WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 be in your Bible to Exodus chapter 40. It's page 80, and if you're looking at one of the Pew Bibles, 00:00:07.060 --> 00:00:12.280 we have come to the end of our series in the book of Exodus. We have made it all the way through. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:19.219 If you've enjoyed the series, there's some booklets about the tabernacle, and there's 00:00:19.219 --> 00:00:23.359 a couple copies of a book called Echoes of Exodus on the back table. You can take one for free if 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:31.699 you would like to read it to sort of delve further into some of what we've looked at. 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:40.460 But this morning, we are coming to the end. I'm just going to read chapter 40, verses 34 to 38, 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:48.719 but we'll be looking at the whole chapter this morning. So, read with me Exodus chapter 40, 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:59.299 beginning at verse 34. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled 00:00:59.299 --> 00:01:06.259 the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, 00:01:06.259 --> 00:01:13.400 and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:19.100 was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not 00:01:19.100 --> 00:01:25.500 taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:32.219 on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:40.780 throughout all their journeys. Let's pray. Lord, as we just sang in that song, may the words 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:47.439 of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, because You, 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:52.640 O Lord, are our rock and our Redeemer. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:02:01.599 What's your story? Jonathan Adler, a psychology professor at Olin College, said this, 00:02:01.659 --> 00:02:07.599 the default mode of human cognition is a narrative mode. In other words, as human beings, 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:14.799 we naturally understand our lives and find meaning in the world, not just by listing facts or events 00:02:14.799 --> 00:02:22.180 or feelings or thoughts, but by telling stories. We tell stories of success when we achieve what we 00:02:22.180 --> 00:02:26.539 have been striving for, and we tell stories of failure, or perhaps we don't tell those. 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:34.799 We tell stories of redemption when something starts out bad and turns out well. We tell sometimes 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:41.920 stories of contamination when things start well and end badly. The stories that we tell reflect who 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:50.300 we are, but they also shape who we become. According to one study, people who were recognized as caring 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:55.240 and committed to helping future generations often told stories about others who had helped them in 00:02:55.240 --> 00:03:02.580 the past. People who are narcissists, by contrast, tend to tell stories about themselves or about others 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:10.540 who have hurt them over and over and over again. And sometimes we face a crisis because a story that 00:03:10.540 --> 00:03:18.060 we've been living in for so long doesn't match our present reality anymore. I remember when my wife 00:03:18.060 --> 00:03:23.120 and I were on our honeymoon about 10 years ago. We went to Canada. We were staying at a wonderful 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:29.620 little bed and breakfast and got to know the owners there. And they had opened one of the first 00:03:29.620 --> 00:03:34.800 all-natural organic food markets back in the 1970s, before Whole Foods even existed, 00:03:35.900 --> 00:03:41.120 before it was a popular thing to do. And they were at the forefront of raising awareness about 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:46.159 the dangers of chemical pesticides, the importance of turning to organic foods. They gathered a loyal 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:53.379 following, and then their business partner got cancer and died. And they not only lost a dear friend, 00:03:53.379 --> 00:03:59.659 but they lost some of the mission that had motivated them. The story that they had lived in and lived 00:03:59.659 --> 00:04:08.139 out of for many years wasn't quite enough anymore. Or another situation, maybe you've told yourself for 00:04:08.139 --> 00:04:14.019 years, I'm going to finish high school, I'm going to go to college, graduate, get a job, get married, 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:19.219 have kids, and buy a house. And maybe you've done all those things. And then you realize, 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:25.640 I might have half a lifetime left to go. And I've come to the end of the story that I've been telling 00:04:25.640 --> 00:04:33.240 myself for years. What's next? Some people call it a midlife crisis. Or maybe you've come here to go 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:40.260 to Yale, and you've always been at the top of your class. And now you're looking around at everyone else 00:04:40.260 --> 00:04:45.140 on campus and thinking, well, there's only half of us who are going to be in the top 50%, and there's 00:04:45.139 --> 00:04:51.779 only 10% of us who are going to be in the top 10%. Do I really belong here? How will I distinguish 00:04:51.779 --> 00:04:59.959 myself here? Sometimes people really hit rock bottom because they can't find any story that 00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:05.719 makes any sense of the world and of their experience, and they feel hopelessly lost. 