Hello, teachers. We're here again. We're studying session 9 in Exodus chapter 25. It goes through 1
through 9, and then they jump ahead to chapter 31, 1 through 6. This particular session has a
subject of worship. It's talking about honoring God with our worship. And in terms of the story of
Exodus, it's talking about when God instructed the children of Israel, instructed Moses and the
people to make a tabernacle, to make a tabernacle for him. It was a precursor of the temple that
would come and later on. And this is exactly what God's talking about. And so the big idea is this,
we will worship God in a way that honors him when we recognize three important principles that we
see reflected in God's instruction for building the tabernacle. We're going to see just a couple
things. The first thing we see about the first principle that we see about worship that we can
see reflected in this idea of the tabernacle is this number one worship costs us something. Godly
biblical worship should cost us something. It often costs us something. You're going to see that in
verse one of chapter 25, it says this, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speaking to the children
of Israel that they bring me an offering of every man that give it that willingly with his heart,
ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which shall take of them. So God gives them first
some instruction. He says, we're going to take up an offering. Now it's kind of interesting. Worship is,
again, it costs us something. We're talking about offerings. Here he literally says,
of every man that give it that willingly with his heart. So this is not, I think true worship
doesn't happen out of just mere duty, subjugation. It may end up happening that way. True heartfelt
worship happens willingly of the heart. I don't want my wife to love me because I make her love
me. I want my wife to willingly love me. And in a similar way, God wants us to love him willingly.
And we want us to give to him and to worship him willingly. And he says it's to do that. We're
doing this with this offering. And he says, this is what it's going to look like. And here's where
it costs, right? Verse three, this is the offering which ye shall take of them gold and silver and
brass and blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen goats hair and ram skins dyed red and badger
skins and shittom wood oil for the light spices for anointing oil and for sweet incense onyx stones
and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate ephod there in the breastplate talking
about the the vest looking thing that ephod would be the whole thing the breastplate the whole
robe that breastplate what the priests would wear in the in the tabernacle. And so God is preparing
for to get the materials to build the tabernacle. It's going to be a place where he's going to
dwell and he does that. So and so you see here that God wanted God could have set it up a lot
of different ways. Obviously God owns everything. God wanted their worship and in wanting their
worship he wanted that to cost them something. And so he asked for an offering and he's going to
build something going to build this tabernacle with these precious materials. He's valuable
materials and he's going to do it by them actually giving to him. This is I think there's a principle
here that that we ought to live out that our worship of God ought to be something that's not
just given frivolously that we can say we love God but then our actions, our time, our attention,
our resources ought to reflect how much we love him. You can tell me what you love but like show me
your checking account, show me your schedule and I can see what you actually value at some level.
That's true. And so worship if it's done in a way that honors God ought to cost us something and
that's what we see principle here. Number two, worship invites God's presence. That's what happens
in verse eight down here. It says, and let them make me a sanctuary. Sanctuary kind of sounds similar
to sanctification to saint. It's the idea of setting it apart. This is a place that set apart
why verse eight that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee after the
pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it.
And so he says the point of this place is going to be a place where I'm going to dwell and be with
my people. I'm going to be there with them and be their God. This is a theme that you see a lot
through Exodus. God says, I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
You all shall know their God's before me. He's like watch, stand and watch. God's going to
deliver you. You'll know that I'm the Lord your God. He says, I want you to build a sanctuary.
I want you to make it this particular way because I'm going to be there and I'm going to dwell
with you as my people. We know too that God did that. We know that he manifested himself in this
moment as a pillar, a cloud by day and a fire by night. And we know that when they dedicated
this tabernacle that he showed up and his presence was manifest in this tabernacle. And so
God is present everywhere. We know that, but we know that God manifests his presence and can be
particularly in a place in that sense. And that's what he's saying about this particular
moment. Him being in the Holy of Holies, him being in this tabernacle didn't mean that he wasn't
somewhere else too. He's everywhere, but it means that he is manifesting, he is revealing his presence
and making it known in this sanctuary. And that's why he gave laws and rules and ceremonial things
all around how they were to operate within this particular tabernacle. That leads us to number
three. So worship costs us something. It is inviting God's presence. And that's a good thing. Number
three, worship is something God equips us to do. Worship is something God equips us to do. I think
this is cool. Verse, this now goes forward to Exodus 31 and it's verses one through six. It says
this, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, see, I have called by name Bezaliel, the son of Uri,
the son of her of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom and
in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to devise cutting works,
to work in gold and in silver and in brass and in cutting of stones to set them and in carving of
timber to work in all manner of workmanship. And I behold, I have given with him a holy ab, the son
of Ahasemak and the tribe of Dan, and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted, I have put wisdom
that they may make all that I have commanded thee. I love, I love this. Couple things I want to give
you. This is just practical instruction about teaching. When you're in some of these Old Testament
passages that have a bunch of names, just say the name as confidently as you can. You may say it wrong.
