[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Go with me if you would to Exodus chapter 26. Now before I read this passage of Scripture, I don't know if you've noticed something about the Bible, but it's always God coming after us.
[0:17] Have you noticed that? Do you remember when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden? And they felt like they were out and nobody would care about them and they were hiding? Jesus came. He came down and he looked for them.
[0:27] He said, Adam, where are you? He didn't come looking, Adam, where are you? I'm mad. He came looking, Adam, where are you? And Adam said, I'm embarrassed. I'm scared. And he was there and he immediately called him out and showed him how to make it right.
[0:38] Took an animal's life, put that coat of skins on him. We're about to read a verse where God says, I want you to make a tabernacle. I'm going to come live with you guys. I'm going to come spend time with you.
[0:49] You're God coming to spend time with you. You remember when Jesus was born, they said, name him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Again, it was God coming to us. And so you ought to get a hold of a great truth in the Bible.
[1:01] We serve a wonderful, fantastic, awesome God who loves us, even though we do not deserve it. Can you say amen right there? He wants to come to us. And we're not trying to get him.
[1:13] It's not like you're saying, oh, God, please come help me. Oh, God, please work in my life. God, I really need you. You don't want to come. God's up in heaven saying, no, you didn't want me. I made you and I'm coming after you.
[1:23] And so we serve a great God. And in the story tonight, we're going to talk about God dwelling with us a little bit. I'm just going to take some truths. Some people take years to get through the tabernacle. And I am not going to do that.
[1:34] But I do want you to know there's some great truths. And one of the main things is that God is dwelling with us. Look with me, if you would. And then we'll look at some pictures. Then I'll take you through some points. Look at me, if you would, at chapter 26 and verse 1.
[1:47] Moreover, thou shalt make the tabernacle. He said, I want a tabernacle made, and this is how I want it made. Make the tabernacle. And he gives them instructions about how he wants it made.
[1:59] Skip over, you would, to verse 30. Same chapter, verse 26 and verse 30. If you would, and the Bible says, and thou shalt rear up the tabernacle. When you raise it up, you do it like I showed you when you were up in the mount.
[2:11] This is what I want it to look like. So this isn't, if you believe the Bible, this isn't Moses came up with a religion and set it up. If you believe the Bible, God said, this is how you'll worship me.
[2:22] I want you to build a tabernacle. Come here, Moses. Come inside. Come up on the mountain with me, and I'm going to show you the blueprints. I'm going to show you a model. I'm going to show you a fashion that I want it built after.
[2:33] And he made that. Verse 31, they were to make a veil. Verse 33, they were to hang the veil. And then inside the veil, there were some things. Go over to chapter 27 and verse 1. Make an altar of shit of wood five cubits long, five cubits abroad, and the altar shall be four square.
[2:50] The height thereof shall be three cubits. And so go, if you would, to that same chapter 27 and verse 8. Again, he says, do it like I want it done. Hollow with board shalt thou make it.
[3:02] As it was showed thee in the mount, so shalt thou make it. So Moses, make this like I want to make it. Now, Glenn South put together some slides you can look at.
[3:15] They're going to throw them up. We'll just go through them one by one. And you can look at them. You ought to know I am not computer literate enough to do this. But that's a picture of what them capped around would have been, the tabernacle, the altars, and so on.
[3:30] There's the structure of your tabernacle. Give me the next one. The tabernacle from above. You know, I've never been above it. But there's a picture. The outer court of the tabernacle. So the holy of holies and all is inside the tabernacle in that little part.
[3:44] They're on the end. Next, the outer court of the tabernacle. And then you can see the tabernacle on the inside. The brazen altar where they're going to offer up all the sacrifices.
[3:54] And the garments. This is an interesting garment. We'll mention it a little bit tonight. But on his chest, he has all 12 names, all 12 tribes. And he wears them near his heart when he goes before God.
[4:07] Because he is going before God for those people. And God wanted him to do that. On his shoulders, he has two more stones. And on those 12 stones, six and six are mentioned on top of his shoulders and another stone.