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:14.940 Maybe you've been there. All kinds of things have happened to you, and you think, I can't find any 00:05:14.940 --> 00:05:23.000 way to make sense of them. What's your story? And how is the story that you're living in shaping who 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:30.460 you are becoming? Over the last eight months, we've looked at the book of Exodus, which is in many ways 00:05:30.459 --> 00:05:37.479 the foundational story of the Old Testament, and even lays the groundwork for the entire Bible. 00:05:38.479 --> 00:05:41.899 The story of Exodus shapes the rest of the Bible. The story of the Bible has in turn 00:05:41.899 --> 00:05:45.680 shaped entire nations and cultures and families and individuals for generations. 00:05:46.899 --> 00:05:51.599 So even if you're not a Christian, even if you don't believe any of this, you ought to at least take 00:05:51.599 --> 00:05:57.219 the time to learn what this story is that has shaped the lives of literally billions of people 00:05:57.220 --> 00:06:04.120 throughout history and today. Now, we've said several times throughout our series in Exodus 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:11.240 that Exodus is a story with three main parts, three main movements. First, God saves. He rescues His 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:19.280 people from slavery in Egypt. That's chapters 1 to 18. Second, God instructs. God establishes His covenant 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:27.200 and gives them His law at Mount Sinai. That's chapters 19 to 24. And third, God dwells. God 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:35.639 comes to live among and with His people in the tabernacle. That's chapters 25 to 40. God saves, 00:06:36.139 --> 00:06:42.800 God instructs, and God dwells with His people. This morning, I want us to look at two things. 00:06:44.039 --> 00:06:48.539 First, I want to look at how the story of Exodus ends. I want to look at chapter 40 in particular. 00:06:49.500 --> 00:06:56.240 And second, I want to look at what it means. I want to step back a bit and look at the book as a whole 00:06:56.240 --> 00:07:03.160 and say, what do we take from this book, this story that we've gone through over the last eight months? 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:10.560 So, first, how the story ends. What do we see here in chapter 40? Well, there's two major parts to 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:16.840 chapter 40. There's verse 1 to 33, which is about the tabernacle going up. And then there's verses 34 to 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:24.539 38, which we read about the glory of God coming down. So, verses 1 to 15, the Lord commands Moses 00:07:24.539 --> 00:07:29.459 to set up the tabernacle. This section reads a bit like an instruction manual, starting from what goes 00:07:29.459 --> 00:07:34.919 inside the ark of the testimony in verse 2, gradually proceeding to the outside, to the court and its gate 00:07:34.919 --> 00:07:40.159 in verse 8. Then there's instructions about anointing the tabernacle, setting it apart for a holy purpose. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:44.939 And then in 9 to 11, then 12 to 15, there's instructions about anointing the priests who 00:07:44.939 --> 00:07:52.460 would be in charge of the tabernacle and setting them apart. And verse 16 is a summary statement, 00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:57.400 which says, this Moses did according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. 00:07:58.660 --> 00:08:03.540 And then verse 17 to 33, we see what that looked like. We see Moses carrying out God's commands 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:09.960 step by step by step. So, verses 17 to 19, we see Moses forming the tabernacle and its spaces, 00:08:10.520 --> 00:08:16.580 verses 20 to 29, we see Moses filling the tabernacle with the furniture and different… and altars and 00:08:16.580 --> 00:08:21.820 bread of the presence and all the different things that God had told them to put in the tabernacle. 00:08:22.280 --> 00:08:27.740 Then verse 30 to 32, we see him preparing for the priest who would manage the operations. And verses 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:34.660 33, he finishes the outer court and its gate. And he does it all precisely as God instructed him. 00:08:34.659 --> 00:08:43.459 Seven times in verses 17 to 33, you can see the refrain, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 19, 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:46.939 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, and 32. 00:08:46.940 --> 00:08:56.820 So, God commands Moses to set up the tabernacle. They've already made all the stuff for it. 00:08:57.740 --> 00:09:02.260 He commands Moses to assemble it, to put it together, to set it up, and Moses does it exactly 00:09:02.260 --> 00:09:07.720 as God has commanded. We already saw that pattern of God giving instructions for the tabernacle in 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:14.460 chapters 25 to 31, and the Israelites building the pieces of the tabernacle in chapters 35 to 39. 00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:20.019 And here in chapter 40, we have again that same pattern of God's commands and Moses' careful 00:09:20.019 --> 00:09:27.480 obedience fulfilling them. So, the account concludes verse 33, the first half of the chapter concludes, 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:34.540 so Moses finished the work. It's the same words that conclude the account of creation 00:09:34.540 --> 00:09:42.960 in Genesis chapter 2 verse 2. God finished His work of forming and filling the earth. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:48.480 And that's not just a coincidence. The tabernacle is actually a microcosm of God's creation, 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:52.560 as it was meant to be. It was a bit like a miniature garden of Eden. I don't have time to 00:09:52.560 --> 00:09:59.300 point out all the parallels right now, but there are many. And just as God had appointed Adam to work 00:09:59.300 --> 00:10:04.320 and guard the garden, He now appoints the priests to work and guard the tabernacle where God would come 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:10.800 to dwell with His people. And that's what we see in the second half of chapter 40 when Moses set up 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:17.099 the tabernacle, God's glory comes down. God comes to live in the house that His people have built for 00:10:17.099 --> 00:10:23.259 Him. The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:30.839 Now, those aren't two different structures. Earlier after the golden calf, Moses built a separate tent 00:10:30.839 --> 00:10:37.219 of meeting outside the camp. It's not completely clear what happened to that tent. Some people think 00:10:37.220 --> 00:10:41.360 it was sort of left alone, and the tabernacle became the tent of meeting. Some people think 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:47.100 it was incorporated into the tabernacle. The text doesn't really tell us. But calling it the tent 00:10:47.100 --> 00:10:52.600 of meeting… but here they're referring to the same thing. Calling it the tent of meeting emphasizes 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:58.440 this is the place where God has come to meet with His people. Calling it the tabernacle emphasizes 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:04.860 this is God's house. This is not the people's house where God comes to visit and be the guest. 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:09.680 No, this is God's house where the people come to visit and be the guests. 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:19.240 Now, verse 35 says, the cloud settled on it. This is the same cloud that had gone before the people, 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:23.460 guiding them through the wilderness after they left Egypt. The same cloud that stood behind them, 00:11:23.779 --> 00:11:27.940 shielding them from the Egyptian armies at the Red Sea. The same cloud that the people had seen 00:11:27.940 --> 00:11:34.680 on top of Mount Sinai from far away. The same cloud that descended outside the camp and spoke to Moses 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:40.000 after the golden calf incident in the tent of meeting. And now this cloud had come to dwell in the midst 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:46.579 of the people. The tabernacle would be set up in the middle of the Israelite camp and everything else 00:11:46.579 --> 00:11:51.979 would be set up around it. In other words, God has come to dwell in the midst of His people. 00:11:54.379 --> 00:12:00.859 Now, the cloud that these verses are talking about is not one of those… we shouldn't think of one of 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:05.700 those nice puffy white clouds that might be floating through the sky on a day like today, 00:12:06.539 --> 00:12:11.379 that you look up and think, oh, what a nice day with puffy white clouds in the sky. No. 00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:17.039 Throughout Exodus, the cloud of God's glory is awesome and frightening. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.940 When the cloud descended on Mount Sinai, there was thunder and lightning. 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:28.500 So, think a storm cloud. The appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire. The cloud is 00:12:28.500 --> 00:12:33.060 like a container that shields the people of Israel from coming into direct contact with the 00:12:33.060 --> 00:12:42.580 all-consuming fire of God. But it's an awesome and frightening thing. That's why it appears as fire by 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:50.260 night. It's not that it morphs into something else. It's a glowing cloud during the day, and it looks like 00:12:50.259 --> 00:12:59.799 fire by night. So, the tabernacle went up, and God's glory came down. Now, in one sense, what we see here 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:05.580 in chapter 40 is that the people of Israel have arrived at the goal to which the story of Exodus 00:13:05.580 --> 00:13:12.519 has been leading all along. If you go back to chapter 25, verse 8, the beginning of the third 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:17.939 section of Exodus, God said to Moses, let the people make me a sanctuary, a holy place that I may dwell 00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:24.160 in their midst. Well, Moses finishes a work, and God comes to dwell among His people. And God followed 00:13:24.160 --> 00:13:31.120 through on His plan despite the people's major failure in worshiping the golden calf. God followed 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:37.080 through on His promise despite the people's sin. So, we see the constancy and faithfulness of God's 00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:42.620 purpose here. Or if you go further back in Exodus, back when the people of Israel were in Egypt, what did 00:13:42.620 --> 00:13:48.639 Moses say to Pharaoh over and over and over again? Let my people go so that they may worship me, so they 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:56.179 may serve me. The people have gone from being unwilling slaves of Pharaoh, oppressed, and Pharaoh 00:13:56.179 --> 00:14:02.639 trying to annihilate them to being willing servants of the Most High God who have been given life. 