back to index2020-7-19 Reality of the Shadow
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I want you to turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 9. 00:00:07.280 |
This is a, this is not one of those passages that you can just read while you're falling 00:00:12.240 |
asleep because you're going to fall asleep, right? 00:00:16.160 |
Just like if you read this passage, it's going to sound like we got a text straight out of 00:00:23.400 |
It describes the tabernacle, the holies, the holy of holies and the articles that's in 00:00:30.540 |
And so, you know, I think God did this on purpose in order to slow us down. 00:00:37.160 |
There's certain things that we do that requires us to be careful, right? 00:00:43.080 |
If you are planning to get married and you're, you're kind of considering, is this the right 00:00:48.160 |
person because you know the weight of this decision, right? 00:00:52.040 |
This is not just something that you're going to do and then decide later. 00:00:56.280 |
And this covenant is serious enough to where you will get counsel, you will seek advice, 00:01:02.000 |
you know, even when people get married, you know, like whenever I officiate weddings and 00:01:06.640 |
when you have parties who haven't participated in weddings, they want to know everything 00:01:11.040 |
like what's right, what's wrong, you know, do we light the candle, who goes out first, 00:01:15.280 |
who sits, who stands up, you know, is this okay, is this not okay? 00:01:19.040 |
Because there is a weight to what they are doing. 00:01:22.220 |
They want to make sure that they get it right, right? 00:01:25.320 |
The Bible talks about the creation in two chapters, as significant, as important as 00:01:31.240 |
it is, it's only recorded in two chapters in the book of Genesis. 00:01:35.560 |
There are over 50 chapters that talk about the details of the tabernacle. 00:01:42.640 |
It's not something that you can just skim through. 00:01:45.920 |
There's details about who should handle it, how long it should be, who can give sacrifice, 00:01:52.880 |
who can't give sacrifice, they even have the details of what kind of clothes to wear while 00:01:57.080 |
they're doing the sacrifice, what kind of clothes to wear when they go out to bury certain 00:02:02.800 |
And it's tedious to the point where we can be easily tempted to just kind of flip through 00:02:08.680 |
and say, oh, the tabernacle is about Jesus and then that's it. 00:02:12.840 |
But there's a reason behind why God does that. 00:02:26.000 |
Why is there 50 chapters of this in the Bible? 00:02:29.720 |
Same thing with whenever you see genealogies, our natural tendency is like, I don't recognize 00:02:42.920 |
It's like, you know, you guys, you guys did the hard work. 00:02:48.640 |
There's a reason why it's there and it is significant. 00:02:51.800 |
So the tabernacle isn't just here, just willy nilly. 00:02:56.440 |
So the text that we're looking at in chapter chapter nine gives us the detailed information. 00:03:01.840 |
Again, this was not the text that I would have wanted to preach out in the sun, you 00:03:06.480 |
know, not knowing if we're going to be able to have a tent that works and it still may 00:03:12.300 |
So because this is this is one of those things that really requires your attention. 00:03:16.400 |
So I know it may be a little bit hotter than normal, but I'm asking you guys to do your 00:03:21.200 |
best to pay attention because because it is important. 00:03:25.900 |
I'm just going to pray and then just jump in this morning. 00:03:34.080 |
We pray, Father, for soberness and power and authority that only you can give. 00:03:39.720 |
We ask, Lord God, that you have been revival during our generation, that we would not drift, 00:03:45.800 |
May your word have its effect on us this morning. 00:03:52.560 |
Especially now, right, we've been talking about being anchored in Christ, but especially 00:03:57.220 |
now there is a dire need for the church to be anchored in Christ. 00:04:04.160 |
If you if you haven't been watching the news, you may not be aware, but China just recently, 00:04:10.320 |
just a few days ago, passed a law saying it is mandated that every church who worships 00:04:16.600 |
the Communist Party above Jesus, and it is required now by law. 00:04:22.240 |
They've been headed that direction for a while, but now they've made it official. 00:04:27.000 |
So among the among the missionaries who've been in there, they've been slowly kicking 00:04:32.760 |
But now all the people who've been out temporarily thinking that maybe the door will open, go 00:04:38.040 |
Now it's uncertain because of of how hard the Chinese government has come, whether they 00:04:47.120 |