[4:18] And each of those are so as he goes before God. Lord willing, we'll read about that a little bit tonight. All right. Is that it or is there one more? That's it. All right. Now take your Bibles if you're with me. Would with me and go to chapter 26 and verse 1.
[4:30] And let's talk about commanded to make the tabernacle. First, let's pray. Father, help us tonight to see Jesus. And help us tonight to see how great you are and how much you love us.
[4:41] I pray, God, that you help us to leave the study of your Bible each time. Knowing that you're a great and awesome God. You're a kind and generous God. You're merciful and long-suffering. You come to us.
[4:52] You come to save us. You come to make a difference in our lives. I pray, dear God, that you'd help us to leave with a heart of worship because you are such an awesome God. You are so great and you are doing such a great thing in our lives.
[5:04] I pray, God, that Exodus would be not a chapter of dread, but a chapter of excitement when we realize you made plans to come spend time with us and to come live among us.
[5:17] And as New Testament Christians, not only do you live in a place, you don't live in our hearts. And we give you praise for that in Jesus' precious name. Amen. A lot of lessons that you can learn from the tabernacle.
[5:29] And everything ought to be pointing to Jesus, obviously. But in chapter 26 and verse 1, they're commanded to make a tabernacle. Look at verse 1. Underline that. If you would make the tabernacle.
[5:40] And he tells them how he wants it made. He gives us specific instructions about every detail of the tabernacle. He wanted it built to his specification. Every measurement was important.
[5:52] Every detail was important. He wanted his place treated special. It was an important place. It was his place. So we ought not take lightly the great investment we have in a place of worship.
[6:06] You know, we're in a warehouse, so it's a little bit different for us. But I grew up in church, boy, where you ought to respect it. If anything else, you ought to respect it because of its purpose. It's where we worship God.
[6:16] You ought to respect it because of the great investment we have. But they had a special place they built according to God's specifications. What we do, the way we build, we're about, yeah, I thought this was interesting.
[6:27] We're about to build a church. I don't know when, year, two, three, whatever God does to provide money. But it's kind of interesting. We're in the book of Exodus. They're building a tabernacle. Lord willing, we'll be building a building.
[6:38] And everything we do is a testimony. As they built this ark, they built the ark, built the table of showbread. As they put the tabernacle together, as they did all of that, it was a testimony both to them and to everybody else about how important God was.
[6:54] It was an expensive thing. They say that there was at least a ton of gold in the tabernacle. One ton of gold. I don't know how many ounces that is, but it's a heap of them.
[7:05] A ton. It's not even weighed in ounces. What costs you nothing is worth nothing. That's a missionary statement. That's what you use on the field. As you work with people, what costs you nothing is worth nothing.
[7:18] This house costs a lot of money. God's people spared no expense in the building of a tabernacle. God wanted it built. It took money and material goods and great talent to build the tabernacle.
[7:30] They worked hard on every detail. Much work went into planning the new home. Nothing ought to go into us as we prepare one. Nothing less should go into our church. We should be ready to sacrifice and work to make it happen.
[7:43] God should be important enough for them to prepare a place to meet for them. So God said, make me a tabernacle. This is how I want my tabernacle made. And we don't have that with a church. We don't have God telling us, I want a church building built.
[7:55] I want a church building to look like this. But I believe if you study the Bible, it's kind of an important thing. We're going to build a building to worship God, to serve God, and to give a testimony to our community. The second truth I want you to look at.
[8:07] Go with me to chapter 26 and verse 30. Exodus 26 and verse 30. They were to build that tabernacle. He said, I want it built. Then he said, this is how I want it built. This is how I want it built.
[8:19] Chapter 26 and verse 30. And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof, which was showed you in the mount. I brought you up here, Moses. And I said, here's the fashion. Here's a model.
[8:29] Here's a pattern. Here's what I want you to follow. And so when Moses came back down, Moses knew exactly what it was supposed to look like. He'd already seen it. He'd already seen a model of it. The Lord himself showed him that.
[8:41] Chapter 27 and verse 8. Exodus 27, 8. Hollow with boards shalt thou make it. As it was showed thee in the mount, so shalt thou make it. You saw a picture of the altar. It was hollow. It's gold-plated wood.