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:10.419 Or if you go back to the beginning of Exodus, if you remember those first two chapters, 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:19.539 the time when it seemed like God was absent and distant, He was there behind the scenes, 00:14:19.860 --> 00:14:27.480 but it seemed like they were far from His presence. And now, God is visibly present among them in the 00:14:27.480 --> 00:14:33.440 glory and the cloud and the tabernacle. So, what we see here is a very fitting conclusion to the book, 00:14:33.500 --> 00:14:37.779 from God's seeming absence to God's manifest presence, from slavery in Egypt to the service 00:14:37.779 --> 00:14:42.779 of God. But in another sense, the story of Exodus as it ends here is not yet complete. 00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:51.879 Verse 35, Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it. 00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:58.000 Isn't that interesting? When the cloud descended on Mount Sinai, God called Moses to come to the top 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:05.179 and enter the cloud, enter the presence of the Lord. But here, Moses can't go in, and no one else 00:15:05.179 --> 00:15:11.019 can either. Now, in one sense, this is supposed to point us forward to Leviticus. If you read Leviticus 00:15:11.019 --> 00:15:16.159 chapter 1, verse 1, the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. And Leviticus is 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:21.440 a whole bunch of instructions about how the people of Israel are supposed to enter God's house 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:27.580 the tabernacle, recognizing that God's the owner of the house, and that He's a holy God, and you can't 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:35.820 just come in any way you want. And so, Leviticus lays out all kinds of laws about sacrifices that need 00:15:35.820 --> 00:15:44.820 to be offered. And then in verse 36 to 38, we see the people of Israel haven't yet reached their final 00:15:44.820 --> 00:15:50.840 destination. They're still on a journey. Twice in verse 36 and in verse 38, it says throughout all 00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:58.759 their journeys. Verse 36 and 37, He used the same word which is translated set out. 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:05.200 And that points us forward to Numbers. If you read Numbers, it picks up the story of the people's 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:10.800 journeys through the wilderness toward the promised land, and yet that becomes a pretty winding path. 00:16:11.660 --> 00:16:16.040 And then even when they enter the promised land, well, things aren't quite the way they should be. 00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:22.379 You see, every year the people of Israel were supposed to remember the story of the Exodus. 00:16:24.199 --> 00:16:30.740 It was the rhythm of their three major annual gatherings. The Passover in the spring, remembering 00:16:30.740 --> 00:16:38.919 God saves. The Pentecost in the early summer where the people remembered God gave us His law. 00:16:38.919 --> 00:16:45.959 And the festival of Tabernacles in the fall where they celebrated, God dwells with us. 00:16:46.819 --> 00:16:51.639 So, every year they were meant to remember the God who saves and instructs and dwells with us. But 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:54.399 if you read the rest of the Old Testament, they keep forgetting. 00:16:56.399 --> 00:17:01.159 They stop believing that God is mighty to save, and instead they take matters into their own hands. 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:07.119 Or they look to something else or someone else to be their Savior. Or they stop following God's 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:13.420 instructions and just decide to do whatever they want. Or they stop longing for God's presence and 00:17:13.420 --> 00:17:18.240 look to something else, usually an idol, that seems more immediately satisfying. 00:17:20.619 --> 00:17:23.920 You see, the rest of the story of the Old Testament is the people continually forgetting 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:31.820 this story of God who saves and instructs and dwells with them. But whenever they forgot the 00:17:31.820 --> 00:17:38.600 story of the Exodus, what we see is they had to relive it. Because their unbelief and their 00:17:38.600 --> 00:17:44.200 disobedience and their idol worship would eventually lead them back into slavery and to a place where it 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:49.800 seemed that God was very far away because they, their sin, had separated them from God. 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:56.519 And then finally, in their misery, they'd cry out for mercy. And God would hear and answer them and 00:17:56.519 --> 00:18:05.480 save them again and instruct them again and come near to them again. And then some years would pass 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:10.720 and the cycle would repeat itself over and over again. If you read the book of Judges, this cycle 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:14.500 happens about seven times in the book, over and over and over again. 00:18:14.500 --> 00:18:19.819 And it happens throughout the rest of the Old Testament. 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:36.319 And so, the Old Testament ends with…we see that the God of the Bible is always the same God of 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:41.240 Exodus, the God who saves and instructs and dwells with His people. But like the end of Exodus, 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.779 the story of the Old Testament never quite reaches its goal because the people keep forgetting. 