This is a worldwide phenomenon that all the years that I've been a Christian, I've never 00:04:51.140 |
seen persecution at this level, where usually it was it was localized, whether it was in 00:04:56.880 |
the Middle East or India or China or North Korea. 00:05:00.120 |
If you watch the news, this is happening all over the world and even here in the United 00:05:05.720 |
Again, that's why I ask you to pay very close attention to what's happening, what's happening 00:05:10.440 |
in the government, because there are there are slowly things that are slowly being passed 00:05:16.240 |
in our government that is specifically targeting conservative Christianity, which is us. 00:05:22.980 |
So when I say conservative Christian, we're talking about Bible believing Christians who 00:05:27.280 |
believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ, who believe that Christ is going to 00:05:34.200 |
We preach the Bible and we practice the Bible. 00:05:36.860 |
And so if you are a Bible believing believer at a Bible believing church, there are slowly 00:05:43.020 |
laws being passed that are being specifically targeted toward us, not just our church, but 00:05:49.240 |
everyone who falls under the category that we talked about. 00:05:55.100 |
We didn't know it was going to be a year or 10 years or maybe next generation. 00:06:04.000 |
And the Bible tells us in Matthew 24 at the end times, he says, because of the increase 00:06:16.100 |
You notice here that he doesn't say that because of increased wickedness that churches are 00:06:21.040 |
going to get into fights and divide and heresy is going to come in. 00:06:26.560 |
But basically, the way that the church dies is not with a fight. 00:06:30.600 |
There's no clear line that says this is when the church closed. 00:06:34.440 |
Usually when the church is closed, it dies because of erosion, because people are not 00:06:41.440 |
And as soon as the waves come, people just begin to drift. 00:06:44.960 |
And they're OK with drifting because their heart has already left Christ a long time 00:06:49.220 |
ago before they ever physically left the church. 00:06:52.960 |
And so any boat that is not anchored, especially now, the current is going to take you away 00:07:06.040 |
And if we've been attending church, if we've been kind of casually allowing our lives to 00:07:10.960 |
drift toward Christ because of the friendships that we've had, because of the community that 00:07:15.680 |
we belong to, encouragement of our brothers and sisters, eventually that will erode and 00:07:24.040 |
That lukewarm Christians will no longer be Christians. 00:07:27.520 |
That lukewarm Christians will eventually fade away. 00:07:32.760 |
There's no line being drawn saying that if you cross this line, you are a follower of 00:07:37.880 |
It will just gradually drift and nominal Christians will eventually leave the church, never to 00:07:44.780 |
And so I believe that we are in the beginning of that right now. 00:07:48.800 |
And so all the more why there is an urgency for us to pay attention. 00:07:58.880 |
We need to pay close attention to the tabernacle because of the meaning behind what it says. 00:08:03.960 |
The reason why the tabernacle is mentioned so much in the scripture is because the tabernacle 00:08:09.200 |
was at the center of the Israelite community to constantly remind them of who they are 00:08:16.600 |
In order for them to be able to know when Christ came that the true Redeemer has come. 00:08:23.160 |
The tabernacle was not a side project that God had. 00:08:27.160 |
There's a reason why God put the tabernacle right in the center of the Israelite community. 00:08:33.200 |
Every tribe was at equal distance to this tabernacle. 00:08:42.400 |
The slaughtering of the animals, the cry of sheep as they're being slaughtered was something 00:08:47.520 |
that the whole Israelite community heard night and day. 00:08:51.480 |
So Israelites did not need it to be to be reminded of the tabernacle because of the 00:08:55.880 |
very presence of the tabernacle caused them to be sober. 00:09:01.200 |
What we want to do today is as we look in at chapter nine, the author has been warning 00:09:05.760 |
and encouraging and challenging and rebuking the church not to drift away from Christ. 00:09:12.240 |
And the central message that he's been trying to get to is that Christ is above all of these 00:09:16.360 |
things and where this is the most dominant, where it is the clearest taught is at the 00:09:23.600 |
Where the need for Christ, the supremacy of Christ is clearly taught is at the tabernacle. 00:09:29.360 |
That's why he takes all of his argument of the supremacy of Christ, brings us to chapter 00:09:33.520 |