[8:52] It was made like he wanted it made. When the tabernacle was completed and ready for use, it was to be raised up just like what Moses had seen in the mount. God said, I want this done my way.
[9:04] This is my house where I meet with you. I want it done my way. I want every piece of equipment built my way. I don't want a tabernacle that's thrown together. It may look like not much to you, but if you had a ton of gold in this building, it'd be worth a tad more than what we plan on paying.
[9:22] A ton of gold. And so this was an expensive place. It was meticulously put together. It's important to God that they build his tabernacle the way he wants.
[9:32] I think we ought to consider him in every part of every ministry that we ever make. It's to be done the way God showed Moses. It's hard to acknowledge, but we need to realize that what we are to do is what he wants.
[9:48] We ought to be doing it for him. Our lives are to be spent seeking the Lord and how he would have things done. Years ago, 25 years ago, we started a church in Adikipa, and I'll be going to celebrate that with those people.
[10:02] We started that church, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. We had started meeting in about June of 1988. The church had already been there. The church met in the pickup.
[10:15] We had one room, not as big as our nursery. We got about 60 Peruvians inside of that. By the end of a year, we were running about 60, and then we bought a piece of property at the end of that first year.
[10:27] We paid a grand sum of $15,000, which was a lot of money for me to raise back in those days. We bought this piece of property, and we were meeting in the house, and Brother Paul, the guy I've talked to you about, Brother Paul came down and he said, why don't you build a building?
[10:41] I said, I cannot build buildings. I don't have any money. I don't know what I'm doing. And Brother Paul said, anybody can build the way they build in Peru. He showed me the stuff, and he'd been an engineer on Space Mountain at Disney World, and he said, let me just show you how to do it.
[10:55] And the next thing I know, we're digging holes and planting columns and building the building. They're still working and worshiping. But every part of that ought to be a testimony. I know what God's doing.
[11:06] I want to do what God wants done. I want to do it the way God wants it done. I want to be a testimony to the community that God is at work among us. This tabernacle, this moving worship place, was going to be a great testimony to God as they move.
[11:21] The third thing that I see about this tabernacle is the separation. There was a world that was separated from, the world was separated from this tabernacle.
[11:32] They couldn't even get inside that outer court. They couldn't even get in to see there were curtains built. And if you read all of chapter 26, you'd see 10 curtains here and 11 curtains here.
[11:43] You'd see all these curtains and all these hooks and all these things that are put together. As God said, you don't just come to me. You don't just get to me. There's a way you get to me, and that way is going to be through Jesus Christ.
[11:56] The people were separated from God by the veil. Even once you could get in, if you were a man and you could get in, then even only there the high priest got in, and then only one priest got in once a year into that holy place, that holy of holy places.
[12:10] Before even the priest would get into the holier places, he had to go by an altar where sacrifices were made. In other words, God was saying, when you want to talk to me, you need to realize this is not a game.
[12:22] We're not a civic organization. We're not a community service group. We're a church. Well, this is about the Jews, and yet something special, something serious was going on.
[12:33] So to go to that altar, or to go to the holy place, they went by the sacrifice at an altar. There was a veil that separated them nobody could get into. If you read all the chapter, there's a veil and it separates them.
[12:44] Nobody goes in with that one guy once a year. That veil's been ripped for me and you. We can go through because of what Jesus did. We have access through what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[12:56] Everybody has access because of the sacrifice that Jesus made. Here's what's really interesting if you study the tabernacle. A wild thought, the separation thought. The tabernacle was pretty normal, almost ugly on the outside.
[13:11] If you look at all the outside stuff, and you look at it, it's just the hides and the skins and the cloth on the outside. But on the inside, it was extremely beautiful. On the inside, it was extremely expensive.
[13:23] On the inside, it was everything you could dream of and beauty everywhere you would have looked if we could have got inside and seen the inside of that thing. That's kind of like it is with Christianity. When people look at it from the outside, they may see, boy, those people got a lot of rules.