00:18:47.740 --> 00:18:53.019 So, that's how the story of Exodus ends and a bit how the story of the Old Testament ends. But what 00:18:53.019 --> 00:19:01.700 does it mean? What does this all mean? Andrew, do I need to use a pulpit mic or is it mic on here? 00:19:02.579 --> 00:19:08.160 Not quite sure which one…down. Okay. What does the story of Exodus mean? 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:14.800 Well, we've seen all along, Exodus is a story about God, the God who saves and instructs and dwells 00:19:14.800 --> 00:19:19.840 with us. That's what Pastor Nick preached on in his overview sermon back in January. You can go back 00:19:19.840 --> 00:19:26.300 and listen to that sermon if you weren't here for that. But Exodus introduces us to God. It's one of 00:19:26.300 --> 00:19:32.200 the most important things it does. It shows us who God is, the one and only true and living God, 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:38.960 the great I am, the God of mercy and justice. And we've seen Exodus as a story about Israel, 00:19:39.360 --> 00:19:44.600 where Israel becomes not just a family, the family of Abraham, but a nation in its own right. 00:19:45.900 --> 00:19:49.319 And we've seen how the story of Exodus echoes through the rest of the Old Testament, 00:19:50.340 --> 00:19:54.180 and the people are taught to remember the story, and yet when they forget the story, 00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:58.900 they have to relive it and remember it the hard way. But we've also seen as we've gone through 00:19:58.900 --> 00:20:04.580 Exodus that Exodus points us forward to Jesus, points us forward to the one who would 00:20:04.580 --> 00:20:10.140 save and instruct and dwell with his people in an even greater way. 00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:16.019 What do we see in Jesus? We see that he is the one who knows our sufferings, 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:21.100 like God did when the people were enslaved in Egypt. We see that Jesus comes near to us 00:20:21.099 --> 00:20:29.939 and is sympathetic to us. And we've seen that he stands up for us, like Moses stood up for the 00:20:29.939 --> 00:20:35.159 people before Pharaoh and said, let my people go. And in the New Testament, we see that Jesus stands 00:20:35.159 --> 00:20:43.000 up to the devil and says, let my people go. They are mine. I have come to liberate them. 00:20:43.859 --> 00:20:48.639 And we've seen that Jesus is our Passover lamb who shields us from God's righteous judgment 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:57.120 that we deserve for our sin. Jesus is the one who's made a way out, like Moses and God made a way for 00:20:57.120 --> 00:21:03.000 the people of Israel out of Egypt. Jesus has made a way out of sin and death. He brings us through the 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:07.560 waters of the Red Sea, the waters of baptism, and we can stand on the other side and sing a song of 00:21:07.560 --> 00:21:16.400 victory, knowing that we have a God who saves. But Jesus is also the one who sustains us, who gives us 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:21.740 food in the desert and water from the rock and help along the way. We saw that section in the middle 00:21:21.740 --> 00:21:27.500 between leaving Egypt and coming to Sinai, where God sustains them through the wilderness, 00:21:28.320 --> 00:21:33.480 the same God who saved them. And in the New Testament, we also see that Jesus is the one 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:39.620 who instructs us. He's our lawgiver, our wonderful counselor. And then he's the one who draws us near 00:21:39.619 --> 00:21:46.779 to God. He's our sacrifice and our great high priest and the very presence of God, the temple of God, 00:21:47.679 --> 00:21:49.719 who pours out his Spirit upon us. 00:21:51.459 --> 00:21:55.019 And because Exodus points us to Jesus, for all of us who are Christians, 00:21:56.739 --> 00:22:03.699 Exodus is not just a story about, that shows us who God is. It's not just a story about Israel, 00:22:03.700 --> 00:22:15.100 but it's also our story. This is the question I want us to ask. Is Exodus your story that you're 00:22:15.100 --> 00:22:22.660 living in? The story of a God who saves and a God who instructs and a God who indwells. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:28.140 This is the story that we are meant to live in and live out of. What does that mean? 00:22:28.140 --> 00:22:39.180 Three things. We tell the story of a God who saved us. You see, true Christians are never the heroes 00:22:39.180 --> 00:22:46.320 of their own story. You know, the Bible does not say what many people think it says, 00:22:47.080 --> 00:22:54.020 God helps those who help themselves. The Bible shows us that God helps those who are helpless and 00:22:54.019 --> 00:23:00.779 hopeless and cry out to Him for mercy, like the Israelites enslaved in Egypt. They couldn't fix, 00:23:00.940 --> 00:23:03.900 they couldn't fix their own situation. They couldn't free themselves. 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:09.859 And that's where the book of Exodus begins. That's where our story begins, if we are 00:23:09.859 --> 00:23:15.660 believers in Jesus. The Bible says we are all deeply flawed, far more than we acknowledge or 00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:22.200 recognize or care to admit, and that we cannot save ourselves. In the New Testament, the Apostle 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:28.480 Paul says in Ephesians, you were dead in your sins, and you have been raised to life in Christ. 00:23:28.580 --> 00:23:34.440 You have been saved by grace, not by your own achievements. And this story of a God who saves 00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:42.279 is what distinguishes the God of the Bible from the God that many other religions talk about. 