seven, Jesus Christ in the order of Melchizedek, the king priest, king of righteousness, king 00:09:41.160 |
And then he's going to take us into this new covenant and specifically at this tabernacle, 00:09:46.040 |
the old covenant and how it prepares us for the for the new covenant in Christ. 00:09:50.240 |
So in what he says here, there's three things that I want to I want to point out that he 00:09:57.560 |
What did the tabernacle teach the nation of Israel? 00:10:00.560 |
First thing that we see is in verse six and seven. 00:10:04.300 |
Now when these things have been so prepared, meaning the tabernacle, the priests are continually 00:10:09.020 |
entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship. 00:10:13.760 |
But into the second, only the high priest enters once a year. 00:10:17.520 |
The first thing that it teaches is the utter helplessness of a sinful man. 00:10:27.280 |
When he says here that the priests were entering to perform worship continually, the word for 00:10:33.320 |
worship here is literal, which basically is referring to not just a gathering of people, 00:10:39.280 |
you know, singing songs like what we are doing. 00:10:41.800 |
The word literal here is talking about the activity of the priests. 00:10:46.480 |
The primary activity of the priest was to slaughter the animals in order to reconcile 00:10:55.040 |
But in saying that the priest had to do this continually over and over and over again, 00:11:00.320 |
meaning that whatever sacrifice that was given, whatever worship was given, it could never 00:11:09.480 |
And so even if you gave it a hundred times, you wake up the next day in need of another 00:11:16.440 |
That's what he means, that they had to do this continually over and over and over again. 00:11:24.040 |
Imagine how many animals were sacrificed because of this. 00:11:29.120 |
For every sin that you are aware of, you are to take an animal without blemish and take 00:11:36.960 |
This tabernacle, the size of this tabernacle would have been a whole lot bigger than this 00:11:43.880 |
It would have been maybe about this wide and that long. 00:11:47.880 |
It would not have been much bigger than this. 00:11:50.680 |
This tabernacle where the sacrifices were taking place served over a million people's 00:11:59.280 |
So can you imagine the line every morning that that priest woke up, the people waiting 00:12:05.440 |
to slaughter the animal asking for forgiveness. 00:12:09.720 |
And he said this had to be done week after week, month after month, year after year. 00:12:15.520 |
If your daily sacrifices were not enough, the day of atonement was basically like spring 00:12:21.000 |
cleaning that even if you cleaned your house every single week, there will be dust and 00:12:26.240 |
filth that would accumulate in the house where you would require another major cleaning where 00:12:31.440 |
everybody gets together just for the purpose of cleansing. 00:12:37.680 |
So when he says that the priest had to enter this tabernacle to give these sacrifices continually, 00:12:45.920 |
it means that no matter how many animals were sacrificed for our sins, it would have never 00:12:53.720 |
So the first thing that the tabernacle taught was the utter helplessness of the sinner before 00:13:00.680 |
In fact, during the day of atonement, during the time of Christ, a secular Jewish historian 00:13:06.120 |
writes that there was so much blood shed during that day that some of the priests in certain 00:13:12.040 |
parts of the temple were over knee deep in the animal's blood. 00:13:17.860 |
Some calculate as many as 1.2 million animals being sacrificed at the day of atonement on 00:13:24.780 |
In fact, the sacrifice was so tremendous that the Jewish economy in Jerusalem was largely 00:13:33.380 |
And this is the reason why we see the scene at the temple where people are doing business 00:13:37.100 |
because that was their primary economy because so many animals were being sacrificed day 00:13:42.200 |
after day, especially on the day of atonement. 00:13:45.080 |
So when the author here says that at the tabernacle, these priests had to enter and worship continually 00:13:51.700 |
over and over and over, it was to teach the inefficiency and inability of these sacrifices 00:14:02.880 |
The sacrifice was given by the priest himself who needed sacrifice. 00:14:08.880 |
He needed to sacrifice over and over and over again. 00:14:13.180 |
And then he needed to give sacrifice for the nation of Israel. 00:14:16.260 |
He said for sins that they committed in ignorance in verse 7. 00:14:22.520 |
Now in our generation, whenever we say, you know, we committed sin in ignorance, we automatically 00:14:30.420 |