In fact, I'm 99% sure you are saying it wrong, but people don't know if you just confident with it.
So just struggle through. That's just a pro tip I'm giving you. So that's number one. Number two,
yeah, Dan's not hard. It's Ahasemak that's hard. But if I'm like, Ahasemak, you know, that's one.
Anyway, so pro tip. Okay. Number two, I think this is amazing. God shapes people, right? God
makes people certain ways. He does that naturally. We know it. When we get saved, we're given spiritual
gifts. We're giving spiritual gift and we know that's the case. God also makes people naturally
gifted in certain ways. God makes certain people musical. God makes certain people
really good with words. And some people are naturally very, very intelligent in terms of their
ability and capacity to understand information and to relay information. Some people are very
intelligent with their hands. They know how to make things. They know how to fix things. They
take things apart and they put it back together. God was calling Moses to lead his people to both
this tabernacle and in that building of the tabernacle, that putting together the tabernacle,
there had to be actual construction, actual... I like to think I'm good with words. Sometimes I
forget them. Here's my point. The point is they needed someone that knew what they were doing
to in the middle of the desert, take all of this raw material and put it together to the
instruction that God gave them to make a beautiful place for the Lord. And what God's telling Moses
in this moment is, hey, I have made people and think about this. This man that God had been
thinking about this for at least this guy's whole life. We know that for sure. Obviously, God thought
about this in an eternity past, but he had been gifting these particular individuals,
Bezalil, Ahiszek, right? These different... sorry, Ahiszek. These people, God actually made them
to be good at what they're good at so that they could help fulfill this particular task. And in
a sense, obviously, they were facilitating the worship of God by the people. But in a sense,
we know that even their gifting expressed in what they were doing in building the Tabernacle.
If they were doing it as unto the Lord, and it seems like they would, that itself is worshiped to
God. And I think that's something that is encouraging to me. I know that there are people
that they worship God in the way that they fix cars. There are some people that they worship God.
If they're doing it as unto the Lord, whether they're for you to eat or drink or whatever you do,
do all to the glory of God. There are some people that the way that they worship is to write sermons.
There are some people the way they worship is to craft songs. There are some people the way they
worship is to help other people whenever they see a need. This is... God shapes people in different
ways, and he uses people for different reasons. And when it's done as unto the Lord, it really is
worship. It's something that God has equipped us to do. Now, that doesn't mean that the people
that, man, they're really good at fixing things, that they don't need to come and do corporate
worship and send her to the teaching of God's Word and give and sing and praise. Obviously,
that's a part, that's something all of us should and can and should do. But it doesn't mean that
worship only happens when the people of God are gathered corporately. Worship happens all the time,
and God calls us to worship Him. And what's cool is He equips us to do it. What's the ultimate way
God equipped us to worship Him? Well, we had no capacity to make God love us or to worship Him
at all. So what did He do? He's because of our sin. So what did He do? He sent His Son to die for us,
to equip us to be redeemed and to be accepted and to be one of His kids. And now we are sanctified.
Now, we don't go to the tabernacle of the temple of the...
Corinthian says, what do you know? Or Romans, do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy
Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God? You're not your own. That's actually 1 Corinthians.
You're bought with a price. Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. And so
God equips us to be able to do that through salvation, through sanctification, through the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God does that for us. And so worship is important. It costs...
It should cost us something. It invites God's presence. And it's something that He has equipped
us to do. I hope this... Kind of looking at the tabernacle, this study has helped you think about
your own worship and something you can apply to your class on Sunday. Thanks a lot.