00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:48.220 It's one of the main differences between biblical faith and many other religions, 00:23:48.220 --> 00:23:54.440 because many other religions don't start with a God who rescues those who are helpless and hopeless. 00:23:55.339 --> 00:24:02.500 Many other religions will start with the law. They will say, this is the path you must follow. 00:24:03.860 --> 00:24:11.440 These are the pillars that you must obey. And if you follow these commands, then you will obtain 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:19.620 salvation. You will escape the cycle of karma. You will enter nirvana. But the Bible says Christ Jesus 00:24:19.620 --> 00:24:25.080 came into the world to save sinners, not to give a little help to people who have it mostly all 00:24:25.080 --> 00:24:30.400 together, not to give us a program to follow that we can carry out on our own, but to rescue us by his 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:39.740 blood shed on the cross. Now, telling the story of a God who has saved us is both deeply humbling 00:24:39.740 --> 00:24:46.120 and confidence building and confidence building at the same time. It's humbling because as Christians, 00:24:46.120 --> 00:24:50.220 we can't boast in our spiritual or religious achievements. 00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:58.920 And it's confidence building because our identity is rooted in an unshakable source of security 00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:02.500 in the saving love of God that is not based on our performance. 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:10.220 That's the first part of living in the Exodus story, is telling the story of a God who has saved us. 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:18.339 But the second part of the story, Exodus doesn't end there, the second part of the story is the God 00:25:18.339 --> 00:25:24.759 who instructs us. And if the first part of the story distinguishes Christianity or biblical faith 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:30.680 from many other religions, the second part of the story distinguishes biblical faith from modern 00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:41.380 secularism, which idealizes freedom from all constraint to be whoever you define yourself to be. 00:25:43.259 --> 00:25:48.860 The retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy expressed this well in his quote where he said, 00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:55.299 at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, 00:25:55.299 --> 00:25:58.519 of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. 00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:08.319 That's the modern vision of liberation, the right to define your own vision of existence and meaning 00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:13.859 and the mystery of life. But that's actually not biblical freedom. 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:21.899 God did not save the people from slavery under Pharaoh so that they could be free to invent their 00:26:21.900 --> 00:26:30.320 own meaning, which, by the way, can change pretty quickly when you're the author of it. 00:26:31.580 --> 00:26:37.920 It's not a very stable source. But God did not save his people from slavery under Pharaoh so they 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:43.780 could do their own thing or just so they could feel better. God saved them so they could learn his ways 00:26:43.780 --> 00:26:50.259 and follow his commands. Or as Ephesians 2 says, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, 00:26:50.259 --> 00:26:57.559 which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now, of course, many of the laws in Exodus 00:26:57.559 --> 00:27:04.279 would have seemed strange and perplexing and hard to follow for the Israelites. And inevitably, 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:09.259 some of God's commands in the New Testament may initially seem strange and perplexing and hard for 00:27:09.259 --> 00:27:14.359 us to follow as well. And for this reason, many people simply ignore or avoid the commands in the 00:27:14.359 --> 00:27:23.639 Bible that they don't like. But let me ask you this question. If there is a God who is eternal and 00:27:23.639 --> 00:27:31.439 transcendent and wise, and if that God chose to put his thoughts into a book, do you expect that that 00:27:31.439 --> 00:27:37.699 book will only confirm what you already know to be the case and never challenge any of your deeply held 00:27:37.700 --> 00:27:49.299 assumptions? That doesn't make sense. And if we can ignore the parts of the Bible that don't fit with 00:27:49.299 --> 00:27:54.799 our 21st century secular Western cultural sensibilities, why should we expect people from 00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:59.660 other cultures and other times in history to take to heart biblical teachings that we think are 00:27:59.660 --> 00:28:07.680 important and they think are strange? That's hypocritical. We must not pick and choose the commands of God 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:14.480 that appeal to us and ignore the rest. Sometimes we have to wrestle with challenging texts. 00:28:16.100 --> 00:28:20.940 We've done that in our journey through Exodus. Sometimes we have to untangle the mess when God's 00:28:20.940 --> 00:28:26.640 commands have been twisted out of context and misapplied in hurtful and damaging ways. 00:28:27.539 --> 00:28:32.480 Sometimes we have to carefully compare one Scripture with another to keep the big picture in mind. 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:42.099 But if Exodus is our story, we must be a people not only who celebrate our freedom in Christ, 00:28:42.360 --> 00:28:47.400 but also who are continually seeking to be shaped by God's instruction. 