How can I, how can it be a sin if I didn't know about it? 00:14:33.940 |
You know, we, we think that if we calculate and if we willfully acted, then that's a sin. 00:14:38.460 |
But if I didn't know about it, how can that be sin? 00:14:41.420 |
Why would God require us to make sacrifices for sins committed when we didn't know? 00:14:48.180 |
See it's the very definition of sin means to miss the mark. 00:14:54.000 |
You don't need to be willfully doing something to miss the mark. 00:14:59.160 |
You don't even have to know that there is a mark to hit. 00:15:02.160 |
But as long as we don't hit the mark, we have sin. 00:15:10.460 |
If I wasn't aware of it, how can he require a, an atonement for that? 00:15:14.880 |
What that teaches us is that our very core of who we are is in rebellion against God. 00:15:20.940 |
So the sin is not simply something that we just do. 00:15:30.540 |
That's what the, that's what that is teaching us. 00:15:32.600 |
So even the sins that are committed in ignorance needed atonement. 00:15:36.420 |
That's how deeply the sin affects, affects the sinner. 00:15:40.820 |
So that tabernacle, the sacrifice that needed to be given continually, first and foremost, 00:15:46.540 |
taught the sinners the utter helplessness before this Holy God. 00:15:52.500 |
And that's what they were reminded over and over again, that no matter how much you eat, 00:15:57.100 |
maybe today after service, you're going to go grab a great buffet and you're going to 00:16:02.820 |
Well, tomorrow morning, you're going to wake up, you're going to be hungry. 00:16:06.100 |
And you may do that buffet over and over again, but the next day you're going to wake up, 00:16:15.420 |
No matter how much we confess, as long as we are in this flesh, you and I are not able 00:16:22.220 |
And that's what the tabernacle taught, that this physical sacrifice was not going to change 00:16:26.860 |
anything about who we are inwardly, our utter helplessness. 00:16:31.580 |
Secondly, the tabernacle taught that the entrance to God was closed. 00:16:37.980 |
See the passage in verses two to five in verse eight describes the intricate details of what 00:16:46.620 |
They call it the holy and then the holy of holies. 00:16:49.940 |
The holy of holies and the holy room was separated by this curtain. 00:16:54.460 |
I think the best way for us to understand this is if somebody invites you to the house, 00:16:58.980 |
you know, obviously they want friendship, they want some sort of fellowship with you. 00:17:02.740 |
But when they invite you to the house, they're not inviting you to their bedroom. 00:17:06.780 |
You don't go say, you know what, you know, somebody asked me to their house and they 00:17:10.100 |
say, I went into their house, I walked into their bedroom, opened their closet and then 00:17:14.540 |
opened their drawer and I examined all these things because they asked me to come to their 00:17:20.460 |
When you go to somebody's house, you go to their living room until you are, for whatever 00:17:23.740 |
the reason, you have to be invited to the inner room. 00:17:29.100 |
I think the best way for us to describe this is in God's house where he came to meet mankind, 00:17:35.940 |
the holy of holies was the master bedroom, which was permanently closed. 00:17:41.620 |
He allowed sinners represented by the priest to come into the outer part, the living room 00:17:46.780 |
of the tabernacle where they had certain elements that remind them that they needed God to sustain 00:17:54.060 |
them, but the actual presence of God was not open to the sinners. 00:18:00.260 |
In fact, that room was so mysterious that even the holiest of men, the high priest, 00:18:08.220 |
after sacrificing for his own sins, would go there for a brief period of time with the 00:18:14.060 |
bell on him, with the rope tied and would do his business and come right out. 00:18:23.620 |
There was no place for him to casually stand. 00:18:26.220 |
He was sprinkled with blood representing the cleansing of the sins of the nations, which 00:18:30.420 |
he would have to do again and again and again and again. 00:18:33.740 |
The entrance was closed to him, and that's exactly what the tabernacle taught. 00:18:39.400 |
Not only was there an utter helplessness of mankind, that because of this helplessness, 00:18:46.920 |
the gap between God, the holy God, and a sinful man was something that they could not bridge 00:18:54.820 |
That's what the tabernacle taught day in and day out. 00:18:58.640 |
Third and finally, the tabernacle taught that the sacrifices given was unable to cleanse 00:19:09.240 |
It says in verse 9, "According to both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make 00:19:18.400 |