[13:37] Those people are strict. Those people don't get to enjoy things. But they don't know that on the inside here, it's completely beautiful. On the inside, I know how good God is. On the inside, I know that I have a God who hears and answers my prayer.
[13:49] On the inside, I know the beautiful things of the truths of the Bible. I know how beautiful God is. People do not have access to God except through Jesus Christ.
[13:59] And that's what this tabernacle was. God coming to us, and there were lambs being slain to say, hey, this is to show you how you get to God. The world feels cut off, but God made a way.
[14:12] God has come to us. I think it's so interesting that everyone outside of us, people outside of the church, people outside of those people of God, they tend to think God doesn't like us.
[14:24] God doesn't like them. They tend to think of God as this awesome, horrible judge that's angry with them and come down to do them harm, to be mad at them. But the truth is, He's all the opposite of that.
[14:35] In the Garden of Eden, He came, and He came to them after they sinned, and He came and He found them, and He brought a sacrifice for them. In Egypt, He got them out and brought them out. Then He's here making a tabernacle in the New Testament.
[14:47] It was good news and joy to everybody. God was come to dwell among people, and that's really what's going on. So when you see the tabernacle, you need to see God saying, and I've come to you.
[14:59] I've come to you. And every time when these lambs are slain, as we go through the Old Testament, you're going to see bloodshed, and you're going to see them praying over animals with their hands on their heads, sending them out, and praying over animals and killing them.
[15:10] You're going to see all these sacrifices, and every one of them was, this animal takes my sin, bears my waywardness on him, so I have access to the Father Jesus.
[15:21] Separation, that's what they say. But the truth is, God came to us. Truth is, God came looking for us. Truth is, God's making a way for us to come to know Him.
[15:32] Chapter 27 and verse 20, they're going to make a fire, and it's to never go out. They're going to have this big candle arbor. They're going to have, it's not candles. It's going to be fed by oil.
[15:44] It's by olive oil. Look at chapter 27 and verse 20. And that fire was to never, ever go out. Thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring the pure oil olive oil, oil olive, pure oil olive, beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn always.
[16:00] It was to be pure oil. They weren't to take any shortcuts. Boy, this is worshiping God. This is worshiping God. I'm not looking for a way out. I'm looking for a way in.
[16:11] I'm not looking for a way to do it cheaper. I'm looking for a way to do it with more emphasis. They're not looking for shortcuts. They were to use the best they had. They were worshiping God. And so he said, bring me pure oil.
[16:24] Pure oil. You bring that to me. He told them it was to be a priority for them. It was to be a priority. It was all they got from beating the plants. They had already come up with mechanical ways to get the oil out.
[16:35] But he didn't want that. He wanted them physically involved in getting that oil ready because he wanted them to say, boy, God is worth me doing it. I'm not going down to the store and buying it the cheap, ready-made store way. I want to worship God.
[16:46] I want to say, God, I love you. And so they got the oil ready. It cost them personally. It cost them. They had to work at it because they loved God.
[16:56] And so they're getting this oil ready, this oil that was beaten. It was to be never-ending, a perpetual oil. They were to keep at it. That's probably the hardest lesson for every one of us to learn.
[17:08] It's almost everybody can get excited about serving Jesus. And almost everybody can get excited about God doing something when they first get saved. Or maybe every now and then in some emotional service, something big happens and we have this emotional relief and we all get excited and all get happy.
[17:24] But the truth is that serving God is not a one-day thing. It's a thing you put your hand to the plow and you don't ever look back. It's a thing you do for one day, one week, one month, one year, one lifetime.
[17:36] You never stop. So he said, y'all give me the oil ready and make it where it never runs out. Now I've been in this thing of serving God since 1962. That's when the Lord saved me 52 years ago.
[17:48] And I can say to you, we don't ever quit. Doesn't always mean I'm feeling all that excited. Doesn't always mean that everything is great. But it doesn't mean that I'm having goosebumps on my goosebumps when I go to church because I get so excited.
[18:00] But it does mean this, I'm serving Jesus. And I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do. It's a lot like when you get married and how you ought to take your marriage is very important. Much more than that, you ought to take I'm going to serve God.