00:28:49.079 --> 00:28:56.279 But third and finally, if Exodus is our story, what it means for us is that we tell the story of a God who 00:28:56.279 --> 00:29:06.639 comes to dwell among us. Now, some of you, some of us, have spent many years in churches like Trinity that 00:29:06.639 --> 00:29:13.579 preach the gospel of grace and teach the commands of the Bible. But for those of us, I wonder if this 00:29:13.579 --> 00:29:19.359 third part of the story is the part that we can most easily take for granted and neglect. 00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:27.679 We rest secure in our salvation by grace. We diligently seek to obey God's commands. 00:29:28.219 --> 00:29:30.500 But do we long for the cloud and the fire? 00:29:33.019 --> 00:29:35.279 Do we long for God's manifest presence? 00:29:36.419 --> 00:29:42.759 Do we cherish the gift that Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit himself, our helper, our advocate? 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:47.939 The Bible says the Holy Spirit is the one who prays within us when we don't know what to say. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:56.439 The one who empowers us for works of service, that bring glory to Jesus, the one who assures us 00:29:56.439 --> 00:30:03.139 inwardly that we belong to God as his sons and daughters. Do we seek to be continually filled 00:30:03.139 --> 00:30:09.879 with that Holy Spirit as Ephesians 5 exhorts us? Do we long for the presence of God, 00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:14.419 like the author of Psalm 84 that we read earlier in the service? 00:30:14.420 --> 00:30:22.600 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul longs and even faints for the courts of the Lord. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:30.060 My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Better is one day in your courts, one day in your 00:30:30.060 --> 00:30:41.080 presence than a thousand elsewhere. Think of Song of Songs. The Song of Solomon speaks poetically about the 00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:49.460 passionate pursuit of a lover and his beloved. Do we long for intimate and unhindered and ever-growing union with God, 00:30:49.859 --> 00:30:58.000 like an engaged couple eagerly anticipates the union they will enjoy on their wedding day and after that? 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:05.380 Do we wake up every morning asking God to go with us? 00:31:06.539 --> 00:31:10.779 There's an old Irish prayer attributed to St. Patrick that goes like this. 00:31:10.779 --> 00:31:19.500 I rise today through God's strength to pilot me, God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, 00:31:20.259 --> 00:31:28.440 God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, 00:31:29.319 --> 00:31:36.680 God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me, God's host to save me from snares of the devil, 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:44.140 from temptations of vices, from everyone who desires me ill. Christ be with me, Christ go before me, 00:31:44.279 --> 00:31:51.440 Christ stay behind me, Christ dwell in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, 00:31:51.660 --> 00:31:59.420 on my left, when I lie down, when I sit down, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. 00:31:59.420 --> 00:32:07.580 Do we long for the presence of God to dwell in us and with us like that? 00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:14.220 See, when we look at the story of Exodus, the appropriate response to part one of the story, 00:32:15.019 --> 00:32:21.320 God saves us, is faith. The appropriate response to the second part of the story, God instructs us, 00:32:21.580 --> 00:32:26.980 is to obey. But the appropriate response to the third part of the story, God dwells with us, 00:32:26.980 --> 00:32:34.860 is love. Paul says at the end of the day, faith, hope, and love, these three remain, but the greatest 00:32:34.860 --> 00:32:44.759 of these is love. So the end of Exodus is an invitation to grow in our love for God and in 00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:49.299 our longing for his presence, his presence through all our journeys and his presence at the end of the 00:32:49.299 --> 00:33:01.899 road, when one day we will see him face to face. But finally, perhaps some of you are, find it hard 00:33:01.899 --> 00:33:08.259 to long for God's presence because it's been a very long time since you felt it. 00:33:08.259 --> 00:33:15.799 Maybe you feel like you've been, maybe you've been exploring Christianity for some time. 00:33:16.980 --> 00:33:19.879 You've been learning about this message and this story, 00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:30.000 but you're still wondering if this God is real and if he is for you. Perhaps you've 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:35.680 gone through the school of hard knocks. The journey you've traveled so far has been winding 00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:40.880 and arduous, and yet the end of the road seems nowhere in sight. 00:33:43.580 --> 00:33:50.720 Let me end with this anecdote. In the fifth book of the Chronicles of Narnia, the horse and his boy, 00:33:51.779 --> 00:33:57.840 the main character Shasta reaches a point in his journey when he is all alone, very hungry, 00:33:58.779 --> 00:34:05.100 extremely tired, and apparently lost. He's always had a hard life. He was abandoned as a baby, 00:34:05.099 --> 00:34:12.739 he was raised by a very strict fisherman. One day the fisherman agreed to sell him into slavery. 