You know, this is an interesting word here, the word conscience. 00:19:21.820 |
The definition of the word conscience means this. 00:19:24.520 |
It denotes either personal intuition, a knowledge of something, or more specifically, the moral 00:19:38.380 |
I know it's a little bit hot, but did you catch that? 00:19:43.800 |
The definition of the word conscience is a self-awareness of the knowledge of good and 00:19:57.880 |
In Genesis, where God told Adam and Eve that you can eat of any tree but of the tree of 00:20:06.840 |
Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is a definition of conscience, you shall 00:20:11.800 |
not eat for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. 00:20:17.160 |
In other words, the tabernacle taught the nation of Israel that it is unable to reverse 00:20:26.160 |
That no matter how many sacrifices were given, no matter how many outward activity, no matter 00:20:31.560 |
how many times we gathered together, no matter how much money that you give to the church, 00:20:35.960 |
no matter how many righteous acts that we participate in, it is unable to reverse the 00:20:41.880 |
curse because our conscience has been tainted. 00:20:46.560 |
So a sinful man in whatever he does eventually will become sinful. 00:20:54.000 |
In fact, the interesting passage in Haggai chapter 2, 13 to 14, Haggai writes to the 00:20:58.920 |
nation of Israel during a period when they were very busy in the temple. 00:21:04.520 |
They were very busy in the religious activity. 00:21:08.060 |
But Haggai is sent to warn them that their religious activity does nothing to erase their 00:21:18.120 |
That you cannot negate your sinful activity by having some good activity. 00:21:25.000 |
Most religions today and sadly many Christians subconsciously believe that if my good things 00:21:32.160 |
outweigh the bad things, even though we may not express it in doctrine, subconsciously 00:21:38.060 |
we think that if we've done good enough, that somehow that wins some kind of favor before 00:21:44.120 |
If we've done good enough, somehow we don't deserve to be in the church and we tend to 00:21:48.560 |
drift away from the church when we are in sin. 00:21:51.080 |
Well that was the attitude of the Israelites during the time of Haggai. 00:21:57.000 |
Haggai chapter 2, 13 and 14, then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean from a corpse touches 00:22:02.880 |
any of these, will the latter become unclean?" 00:22:09.640 |
Because in the book of Leviticus, if an individual who is considered unclean because of some 00:22:14.600 |
sort of defect in his life, because of some sort of disease, maybe he was a leper, because 00:22:18.920 |
he was considered unclean, if that unclean man touches a sacrifice that was set apart 00:22:24.760 |
to be dedicated to God, does that animal, does he become clean or does the animal become 00:22:42.960 |
Because the unclean man touched what was clean, the unclean man doesn't become clean because 00:22:51.480 |
Now this is extremely important because this is the whole point that he's trying to get 00:22:56.720 |
The religious activity of an unclean man does not make him clean. 00:23:10.120 |
The priest answered, "It will become unclean." 00:23:12.240 |
Then Haggai said, "So is this people and so is this nation before me," declares the 00:23:17.560 |
Lord, "and so is every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean." 00:23:23.840 |
Until a man is regenerated and he is cleansed by the blood of Christ, even the religious 00:23:30.640 |
activity that he participates in, they become unclean. 00:23:43.360 |
Building churches, planting churches, even the preaching becomes unclean. 00:23:48.320 |
Because an unclean man will pursue unclean end goals thinking that as long as he is doing 00:24:01.840 |
And that is a deception of people who've been in the church for a long period of time. 00:24:08.600 |
We engage in Christian activity that if we engage enough that we subconsciously believe 00:24:17.040 |
And he said that's what the tabernacle taught. 00:24:19.880 |
No matter how much they sacrificed, until there is true atonement by the blood of Christ, 00:24:25.960 |
even the good things that we do become unclean. 00:24:30.200 |
That's why when unclean people are leaders of the church, when unclean people are members 00:24:34.880 |
of the church, it doesn't matter how many good deeds that we participate in, eventually 00:24:43.640 |
Because an unclean man cannot cleanse himself. 00:24:50.280 |
So his bitterness, his anger, his selfish motive, his desire to be recognized, his desire 00:24:55.480 |