[18:12] It's easy to quit. But we don't get done in a day or a year or any other length of time. It is a lifetime. I do not want to quit until I lay down to go to heaven.
[18:25] I do not want to quit. It takes discipline to get that oil ready. It takes dedication. It takes serving God. We don't serve out of emotion or duty but commitment.
[18:37] Can I just real quickly say to you the problem in Christianity and by the way as a preacher it's always been a real problem for me because when I was a young preacher it seemed like churches operated on emotion.
[18:50] And so you had to get really excited. I've actually been in a church where a preacher sat on the front and slapped his leg trying to get everybody stirred up and the musicians work at it. In the back we've got to think how can we hype them up so they'll get ready.
[19:03] But that's not what serving God's about. It's about just being steady. It's just being committed. It's just doing every day what I know God wants me to do. It's just making little decisions.
[19:14] And I'm not necessarily going to feel real good about it. I'm just going to do what I know God wants me to do because He's worth it. Can you understand that? In other words can I say that I remember a time when I was in a church Betty and I were members of the church that ordained me.
[19:29] The church is closed now. We were members of that church and I was getting ready to start a Liberty Baptist church and we were a member of a church that had a 5,000 seat auditorium. They had hundreds of kids in the Christian school.
[19:40] I was teaching at the Christian school and that morning the pastor came out and after church he said all the visitors could go home and he said we're going to have to take up an offering. He said they're turning electricity off tomorrow or the next day and we need an offering and I was 23 years old maybe 22 getting ready to start the church and we'd saved money to buy the song books and I was sitting there in the auditorium and he kept saying we need someone who can give 1,000 and he was trying to get everybody to give money and he was putting the pressure on us and so finally he said we need some people to give 100 and everybody was giving 100 and I was sitting there thinking I've got money it's money I've saved for our church but I got money and I could give it and I didn't want to give it and just to be honest and finally man I had my hand in the face my face in my hands and I was crying and tears were literally squirting between my fingers so I was like I don't want to give my money to this church but I gave 100 and boy I felt really good but you know I don't always feel that every month I write a check every month and can I just be honest with you I rarely get all that emotional the fact is the last time I think I got that emotional was that day you don't give because you feel emotion you don't come to church because you get big emotions you do it because you love Jesus it's not built on duty and it's not built on emotion it's built on
[20:52] I made a promise I committed to serve Jesus and I'll be there to serve Him go with me if you would to Exodus chapter 27 and verse 21 the tabernacle was for God's people look at 27-21 in the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall order it from the evening to morning before the Lord it shall be a statute forever unto the generations on behalf of the children of Israel so the light the sacrifice the tabernacle look at this for you God said I'm here to meet with you I've done this for you God wasn't calling on people to come worship Him because of His needs but to meet their needs isn't that pretty exciting it wasn't like they were coming to God and saying oh God meet our needs God would say I am meeting your needs I am doing a work in your life I am showing my power in your life that tabernacle God coming was for us God was doing a work we should never forget that we need God and not the other way around somewhere along the way the world tries to talk you into thinking that you give to your church because God needs you that you do things because God needs you and if you're not careful the work of God will close up and the church will close up and God's work won't go forward not true our God will march on
[22:16] He has always marched on He will not quit marching on the whole world may go so bad that He destroys everything and saves only 8 people in the ark it may get so bad that things get quiet and you might think nothing's happening but God will have the victory He's the God of heaven and I don't need God doesn't need me God's not up in heaven saying man I hope Austin works out because if Austin doesn't work out my whole ministry is up in smoke God's up in heaven saying Austin hope you're enjoying this I'm letting you be in on what I'm doing it's God's work not our work it's God's church not our church God is moving on behalf of His people look if you would at chapter 28 and verse 1 28 and verse 1 if you would God wanted some special people to work for Him so He's put the tabernacle together and there's been all these things there's been a showbread table built there's been an altar built there's been a holy of holies built there's been a special mercy seat the testimonies in there all these things have been done and now God says