00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:18.759 Before he could do that, Shasta ran away. He left his home country and headed for Narnia, 00:34:18.860 --> 00:34:25.639 which he had only heard of and ever seen. Along his journey, he was chased by lions and nearly 00:34:25.639 --> 00:34:31.039 drowned in a river trying to escape them. He nearly fainted while crossing a blazing hot desert. Again, 00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:35.800 he was chased by a lion who wounded his companion. When he finally made it to Narnia, he was separated 00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:43.159 from his companion and lost the trail high up in the unfamiliar mountains, in the ice and fog. 00:34:44.679 --> 00:34:50.719 And it goes, and here's what happens there. Being very tired and having nothing inside him, 00:34:50.820 --> 00:34:53.900 Shasta felt so sorry for himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks. 00:34:53.900 --> 00:35:01.519 What put a stop to all of this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or somebody was 00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:07.980 walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could see nothing. And the thing or person was going so 00:35:07.980 --> 00:35:13.900 quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he could hear was breathing on a very large scale. 00:35:13.900 --> 00:35:23.039 At last, he could bear it no longer. Who are you? He said. One who has waited long for you to speak, 00:35:23.380 --> 00:35:29.639 said the thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep. Are you a giant? asked Shasta. 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:35.460 You might call me a giant, said the large voice, but I am not like the creatures you call giants. 00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:41.920 Then he said almost in a scream, you're not something dead, are you? Oh, please, please do go away. 00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:46.800 Once more, he felt the warm breath of the thing on his hand and face. There it said, 00:35:47.220 --> 00:35:55.000 this is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows. Shasta told how he had never known his 00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:00.559 real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fishermen. And then he told the 00:36:00.559 --> 00:36:04.720 story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives and of all 00:36:04.720 --> 00:36:09.220 the dangers in the city and about the night he spent in the graveyard and how the beasts howled at him 00:36:09.219 --> 00:36:13.059 out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they 00:36:13.059 --> 00:36:16.639 were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded his companion. 00:36:17.899 --> 00:36:23.759 I do not call you unfortunate, said the large voice. Don't you think it was bad luck to meet so 00:36:23.759 --> 00:36:31.179 many lions, said Shasta. There was only one lion, said the voice. How do you know, said Shasta. 00:36:31.179 --> 00:36:38.039 Shasta. I was the lion. And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the voice continued. 00:36:38.940 --> 00:36:45.059 I was the lion who forced you to join with your companion. I was the cat who comforted you in the 00:36:45.059 --> 00:36:52.319 graveyard. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you as you slept. I was the lion who gave the 00:36:52.319 --> 00:36:56.460 horses the new strength of fear for the last mile that you should reach King Loon in time. 00:36:56.460 --> 00:37:02.720 And I was the lion you do not remember, who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, 00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:09.340 so that it came to shore where a man sat awake at midnight to receive you. Who are you, said Shasta. 00:37:10.500 --> 00:37:17.320 Myself, said the voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook. And again, myself, loud and clear 00:37:17.320 --> 00:37:22.519 and joyful. And then the third time, myself, whispered so softly you could hardly hear it. 00:37:22.519 --> 00:37:28.239 The mist was turning from black to gray and gray to white. The night was over at last. He turned and 00:37:28.239 --> 00:37:34.179 saw, pacing beside him, a lion. It was from the lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more 00:37:34.179 --> 00:37:39.480 terrible or more beautiful. After one glance at the lion's face, he slipped out of the saddle and fell 00:37:39.480 --> 00:37:44.360 at his feet. He couldn't say anything, but then he didn't want to say anything, and he knew he didn't 00:37:44.360 --> 00:37:50.139 need to say anything. The high king above all kings stooped towards him and touched his forehead with 00:37:50.139 --> 00:37:56.299 its tongue. He lifted his face and their eyes met. Then instantly the pale brightness of the mist and 00:37:56.299 --> 00:38:01.199 the fiery brightness of the lion rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves 00:38:01.199 --> 00:38:10.359 up and disappeared. There's one who's been with you through all your journeys, even when you didn't 00:38:10.360 --> 00:38:20.800 recognize him. Through your darkest nights and through your failures and your laziness and your arrogance 00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:28.320 and your wounds and his purpose all along has been to draw you to himself and bring you into his glorious 00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:37.400 presence. Will you tell him your sorrows? Will you fall at his feet? Will you let your story be caught up in his? 00:38:37.400 --> 00:39:07.380 Father, thank you that you have searched us out, that you have known us long before we 00:39:07.380 --> 00:39:17.780 even thought of you. We thank you that you have been there even when you seemed absent and distant. 00:39:21.220 --> 00:39:28.019 And we thank you that you, in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, are drawing us to yourself. 00:39:28.019 --> 00:39:34.980 We pray that you would guide us in all of our journeys, that you would give us a longing 00:39:34.980 --> 00:39:41.219 for your presence to be with us now and for your presence that we will enjoy forever. 00:39:45.980 --> 00:39:47.780 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.