to be better than the next person, the coveting, the lying, the tainting that's inside our 00:25:01.360 |
inner being cannot be cleansed by changing our outer activity. 00:25:08.060 |
That all the activity, all the cleansing, all the sacrifices that were given at the 00:25:18.400 |
All of this was to simply point to Christ and his coming. 00:25:25.440 |
Imagine if you were an Israelite during this time and the tabernacle constantly reminded 00:25:39.100 |
Imagine today, imagine today if the access to God was closed to you, how would that affect 00:25:48.760 |
Would that cause you to just have extra time in the morning on Sundays? 00:25:55.000 |
Hold on to your tithe and giving and use that to buy something that you'd like? 00:26:01.520 |
How would the prohibition of you coming to God was blocked? 00:26:09.240 |
You know, many Christians struggle with prayer, but imagine if you couldn't pray. 00:26:13.780 |
Not because you were lazy, not because it was difficult, but because the access was 00:26:24.000 |
What if today was the last day that you and I are able to gather together for worship? 00:26:31.400 |
That this was the last, this is the song that you saw was the last song that you could sing 00:26:37.120 |
Once this service is over, you're gone into your own homes and you're going to live like 00:26:40.440 |
rest of the world because the access to God has been closed. 00:26:50.080 |
You see, the nation of Israel was constantly reminded through the tabernacle, the access 00:26:58.720 |
So you can see why Jesus described a single sinner who repents and why the heavens rejoice. 00:27:07.040 |
Because you had a nation filled with people who are eager. 00:27:15.040 |
And every year and every sacrifice reminded them, you cannot get in. 00:27:22.880 |
And so when he says earlier in the book of Hebrews, let us enter the throne of grace 00:27:30.440 |
Imagine how that would have struck a nation that was constantly reminded that they could 00:27:42.880 |
That something that we could not do by our own strength, Christ did. 00:27:46.960 |
And the weight of what he has done is the reason why you and I are here. 00:27:54.760 |
No amount of religious activity, no amount of giving, no amount of sacrificing, no amount 00:27:59.840 |
of loving, no amount of preaching the gospel and singing songs can bring us any closer 00:28:06.960 |
And in the end, ultimately, that's why the tabernacle was created. 00:28:18.660 |
To show us that we are outside of the grace of God and his presence. 00:28:24.720 |
And to show us a desperate need for a savior and atonement for the coming of Christ. 00:28:30.760 |
See if the nation of Israel was paying attention when Jesus was being crucified, there the 00:28:35.280 |
cheering and praising would have happened while he was hanging on the cross, not when 00:28:43.160 |
Our celebration of our faith isn't because we live in a comfortable world. 00:28:49.840 |
It's not because we have a comfortable place to worship. 00:28:55.280 |
That's why Paul says he had found the secret of being content in every and all situation, 00:29:02.320 |
Whether there's air conditioning or the heat of the sun. 00:29:10.440 |
Whether it is safe or whether it is dangerous. 00:29:14.520 |
Paul's secret of being content is he found his anchor in Christ. 00:29:21.400 |
So the challenge for us as Christians who are trying to stay sober in this generation 00:29:29.320 |
is to ask ourselves, are we constantly engaged in religious repetition without fruit? 00:29:41.320 |
Because your hearts have drifted far from God. 00:29:48.640 |
And you are constantly engaged and having a reputation, have a reputation of being godly, 00:29:56.360 |
but never knowing any power because we are constantly engaged in religious activity when 00:30:01.840 |
our hearts, we allow our hearts to covet everything else in the world. 00:30:06.280 |
And all of a sudden we say, you know, we're going to, we're going to engage in this and 00:30:10.300 |
And then we wonder why it is so hard to worship God in spirit and in truth. 00:30:16.680 |
Are we always learning, always learning about God, about who he is, about Leviticus, about 00:30:29.440 |
Yet our affection for God in the inner chamber is no deeper than it was when we first started. 00:30:38.600 |
We just know more about the regulations, know more about theology than affection for God. 00:30:46.320 |
When he says to enter the throne of grace with confidence, we never enter. 00:30:49.160 |
We just observe and appreciate from a distance. 00:30:56.800 |
Come, come, all who are weary and heavy laden. 00:31:04.020 |
If you've been drifting, if you see your heart's growing cold, becoming numb, maybe some of 00:31:11.280 |
you here, maybe some of you even sitting at home can imagine yourself not coming to church 00:31:17.360 |
ever again, or maybe even just drifting away permanently. 00:31:21.200 |
It's like, you know, I think I'm okay with that. 00:31:25.640 |
All who are weary and heavy laden, he says, come to me for I will give you rest. 00:31:32.900 |
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will 00:31:45.780 |
If you believe Christ is your answer and he is your savior and he's the only one who can 00:32:12.520 |
You will always learn, but you will never know. 00:32:16.340 |
You will hear other people's testimony and be warmed at heart, but you will never know. 00:32:22.900 |
You will regurgitate information that you hear. 00:32:26.040 |
You will quote great quotes from other people. 00:32:29.220 |
You will tell stories of other people, of things that they've seen, that they've experienced, 00:32:34.100 |
affection that they have for Christ, but it's never yours. 00:32:47.640 |
And ultimately, where would you and I be if our sins weren't forgiven? 00:32:58.960 |
We hear that so many times, it's just a given in the church. 00:33:13.100 |
Imagine if he didn't absorb our sins and you and I still remain in our sins. 00:33:23.820 |
If we die, we meet a holy God, if you believe that. 00:33:33.380 |
How will you survive when your business fails? 00:33:36.780 |
What will happen when your children fall sick and you lose your job? 00:33:46.860 |
Everything that you place your hope on and you are still in your sins. 00:33:54.340 |
The tabernacle teaches us all of these things that he embedded into the nation of Israel 00:34:01.300 |
so that we may love Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:34:25.780 |
Having a lot of experience does not save you. 00:34:29.060 |
Bearing fruit when you're younger does not save you. 00:34:37.860 |
Discipling a lot of people does not save you. 00:34:40.620 |
All of these things are religious activity until there is genuine regeneration of our 00:34:45.300 |
hearts that can only be accomplished by the atonement of Jesus that we believe in. 00:34:53.900 |
So my prayer for all of us, if you are falling asleep, I'm not talking physically, if you're 00:35:04.300 |
falling asleep spiritually and you're okay with it, even if you're offended, my guess 00:35:18.660 |
Knowing all that is going on and you are not spiritually sober and you're okay with it, 00:35:28.900 |
with all that I know of Scripture, all that I have experienced, all that I have seen, 00:35:34.380 |
my educated, my professional guess is you're probably not saved. 00:35:43.820 |
So my desire, my prayer is that God would use what is happening now, first and foremost, 00:35:52.740 |
to cause people who are not believers to examine carefully to see where their faith is. 00:35:59.780 |
Secondly, for those who are believers, and you've caught yourself drifting, but all of 00:36:06.580 |
a sudden you realize there is a spiritual battle going on. 00:36:10.180 |
There's something more important that you need to be concerned about than your wedding. 00:36:16.260 |
There's something more important that you need to be concerned about than your job. 00:36:20.380 |
There's something more important that you and I need to be concerned about than our 00:36:24.420 |
health, than our children, than our families, than our future, is where do we stand with 00:36:32.460 |
Are we still at the old tabernacle going through religious motion, which has no power over 00:36:41.140 |
I pray that that may be the case, that we endure the hot sun, we go in, we go back in 00:36:48.340 |
when they tell us to go back out, you know, go back in, we do whatever we need to do, 00:36:52.580 |
but in the midst of all of this, I pray that revival will break out. 00:36:58.020 |
I genuinely pray that revival will break out, that he would prune the church, and what will 00:37:02.900 |
remain after this is genuine believers who will love the Lord and worship God in spirit 00:37:13.420 |
Father, you are deserving of all our attention, all our love, all our finances, all our youth, 00:37:23.540 |
all of our retirement, all of our age, all of it, Lord God. 00:37:28.780 |
Help us not to be satisfied with a mediocre walk. 00:37:32.520 |
Help us not be okay with just coasting and just making it to next year. 00:37:39.800 |
Help us to be sober, Lord God, to know that we live in a fallen world, that we would not 00:37:45.160 |
be shocked that the people who are fallen act in accordance to their fallen nature. 00:37:53.160 |
Help us, Lord, to be a light in this dark world, especially now, that our hope may be 00:38:00.960 |
Lord, please bring revival in our generation for our sake and for our children's sake.