[23:18] I've got some special people I need to be at work in that so look at chapter 28 and verse 1 take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel that he may minister unto me in the priest's office even unto Aaron even Aaron Nadab and Abihu and Elisar and Ithamar Aaron's sons so He said get me this special people I want you to set aside to work for me in the ministry Aaron and if you got your Bible open you might underline it says right there that he may minister unto me five times that's going to be found in the next two chapters five times God says He's there to serve me He's there to work for me He's there to do what I want done God was calling a special man Aaron and his family to do special work for him there in the tabernacle look at chapter 28 verse 24 and thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother Aaron thy brother and his sons with him and thou shalt anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister unto me that they may minister unto me in the priest's office
[24:25] God picked who He wanted to serve Him God picked Aaron to be the one that He would serve Him and He was to minister unto the Lord five times it's going to say that He's picking these men to minister to Him five times here's an interesting thing God was picking special people to do a special job in the work before the evening's over in just a few minutes I want you to figure out where you fit in God's using you we don't live in those days I'm not Aaron I'm not the special guy God picks out and says I use Aaron and Aaron's the special guy and the rest of it all sends Aaron that's not the story at all Jesus is the special guy He picks out you and I get to be involved in the work but there's great ministry for you and I to be involved in for you and me to be involved in we can do that God wanted Aaron to bear the names of the tribes on his shoulders before the Lord look at chapter 28 verse 12 this is interesting this is interesting that priest and we have a high priest now and his name is Jesus we have somebody who stands before the God of heaven with our names on his shoulder we have somebody who walks into God and says
[25:32] I'm here for you for them and I'm carrying them look at what it says in chapter 28 verse 12 and thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial of the children of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for memorial now you know everything that's going on in this tabernacle is a picture of Jesus and everything that's happening is Jesus and so Aaron is going in there with the nation on his shoulders and you and I and you and I know this that God that before God Jesus ever lives to give intercession for us he stands in God's presence for us carrying out the plan of God for our lives he goes in with those two stones on his shoulders another interesting thing is always beautiful chapter 28 and verse 29 he has them on his heart he has them on his heart Jesus has us on his heart look at 28 29 and Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart when he goes in into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually so when Aaron goes in to serve the Lord he's carrying the responsibility the equipping the empowering the leading of us but he goes in with us on his chest not us the nation of Israel he's got the 12 the 12 stones on his chest for all the tribes in the order they were born and he carries that in before him
[26:56] I get the New Testament obviously it's Jesus he's the one that's equipping us he's the one that's praying for us he's the one that's leading us he's the one that's guiding us but it's a beautiful picture so as you read it think about it even when he was building that tabernacle he was saying Austin check out what I'm going to do for you I got a man who's representing you and in the New Testament I'm going to find out that man is Jesus who carries us and represents us go with me if you would to chapter 28 and verse 30 that Aaron was the one they'd get guidance from because he would go before the Lord to find out the guidance in chapter 28 and verse 30 the Bible says and thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim and they shall be upon Aaron's heart and when he goes before the Lord Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually and that's how we believe they probably got guidance how the priest knew what God wanted he had these two stones and maybe that's how God directed them but whatever he goes in before God to get direction and you and I get our leadership and get our guidance because Jesus goes before us shares God's will with us lives in our hearts and does the work of God in our hearts today
[28:10] God's still calling people into his work I think you should find out where you fit in I'm going to give you one more thing and I'll be through I do think this it is Jesus that's going before but God's calling people out to carry the gospel God's calling people out to go share this gospel and share this truth and go in Jesus name in 2 Corinthians 5 he said I beg you I beseech you in Christ's stead in the place of Jesus I beseech you be reconciled to God so God's calling out us to go share the gospel and tell people about Jesus and what he's done for us on the cross at Calvary go with me if you would to Exodus chapter 28 and verse 3 God gave people special talents to prepare everything God gave them special talents chapter 28 verse 3 thou shalt speak unto them all that are wise hearted and I have filled with the spirit of wisdom that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him that he may minister unto me in the priest's office I think that's an exciting verse it's really wild they're going to build this tabern and it's going to cost literally millions of dollars to build their building but all the money they needed they had that money because God gave it to them while they were in Egypt they might have just been slaves but when they left God let them spoil the Egyptians that come out with all the money and so all of a sudden now they've all got money he knows what they have because he gave them what they have and then he said
