the high priest would go in and exchange the incense. That personal relationship with God is an ongoing day-by-day type of thing. And perhaps even morning and evening, you need to have those private times with God. The showbread was swapped out weekly. And I would encourage you to consider that. I'm not talking about big holidays. You get together and have some face-to-face time. But

but that you would make face-to-face time with other believers. Part of your weekly routine, part of your weekly time that you would fellowship and share life week by week, spending time together in the presence of God and helping each other grow and develop in a relationship with God. And so we fellowship with God's

people. Finally, the fourth thing we'll look at here this morning, still here in verse four, not only do we fellowship with God's people, but we need to be fueled by the Spirit to serve. Another aspect, another way that we engage in God's presence is by serving God in the power and the working of the Holy Spirit.

Looking again at verse 4, he says, And so God told him, okay, now set the lampstand here. And it was to be there in the tabernacle as the light. It was the only light fixture in the tabernacle. That's how the light was provided within the sanctuary.

This lampstand was made out of solid gold. It was probably about 70 pounds of gold that was hammered into shape with seven lamps across the top of it. Seven different bowls that would be filled with oil and they would have the wick that would come out and they would light the wick and the oil would continue to fuel that fire, to fuel that light, to fill the sanctuary. The lampstand provides a good picture for us.

of the Holy Spirit providing for us the resources that we need in order to serve God in the way that he has called us to. The bowls would hold the oil, and oil throughout the scriptures is often referred to as a reference to the Holy Spirit. Specifically in Zechariah, the prophet Zechariah had that vision of the olive tree and the oil being funneled right into the lampstand. And

The Lord sent along with that vision, here's the message, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. The activity that we do for God, it's not just about doing activity for God, but it's about doing activity for God that is led by the Spirit and powered by the Holy Spirit. You might remember in Matthew chapter 5 that Jesus said, I am the light of the world.

But then it's interesting that he also went on to say, he turned around to his disciples, he looked at them, he pointed at them and said, you are the light of the world. He says, a city that is set on a hill, it cannot be hidden. And nobody lights a lamp to hide it under a basket. No, but a lamp is lit and put on a lampstand to give light to all who are in the house.

And so Jesus says, I'm the light of the world. You are the light of the world. And then he goes on to say in Matthew chapter five, verse 16, he says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Jesus says, I'm the light, but you're also the light. And you're called to let your light shine.

And he goes on to describe that a little bit more. He elaborates on that. He says, let your light shine so that they may see your good works. There's activity. There's good works. But not just random good works. Not just any activity. But it's activity that's fueled by the Holy Spirit.

It's activity that's led by the Spirit of God. It's good works that God is calling you and prompting you to do. The Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians tells us that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has set before us. And the idea is like he's laid out this path and there's like all these like opportunities along the path for us to do good in the name of God, to glorify our Father in heaven. And there is something that takes place.

as you have an opportunity to do good that God has called you to do, and you do that in the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit, there is something of the presence of God that you get to experience as the Holy Spirit is working through you. As you serve, as you step out in faith, as you trust God and the things that he calls you to,

as you're empowered by the Holy Spirit, you get to experience another aspect of the presence of God that you don't get without engaging in that way. You get to participate in the presence of God in a unique way and experience more of what he has for you. I would encourage you to consider that this morning. Don't wait until heaven to start experiencing God's presence this way. Listen, in eternity, we will be serving God.

and experiencing the presence of God that goes along with that. We will be doing that, but we don't have to wait until then. All of these things that we're looking at today, we get to experience these in eternity. That personal connection to God, you're going to get to experience that in eternity. That fellowship with God's people. Listen, the Lord talks about people coming from the east and west to sit down and have a meal with Abraham.

He pictures for us this, we're going to be in heaven with the Lord, but also with each other with the Lord. And we're going to get to have face-to-face time and that fellowship. And then there's going to be things that we're involved with, things that God has established for us to do, activity. And we don't know much about that. And it's hard for us to imagine what that could be, but we know that it's there and God has promised that.

And so we're going to get to serve God. We're going to get to fellowship together. We're going to get to have that personal connection with the Lord in eternity. But as we celebrate Easter today, I would encourage you, don't wait until then to start to experience these things. Don't just stay out in the parking lot, out in the courtyard saying, I believe in Jesus and then going no further than that. God is inviting you in and saying, look, there's so much more I have to offer you.

There's so much more that I want to show you. There's so much more I want to do in your life. There is so much. Transformation takes place in the presence of God. Deliverance takes place in the presence of God. God is able to work miraculously and tremendously as we spend time with him. And it's all there. Again, it brings me back to that idea of engaging. It's all there. But if you don't put it in gear, if you don't actually connect, if you don't actually have connection,

a time where you spend time with God privately, personally, you won't experience that aspect of the presence of God. If you don't actually schedule time and make time and spend face-to-face time with other believers, you're not going to experience, you're not going to benefit from the presence of God that is manifest in those times.

If you don't actually engage in the work that God has called you to by the power of the Holy Spirit, you're not going to experience God's presence in that way. There's so much there. It's all there for you. It's for everyone. And there's nobody excluded from this because the work of Christ upon the cross was so complete. All of us, we are on the same playing field. We're on this level. We all have the same access to God.

We all have the same opportunity to know him. We all have the same opportunity to walk with him. No one has any advantage over another because Christ has paid the price completely for us. And now the Father invites us in. He says, I want to show you my presence. I want to show you who I am. I want to reveal myself to you and I want you to experience me. But it's an invitation. It's not forced on anybody. It's an invitation that we receive

We get to choose whether or not we will respond, whether or not we will engage. And so I would ask you to consider, what will you do? Will you engage in God's presence? First of all, receiving the cleansing of Jesus, coming to the cross and saying, yes, I believe that you died upon the cross for me. I accept that you paid the penalty for my sin and I receive that for myself. Lord, I ask you to cleanse me, forgive me of my sin.

not trying to make up for our sin ourselves, not trying to clean ourselves up and then come to God, but coming to God by faith in Jesus, saying, Jesus did everything. I have nothing to offer. I have nothing else to offer, and I can't fix my life before I come to God. No, Lord, I come to you by faith in Jesus. And then when you go forward from that, some people just stop there. That's it. Then they just hang out in the courtyard in the parking lot.

And there's good things that God still has in store for you in eternity. That's great. But you know, there's much more here right now that God has for you if you will enter into the sanctuary, if you'll engage in the presence of God as part of your life and spend time with him privately. Will you do that? Will you make an appointment in the morning and in the evening to connect with God, to pray, to read his word, to worship, to spend time with him?

It doesn't have to be, you know, in four-hour time slots. It doesn't have to be, you know, your whole life. Just having those times where you connect with God, where you share your heart, share your life, and allow God to speak to you. Some times where you're connecting with God in the morning and the evening. Spend time with God privately and experience his presence. And then fellowship with his people. Can you do that? Can you show up early for church? Or stay late. Yeah, I understand. Hey, showing up early is hard. But hey, can you stay after?

and put in some face time with others around you and get to know them a bit can you maybe go to lunch or have a a small study together have some time can can you spend time once a week engaging with someone else who believes in the lord face to face and experiencing that aspect of the presence of god and will you be fueled by the spirit to serve make yourself open and available to god and say god i want to serve you you show me what you want me to do again it's not just doing any activity random or whatever

It's about doing what has God called you to do. And when God calls you to do it, he equips you by the Holy Spirit to do that. And that includes things, you know, serving in different capacities at the church, but it also includes serving in different capacities to the world around you. It includes being a witness and sharing the gospel. It includes all kinds of different things that God may call you to. But the important thing is, is God calling you to it and have you looking forward

for him to empower you with the Holy Spirit to do that work that is set before you. And when the Holy Spirit is working through you, you get to experience the presence of God in a unique and powerful way. And all of these things, again, it's somewhat, it's not, you know, substance that we can taste or see, but we do get to experience the presence of God. As sure as you're in the influence of gravity, you're in the presence of God. And you get to experience what that is like. You get to know God.

as he reveals himself to you. And in eternity, then it will be, you know, all the, everything removed in the sense that you will get to experience on every level and to the fullest extent. We do just get a hint, but don't wait till eternity because what we have right now and the opportunity we have right now in the presence of God is incredible. What God offers to you is amazing. I want to share one last thought and that was to look at the example of Jesus.

He did all of these things, except for the cleansing part, because he lived a sinless life, because he is God, who became man to die for us. But you'll look at the life and ministry of Jesus, and you'll see that he got alone to pray with God. He had personal, private time. And you say, I want to be a follower of Jesus. Great.

Get alone and spend time with God. Have a private time. And the scriptures even say that as Jesus got busier, as ministry became more well-known and his calling was more well-known, he would more frequently then get away. And he would have these regular and consistent times alone with the Father. But he would also have times with people.

And he would attend feasts and be part of celebrations. And he would have times alone with his disciples and have face-to-face time with them. That last supper, that final meal, Jesus told his disciples, I fervently desire to spend this meal with you, to have this time together, sitting around a table, sharing some food and talking over these things. Man, I've really wanted to. Been looking forward to spending time with you in this way. And Jesus served the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything that Jesus did,

was in the empowering of the Holy Spirit. As he said, I'm here to be about my Father's business. That's what he did. And so as we look to Jesus as our example, as we seek to be followers of Jesus, disciples of Jesus, he set the model for us to spend time alone with God, spend time with people, connecting, sharing, helping each other to walk with God and looking for opportunities to serve God with the power of his Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for the work that you've done for us and that we get to celebrate today that we have a risen Lord, a risen Savior who has conquered death and conquered the grave, who has dealt with sin once and for all, that we do not have to be hindered any longer, but Lord, that we get to have access to the very presence of God. I pray that you would help each one of us. Help us, Lord, to come to you by faith, to confess that

Lord, our sins, our failures, our faults, and to receive from you the cleansing. And Lord, as we have doubts about that, as we wrestle with that, as the enemy seeks to bring condemnation and keep us from your presence, God, I pray that you would help us to trust in you enough, to trust in your finished work upon the cross in such a way, Lord, that we would not be hindered from drawing near to you. But Lord, that we would truly believe that

As we confess our sin, you are faithful and just to cleanse us, to wash us, no matter what we've done. Lord, you invite us in. You invite us to get to know you. You invite us to enjoy your presence. And Lord, you present it to us. It's there. It's ours for the taking. And so, Lord, I pray that you would help us to engage, to experience your presence. Show us, Lord, how to spend time with you personally and privately. Teach us, Lord, how you want us to walk with you in that way.

I pray, Lord, that you'd give us opportunity and make some connections between us, Lord, that we could have some face-to-face time and fellowship together with other believers. And Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes to the good works that you've set before us. Help us, Lord, to never try to do those in our own strength, but to look to you and to invite you to fill us with your spirit that we might be empowered to do your work. And so, God, I pray that you would.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us. Work in our lives and give us a greater awareness of your presence and your call to us to dwell in it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.