[29:35] I need an offering y'all bring me an offering I know you got it I gave it to you not Moses called them it was God calling them bring the money I know what you got I gave it to you but then they were going to need all these extremely talented people they needed people to put their their shoulder to the work they needed people to say I'm going to get in I'm going to get involved I'm going to do my part and look what it says he says all that are wise hearted there were some men and women in that whole nation of Israel that God gave very special talents these people knew how to make all these fancy clothes you got to remember they weren't working in factories and they didn't have all the mechanics we got today they made those clothes they put that ark together they put that tabernacle together they took that wood they cut that wood they formed that wood they put gold all around that stuff they built everything exactly like God wanted it built how'd they do that well they did it with money he gave them but they also did it with wisdom he gave them look at the verse it says you got some wise hearted you got some really talented people among you
[30:39] I want y'all to get involved whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom isn't that interesting you have wise hearted people but how'd they get wise God filled them with wisdom and he said I need Aaron to have these special clothes I need Aaron to have these special clothes so I give you money so you can give them money and then I gave you some wise people that could build the stuff and make the stuff because I need some things done for my honor and my glory so they were all given wisdom and talents they needed to make a difference with their lives God had a plan of how he wanted to be worshipped and served he still has a plan of how he wants to be worshipped and served he called on them to give him what he asked for but he gave them everything they needed before he asked for it if I could stop just a second and say to you everything our church needs we have it you heard the joke the pastor tells he comes to the building committee and he says to them have good news and I have bad news about our building project and he said let me start with the good news the good news is we have all the money we need the bad news is it's still in your pockets so the deal is God's got this big work to be done and he's given all the nation of Israel all the money they need to get the tabernacle built they have all the money they have all the gold they have all the silver and by the way if you've been reading the chapter and if I was going to take the time to go through every verse there's silver everywhere there's brass everywhere there's gold everywhere it is full of it and he said y'all got it
[32:14] I gave it to you y'all got it I gave it to you now he comes and he says by the way not only do I need your money I need your talent I need what you can do that nobody else can do and you can do it because I made you able to do it because I put it in you to be able to do that so here's somebody that's really good making cloth and they're thinking man I'm just good at making cloth and God said you're only good at making cloth because I need some cloth made and you can live off the cloth you make on your own but I need that cloth made for my tabernacle this other guy said I'm really good at forming with gold I can make gold and I can fix gold all around everything and I'm a gold worker and I am good at it and God said well that's really good that you're a gold worker you know you're made a gold worker to fix my place not your place so you can live off of making gold on the side but don't forget I need it done for my place for what you're going to do for me God is still equipping people to do his ministry each of us should actively look for how we can cause the work of God to go forward everybody in our church ought to be constantly saying what can I do what has God equipped me to do what can you give how can you pray how can you help those that are going should you personally go should you prepare things for those that are going here's the one big question where do I fit in how does God want to use me in his work no this tabernacle is not for us now the Holy
[33:41] Spirit lives in us we're not the tabernacle we're the temple he lives in us no we're not Aaron Jesus is Aaron and no we're not all the altars we don't need all that fancy gold stuff here but here's what we need to know the God of heaven loves us the God of heaven came to dwell with us the God of heaven said I expect you to show your faith by your obedience and doing what I've called you to do and that's what they're going to do in these chapters and I would challenge every one of us to think where do I fit in how you may not be a missionary you may not have the ability to learn a language live in another country take the gospel message Jesus Christ other places you may not have the ability to do what other guys can do but everybody in this room is given some special ability can I ask you to wake up and say look I can man there's stuff you ain't gonna believe what God's given me that's what you should be thinking you should be thinking I am good at this I know God could use this some way it may be that you're good with a computer it may be that you're good with money it may be you're good with leadership it may be good that you're good with work but you should be thinking well God wants to use me everything in my life was for his honor and for his glory seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you this message was recorded at vision Baptist church in
[34:56] Alfred Georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings