Skip to content Exodus: The Purpose of God's Presence Jun 4 · 53 min ...more
Exodus: The Purpose of God's Presence
June 4, 2023 · 53 min
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church June 4, 2023 · 53 min · BRAVE Church
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Father in heaven, we give you glory on this rainy day in Denver, Colorado, Lord, that you are providing for us. Lord, we thank you that you are gonna speak to us this morning and that, Lord, you have a specific word for0:11 everybody that is listening. Father, we give you praise because we believe that every time your word is opened up and it is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, Lord, that you have a message for us. And so Lord, our0:22 desire is to hear you. So our heart's cry is speak Lord for we are ready to hear what it is that you have to say. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, who will believe0:33 what he says and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you this very day, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen, amen. As we've been in the book of Exodus last week,0:45 talked about 1 of my favorite topics, which is the presence of the Lord. And we talked about how important it was for us to posture ourselves rightly before him, how we needed to be of0:57 a mindset of Lord, change me, how we had to commit time, how we had to be devoted to the relationship, how we had to have a hunger for worship. And all of those things are true, but we1:09 need to understand if God does manifest himself where he does come through, what's the purpose of God doing that? Why would God wanna bother with his manifest presence in and through us in the1:21 world? We need to understand that there's benefit to us and there's purposes of God for why he wants to do that. From time to time, you will hear stories where you'll hear people talk about revival1:32 breaking out over here or over there or you should have heard this speaker or you should have been at that camp or if only you heard that worship team. God's presence was all over that place.1:44 And I believe that that's true. Very often when people speak that way, there's a presence of God that comes through anointed preaching, through anointed worship, through anointed camps, that God's presence is available.1:56 But we have to ask ourselves, what was his purpose for manifesting his presence among us? In other words, if I'm gonna spend the time disciplining myself to be in front of the Lord to ask him to change me, and I'm gonna2:08 commit my time to that, and I'm gonna be devoted to that relationship, and I'm gonna hunger for the worship of God, what's the purpose in all Like, how do I benefit from that, and what is God gonna accomplish in and2:20 through that? And if you've ever wanted to know that, I believe that God has a word for you today. God wants you to know his purposes for manifesting his presence in and through you. God wants you to know his2:31 purposes for manifesting his presence in and among us. And to do that today, I wanna encourage you to open up your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter2:43 34. We're gonna start in verse 10 today. And let me just tell you this, if Brave Church is your home church, I wanna encourage you this week to read through chapters 35 through2:54 40 as we look on doing a flyby at the end of this book next week, Lord willing, and I want you to be very familiar with those chapters, chapters 35 through 40 in the book of Exodus for next3:06 week. But as you're turning to Exodus 3four 10, you'll remember what happened last week. You'll remember what happened last week. Moses was pleading with the Lord for his presence. He said, unless you go with us,3:18 don't even send me. Don't send us. Because isn't it true, Lord, that it's your presence that makes us distinct? Isn't it true today that it's the presence of the Lord working in through us that makes us distinct?3:30 There's nothing distinct about us as individuals. The only thing that makes us distinct is the presence of the Lord. So he's pleading with the Lord. He's begging the Lord. He's saying, please be with us. Please go with3:40 us. We want you. We only want you. He's begging the Lord to go, and the Lord says, okay. I'll go. And he tells Moses, get 2 new stone tablets because Moses had3:51 symbolically thrown the law down to show the people who had been worshiping a molten calf to show them you've broken God's commandments, you've broken his law. This is symbolic of what you've done.4:03 And God being so gracious and God being so merciful, even though God punishes sin, even though God doesn't change his standards, says, get 2 new tablets, come up and see me, I will write my law4:15 again for my people. And this is where the story picks up. Moses is going to go back up to God, spend another 40 days with him, and in verse 10, we see him hearing4:27 the Lord when he gets back up into his presence. And we're gonna talk about 3 truths about the presence of God for what his purpose is for his presence. In other words, if his4:39 presence is showing up somewhere, he has 3 distinct purposes for why he's bringing his presence into a situation. And the first is this, that God's presence empowers allegiance to4:51 the worship of God. God's power God's presence rather empowers allegiance to the worship of God. Notice verse 10. Then God said, he's talking to Moses, behold,5:03 I'm going to make a covenant. That's God saying, I'm gonna make a promise and I'm gonna be true to my promise. Before all your people, I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth5:14 nor among any of the nations, and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.5:27 God tells Moses that through the nation of Israel, he is going to do some things that he's never ever done before. Now why is that? Because our God is dynamic. Our God is awesome.5:39 Our God is unlike any other God. Our God is living and active. When we are worshiping God, we are not worshiping some dead figure or figurine that's sitting on a5:51 throne. We are worshiping the living God who is ruling and reigning over the universe. And as he is being worshiped, he is saying he's gonna do something distinct with his people, which at this6:02 time is the nation of Israel. He's gonna do something special with them. I still believe God is gonna do something special with the nation of Israel. And we can't just say, well, the church has replaced Israel because6:13 God's still doing some distinct things with Israel. But make no mistake about it, Jesus Christ has established his church. And his word tells us that he is able to do far more abundantly than all that we could6:25 ever think, ask, or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. Here's what this means. God wants to do things in and through you and God wants to do things in and through his church6:37 that are distinct and unlike anything else he's ever done. Sometimes we think of God like I've seen you do that. I read about that in the Bible. Maybe you do that again. I believe God wants to do new things all the time.6:50 I believe our God is alive and he wants to move in new and fresh ways. And he's saying, I'm making you a promise. I'm gonna do this. And then he tells him, when I do what I'm gonna do through this nation, other nations7:01 are gonna be terrified. Why? Because God is not only a God of comfort and a God of love, which he is, but God is the holy terrifying God of the universe. And when he moves and people7:13 see that he moves, non believers are scared of who he is. So this is what he tells them. He tells Moses, he goes, go tell your people I'm going with you and I'm about ready to do some things that have never been done7:23 before on planet earth and I'm gonna perform them with you and it will be a fearful thing that I'm gonna do. Now watch this. Here's your part, verses 10 and 11 and 12.7:35 Be sure to observe, that means pay attention, be careful to obey what I am commanding you this day. Behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you and the7:47 Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Here's what he says. I made a promise to you. I made a promise to your forefather Abraham. I will continue through on my7:58 promise cause I'm always true to what I say I'm gonna do. I am always true to my word. I promise that I would give you the land. This land is currently being occupied by a lot of other nations. I'm telling you,8:10 I'm the 1 that's gonna go before you. I'm the 1 that's gonna drive them out. I'm the 1 that's gonna make it possible. And when you see that I've done that, you'll know how awesome and terrifying that I am. When God works8:22 in our life, oftentimes as a believer, when we come to Christ, we begin to hear little whispers of the Holy Spirit of how uniquely wired we are and what are some of the things God might do. But when we look out on the8:32 broad landscape of life, sometimes we ask ourself the question, how's that ever gonna happen? I don't see how that it's ever gonna work out. I mean, seems like the circumstances, situations, and people that are involved8:43 in that, there's not room for the vision that you've given me to work itself out. And here's what God says, I'm gonna make room for it. I'm the 1 that's gonna make it happen. If I'm telling you I'm gonna do something,8:55 I am faithful. He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it. I'm gonna do it. You'll need to walk by faith until you see it done. So why is God telling them this? We read the end of the story and we know that God9:06 takes them into the promised land. We read the end of the story and we know that God was with them and destroying all the nations. But we're reading before that story happened. We're hearing about what God's gonna do.9:15 And it's 1 thing to see what God has done and then say, oh yeah, I totally believe. It's another thing to say, God said it, I can't see it, but I'm gonna believe it and I'm gonna walk into it. That's what he's telling9:27 them. He's like, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna drive out these nations before you. These are just some of the nations I'm gonna drive out. So be careful that you observe and obey everything that I'm about ready to9:37 tell you. Verse 12. Watch yourself. That means pay attention to your own actions that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going or it will become a9:48 snare in your midst. What is he saying? Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. He is saying, I'm the only 1 that's worthy of all your9:59 allegiance. I am the only 1 that's worthy of all your worship. And he said, in the land I'm gonna take you into, there will be temptation for you to worship something other or someone other than me.10:12 There'll be a temptation to take some of their gods and blend them with me and call that worship. He says this, I'm God. I'm the only 1 that's worthy of worship, and I want all of your worship.10:24 Now, why so much talk in the Bible about worship? Can I tell you why? Because it's what we as human beings were designed and created to do. Believers, we are10:35 designed and created to worship the God of the universe. That's what everybody's designed for. But if you don't wholeheartedly worship the God of the universe, you will find someone or10:47 something to worship. Now that sounds off Sunday theological. Yeah, preach it brother, I know. So let's make it personal. What is worship? Worship is what you dedicate your10:59 time, your focus, your energy, your initiatives, your money, your thoughts, and all your attention to. That's your worship. That's your worship. What did you11:10 worship this week? Who did you worship this week? Where did your worship go this week? So I'm not quite sure. If you're married, ask your spouse. Where do you who where and who do you think I worship?11:23 If you have children, ask them, who do you think I worship? If you have friends, ask them, who do you think I worship? I'll tell you who you worship. You give me a look at your bank statement, I'll tell you who you11:34 worship. You give me a look at your calendar, I'll tell you who you worship. I spend time, I get conversation with you, I'll tell you who you worship. Those are indicative of your worship. Here's what God says, worship11:45 me. I'm the only 1 that's worthy of your worship. I'm the only 1 who can satisfy, and I'm the only 1 on the universe that's worthy of all your worship. Now was that just for Israel?11:58 Can I just tell you this? It's true today too. Jesus Christ is the only 1 worthy of all of your allegiance. And there are so many temptations and so many12:10 distractions to keep you from giving God the fullness of all of your worship. So what does he say to do with some of these other gods in the culture? Notice what he goes on to say in verse 13, but rather you are to tear12:21 down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their ashorem, which were the poles that they used for worship, for you shall not worship any other god for12:33 the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Now, what does it mean that God's jealous? I thought jealousy was a sin. Jealous means this, I'm jealous for your worship.12:45 I'm yearning after your attention. I'm God and I created you and I know you and I love you and I'm jealous for you to give back to me what I rightly deserve because I'm perfect,12:57 you're not. I'm awesome, you're not. I'm loving, you're not. I'm great, you're not. I'm jealous of you wanting to recognize me for all that I am. That's what the13:09 Lord is saying. So he's saying when you get into a culture that's gonna have other tempting gods, not only avoid them, not only pretend they don't exist, what does he say? Tear13:21 them down, smash them to the ground. Don't have any other god in the culture except me. That sounds hurtful, doesn't it? I mean, in our world of tolerance13:32 where the world is tolerant about everything except for Jesus, that doesn't sound very tolerant. But think about all of the different gods we have in our culture. We serve a God of sports. We serve a God of hedonism. We13:44 serve a God of money. We serve a God of success. We serve a God of relationships. We serve a God of popularity. We serve all these different gods. And then we come to church and say, okay, I13:56 serve you too. God wants your whole allegiance. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not share my glory with others or14:07 give my praise to graven images. I want wholehearted, hundred percent allegiance. So what's that look like? It means God's presence. When God's presence is showing up in your life, first and foremost, it's14:19 to get your attention that he's the 1 that's worthy of all your heart's desires, of your mind, of your will, of everything else that Jesus Christ wants to be center. That's why God's presence shows up.14:31 God's presence shows up so that you will worship him more. And worship doesn't mean just singing songs, and worship doesn't only mean coming to church. Worship is my daily ongoing lifestyle14:43 of who I'm preferencing with everything that I am. So there's always a way, no matter how advanced you are in your worship, to worship him even more.14:55 Worship is central to why God's presence shows up. Now we've talked about this. God is everywhere. Psalm 139 says, there's nowhere we can go that God is and he's everywhere, but there are15:07 times where God manifests his presence and shows up. Sometimes it happens in church, you're listening to a sermon and the preacher is preaching and he's preaching the word, but all of a sudden the Holy Spirit is15:18 preaching to you in your heart. You're not even listening to the words that the preacher's saying because the Holy Spirit is using the word to speak directly to you. Sometimes you're worshiping with a song and the Holy15:28 Spirit's ministering directly to you. Sometimes you're praying, the Holy Spirit's ministering directly to you. Sometimes you're just sitting there like, I don't even know what's going on, but God's presence is so strong.15:37 He's ministering to you for the purpose of that you would see that he's worthy of all your praise, and he's jealous for you. He yearns for you. He wants your worship. He wants15:49 your attention. He wants you to know that he created you, that he loved you enough to send Jesus for you. His own son was slaughtered on a cross for you who died. He rose from the dead for you. He wants to offer life to16:00 you. He loves you. He's wanting it to be reciprocated. That's what worship is. It's you living your life knowing how thankful you are for the glory of God and all the wonders that he16:12 has done for you. And he says, tear down their all. Tear down their gods. Don't listen to them. Don't participate. Don't show love to them. I mean, we live in16:24 a culture where we're afraid to talk about the culture because that's mean. Friends, I believe in 2 genders because the Bible teaches 2 genders. I'll tell you on pride month, I16:35 believe that God created male and female and there are no other genders. I'll tell you that. And I'll tell you that why he created those 2 genders was for marriage and the reason he created for marriage is because he16:46 wanted to have godly offspring, and the reason he wanted to have godly offspring is so that he would be worshiped from generation to generation to generation. And we can stand in church and clap because we as Christians,16:56 we all believe there are only 2 genders. We all know that. Pastor Jeff, you say it all the time. We're we're good. Yeah. We're good. I'm telling the non believers there's only 2 genders. And I love you enough to tell you17:05 there are only 2 genders because the Bible makes clear that no practicing homosexual enter the kingdom of God. And I love you enough because I don't want you to go to hell that you should repent and you should trust17:14 Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. Not because I don't like you, but because I love you, I'm telling you this. That's what God was saying to do in the culture. In a culture where we17:26 hate kids and we hate the unborn and we offer them as a sacrifice in the same way that when Moses was being raised up as a deliverer, they were killing all the boys under the age of 2 and the same way when Jesus was17:37 being raised up, they killed all the boys under the age of 2, the same way that God is raising up deliverers in our generation and we're killing all the babies in our culture. You can't call a nation Christian that kills17:47 all the infants. And that's not just a church speak, that's for the culture to hear that Jesus Christ is Lord and we wanna worship you. So we're not afraid to tear down that idol17:58 to child sacrifice for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ because he's the 1 who created life and that's wrong. That's what he's saying to do. And I18:10 knew I was only gonna get a golf clap because many of you think that's the pastor's job to preach against. I'm not preaching against, I'm preaching for what is true. And if we don't take what's true to the culture, then18:21 how will the culture ever change? If we only sit in little huddles in the church and say, well, we all believe this, but those people out there don't. Let's pray for them. Here's what I would say, let's believe it. Let's18:31 pray for them. Let's go tell them why they need to repent and trust Jesus as their personal Lord and savior and do something about it. That's what the gospel would teach. It's worship. It aligns our worship. He says, if18:43 you don't do that, verse 15 says what might happen, otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods and someone might invite18:53 you to eat his sacrifice and you might take some of his daughters for your sons and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. What's he19:05 saying? If you don't destroy and point out the false gods in your culture, you'll probably partner with them and when you partner with them, then you're not serving me anymore.19:17 I am the Lord. I don't have a partnership. You can't worship sports and worship God and call it Christian. You can't worship America and worship God and call it Christian. You can't worship money and worship God and call19:29 it Christian. You can only worship God. There is no other way to worship. So he says, tear it all down, and if you don't, you'll end up partnering with people that don't love me. You'll give them as19:40 daughters to your sons, they'll intermarry and when you have a Christian that marries a non Christian, you know what kind of marriage you have? You have a non Christian marriage and then you have non Christian offspring19:51 and then you don't have generations of faithfulness and fruitfulness. He says, my worship is so important. I show up with my presence so that you will know that I'm worthy of all your praise. That's20:03 what he says, and worship is awesome. The true worship of God when his presence comes is awesome. 1 of first times I ever had an experience with the presence of God, I was serving at a20:14 charismatic church when I was in seminary for a weekend. I'd never really been in a charismatic church. I'd heard things about charismatic churches. I heard there were gonna be like healings, I'd heard there might be20:24 deliverance, I heard people spoke in tongues. I knew nothing about any of those things and I was journaling the night before and I was writing in my journal like, Lord, how come I don't speak in tongues yet and how come20:33 I've never really seen this stuff and Lord, why are you holding out on me? Am I missing something? That was my prayer the night before. The next day there were about 17 of us that were gonna be ministering to kids20:44 throughout the weekend and the guy that was the speaker got up and he said, before you guys meet the kids tonight, I wanna minister to you now. I thought that meant he was gonna speak for a half an hour or something, and20:54 next thing I know, all I remember is somebody started strumming on the guitar and it was as if in this room a heavy cloud came on us and just I almost began to weep. I'm like, what in the world is going on? What did I21:05 walk into? I'd never experienced anything like this in my life. There were stairs around the platform of the worship center, which we were in, which is about a room this size, and I went up and sat on them and as he21:14 began to lay hands on people and pray for them and I was watching and I couldn't even hear what he was saying, I just began weeping. I mean, I was, I was like tearing up and I was asking the Lord, what is this? What's21:23 going on? And I was about the third person and he kind of pointed at me and he walked over to me and he walked behind me and when he put his hands on my shoulders, I began to sob, like not I mean like21:35 sob, uncontrollable snot coming out of my nose, sob. But I felt the presence of the Lord so strong and this guy whispers in my ear and he says, Stop looking for signs and wonders. You'll cast out21:47 demons, you will heal people, you'll see the dead rise, but rejoice because your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And then he went on to tell me about planting churches and all these other things and21:54 everything was resonating with my heart. My heart was totally warm. I'm sobbing. I'm like, How does this guy know me? When that experience was done, I didn't want to get to know that guy better. I didn't want the gifts22:06 he had. You know what I wanted? I wanted to worship Jesus even more because it was a touch from heaven. Amen? God gives gifts in the church and God shows his presence in the22:18 church, not so that we'll look for people and not so we'll worship people or not so we can learn how to do things, it's so that we can see how alive and real God is. And do you realize when we get to heaven what we get22:30 to experience? The ongoing forever eternal presence of the Lord. If your heart does not yearn for that, you don't know him well enough yet. The great pastor22:42 AW Tozer from a generation ago said it like this. He said, I can safely say on the authority of all that is revealed in the word of God that any man or woman on this earth who is bored or turned off by22:53 worship is not ready for heaven. So all we're gonna do is like worship. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna worship. It's gonna be the most filling23:05 experience that we've ever had that's ongoing forever and ever. Amen. Worship alone changes us. It satisfies us like nothing else. It's what you were designed23:17 and created for. It changes our perspective, our focus, our heart, our peace. When you're worshiping the Lord, you can experience greatness in your life even if nothing around you or the people around you never change.23:29 And that's what he says in verse 17. I love this because God's so practical. He tells him again, you shall not make for you shall make for yourself no molten gods. Here's what he says. Don't do23:41 what you already did. Don't go back to the gods that you once served. You already made a golden calf. Don't go make another 1. Some of you are tempted to go serve the gods that you served in grade school or the gods that23:53 you served in high school or the gods that served in college or the gods that you served last decade. Here's the truth. God is a forgiving, loving God. He's willing to forgive your whole past. And then he would say this,24:03 so don't go back. Don't go back. Crush that. Put that out of your life. I know you experienced that. I forgive you for that, but now come with me. Let's go on a journey. Worship me. Put me in the center24:15 of all that you are. So keep in mind, God's presence doesn't show up just so we can get all giddy about his presence showing up someplace and get on a plane and fly there and be like, oh, it's cool. God's presence24:27 doesn't show up so that you'll tingle. God's presence doesn't show up so you feel cool. God's presence shows up because he yearns for your life to worship him with everything that you24:39 are. That's the benefit and the purpose of his presence. He wants more worshipers. Why do we share the gospel? Why do we want to see people saved? So we have more worshipers. Why do we come to church so we can grow in24:49 our ability to worship with our lives. And I can tell you this. I mean, I've been in lots of services over the time. Music may not do it for you in every place. I mean, the speaker may not do it for you in every place. I25:00 mean, you know, the routine or ritual you go may not do it, but I'm telling you this, when the presence of God shows up, it doesn't matter where you are. I was in a church in Post Texas 1 time. It was the25:12 pastor's last Sunday there after being there for 3 years. You know how many people were in the church to say goodbye to him? Everybody came. There were 24 people there, including me. And the presence of the Lord was25:24 so strong calling me to ministry in this little West Texas town that I cried so hard my contacts popped out of my eyes. And I don't even remember what he preached on, but all I remember is this little old lady who was25:34 like 80 afterward. She came up to me, it was just me and she's like, y'all want some saline? And I'm like, yeah, I guess I do because I need to get my contacts back in my eyes. But God was speaking to me so deeply about25:45 my calling to ministry, but I wasn't expecting it. Especially in a church, the way they started worship was the son of the pastor said, what hymns y'all wanna sing? Somebody said amazing grace. So he played that and we25:54 sang that. I don't remember what the pastor spoke on. I know that God was speaking to me about my calling to preach the word and I was undone. That's presence.26:06 That's a benefit. We talked about dedicating time. We talked about dedicating devotion. We talked about saying, Lord, change me. When that is your heart, you will experience the presence of God and here's why he does it,26:17 so you'll worship him better. That's number 1. Here's number 2. God's presence not only empowers allegiance to the worship of God, God's presence empowers alignment to the ways of26:29 God. Alignment to the ways of God. Not only allegiance to the worship of God, but alignment to the ways of God. Notice what he says in verse 18, he's gonna tell them how to worship. You shall observe the feast of the26:38 unleavened bread for 7 days you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of a bib for in the month of Habib you came out of Egypt. Habib would be around March or April. He says,26:50 the first offspring from every womb belongs to me, all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. You shall redeem with a lamb, the first offering from a donkey. And if you do27:02 not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear me appear before me empty handed. What's he doing? He's saying, I'm gonna prescribe to you the way I wanna27:13 be worshiped and I want you to worship like this. I I want you to do exactly what I'm telling you. The New Testament tells us how to worship. New Testament says, go to a place where the word of God is read. Go to a place27:23 where the word of God is proclaimed. Go to a place where the worship of God is prominent. Go to a place where people gather and pray. Go to a place where people are committed to gathering together. Go to a place where27:34 people are committed to reaching the lost. Go to a place where people are committed to the glory and honor of my name. I mean, he tells us and spells it out. For Israel, here's what he tells them. You're gonna celebrate27:44 3 festivals. This is the first 1, the feast of the unleavened bread. For 7 days during this festival, eat unleavened bread. Now you can imagine, you're 1 and be like, okay, we'll eat unleavened bread. You're 11. What are27:53 you gonna say? Dad, why do we have to eat this unleavened bread every day? Can't we just cheat 1 day? No. Why? Because this is what God prescribes for us to worship his28:05 name. Here's what I want you to do. And then he says this, every bit of prosperity you have, it comes from me because this is an agricultural society. Hey, when your lambs give birth,28:17 when your donkeys give birth, the first 1 belongs to me. I want you to sacrifice your first to me because I want you to know that when you prosper, I'm the 1 that's bringing you prosperity. I know most of us28:29 don't struggle with, you know, breaking the neck of a donkey versus giving a lamb. What was he saying? He was saying, since donkeys are good creatures for working, I'll let you keep the donkey, but you're gonna need to28:40 redeem it with something, so bring a lamb. In other words, you can't just receive blessing from me without giving me the worship and honor I deserve for what I'm giving to you. And by the way, when it comes to your28:51 children, I want you to present them to me. I don't want you to offer them as a sacrifice like pagan nations do in killing their babies. Want you to offer them to me and dedicate them to me so that you will know that29:02 your family belongs to me and that the next generation belongs to me because God believes in the family for the propagation of the gospel. So dedicate him to me. That's kind of what Hannah did for29:14 Samuel. She said, if you give me a son, just give me a son, I'll dedicate him to you. She dedicated him to the Lord. He became the first prophet of the nation of Israel. Dedicate your kids to me, he says. Then he says29:25 this. He gets into the Sabbath. He says in verse 21, now notice this, you shall work 6 days, but on the seventh day you shall rest. Even during plowing time and harvest, you29:37 shall rest. Now we've talked about rest before. Rest does not mean sitting on your laurels and doing nothing. Rest means being reminded of and reflecting on all the goodness that God has done in your life. That's29:48 rest. So he says from Friday night at dusk until Saturday night at dusk, that's a day set aside to me. And what you're gonna do on that day, you're gonna worship me, you're gonna remember all I've done for you during the30:00 week, you're gonna give me honor and worship and praise, you're gonna pause. And he says this, even during the busy seasons, even when it's plowing and harvest season, and you say, well, thank goodness I'm a New30:11 Testament Christian, I want to keep the Sabbath. Man, praise the Lord. The principle still applies. Is there a day you set aside a week to give God your best? Even during the busy times,30:23 even when your kids are at summer camp, even during the sports seasons, even when you're on holiday, even when it's the summer, even when I can't, even when oh, it's ski season now, I'm gone for 3 months, it's summer I'm30:35 out for 2 months, it's kids fall basketball season, I'm out for another. No matter what, if you're gonna walk in God's ways, you have to do what God wants you to do. You can't experience his30:46 presence just automatically. I mean, there's times God touches us uniquely because he's gracious and he does that, but if you're gonna experience his ongoing presence in your life, you have to walk in God's30:58 ways. You have to preference him. I think a New Testament equivalent would be coming to church, but not coming to church, not driving to church, not sitting at church, not being skeptical of church, not saying, well,31:10 I'm here. Hope I hope it's a good message. I'm here. I hope they'll sing the songs I like. Well, I'm here. No. Coming to contribute, coming to serve, coming to build, coming to be poured into, coming saying, Lord, change31:21 me, coming to say, who can I bless today and who can I pour into today? Lord, I'm making this central. I'm I'm making this what my family does because we're gonna be all about you as a family. Then he31:33 talks about the 2 other festivals. You should celebrate the feast of weeks, that is the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of the ingathering at the turn of the year. So you had the feast of the unleavened31:43 bread, then you had the the feast of weeks, which was called the feast of harvest or the feast of Pentecost. It'll be at the beginning of the season where you'd bring your first fruits to God. When your crops blossomed,31:52 you would bring God your first and your best. And then the feast of the ingathering, which was in early autumn where you would also bring more of your crops. So 3 times a year, you're gonna worship in this way. And32:02 notice what he says. Verse 23, 3 times a year, all your males, we already studied all this, all your males are to appear before the Lord, the God of Israel. So 3 times a year guys, during these weeks,32:14 you go to Jerusalem and you worship me. You do that. Why? Because you're modeling for your family that the Lord is the most important worship in your life.32:27 Guys, today, model it for your family. If you're married, you lead your family to church because they need to see daddy saying, I believe Jesus is Lord, and as a family, that's what we're gonna prioritize.32:39 If you're a single guy, you're gonna model it because you're gonna be here saying, I love Jesus and I'm a single guy and I preference the Lord. Gals, if you're looking to get married, look for the guy that's already32:49 coming to church. Don't date the guy who never did until they dated you and then you're like, well, goes to church now. You don't want that dude. You don't want that brother. You want the brother that's been sitting32:59 under anointed preaching for a while that can already tell you and when you start dating him, he's leading you to church. He's telling you where to go because he knows the ways of the Lord. Now I know33:11 what the guys would say. The guys would have said 2000 years ago what they're gonna say right now. Watch all these girls out there. Oh, Right? It's good. Because guys are gonna say, man, I gotta work. I can't I can't I33:22 can't leave I can't turn the company over. I mean, not gonna make any money during those 3 weeks. I can't take it. I mean, what if somebody breaks in and take I gotta take care of my family. I gotta be around. God knows33:32 that. So what does God say? God says this, you appear before the Lord. He says in verse 24, for I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders and no man shall covet your land33:43 when you go up 3 times a year to appear before the Lord. What does God say? Not only will I protect your family and not only will I protect your crops, I'll expand your borders. What's that mean? If you33:55 do what God wants you to do, he will enlarge your influence. If you do things in the way that God wants you to do them, he will expand things for you. Business guy, listen up. Business woman, listen34:07 up. If you prioritize the worship of the Lord, that is the secret sauce for your business expanding. It's praying and saying, Lord, this is your business and I'm bringing you the first fruits34:19 of my business and I want you to bless it and do all this and I'm giving it to you because you own it all and you give and you can take away and it's all yours and I just want you to be honored. That's when God begins to34:30 expand your influence because then God knows that you know that he's the 1 that's giving you the blessing and it's not just you looking for more stuff to hold into your hands. Amen? That's the34:42 principle that he's teaching them. He's like, hey, you gotta walk in my ways and this is the way I want you to walk. I want you 3 times a year, men, you come and do this. Then he says this, you shall not offer the blood34:53 of my sacrifice with leavened bread nor is the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover to be left over until morning. He's reminding them of what it was like when they did the Passover. They finished the meal. They did35:05 all this. He's prescribing the ways to worship. It means we need to do worship the way God prescribes for us to do. Then in verse 26 he says this, you should bring the very first of35:17 the first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. What was he telling them? Most of them were an agricultural society. Most of them were shepherds. They were farmers. They were herders. He was saying35:27 this, when you prosper, you bring me the first of your prosperity. That's what it looks like. Again, most of us say, thank goodness I was a new covenant Christian. I'm not responsible for any of that.35:39 Well, here's the reality. Here's the reality. You don't have to tithe. I mean, I'm not sinning if I don't tithe? No. You're just not worshiping.35:53 Because for where your treasure is, will your heart be also and if can't worship the Lord with the first fruits of your money, you're not worshiping. If the Lord doesn't have your pocketbook, and some of you are saying,36:01 well, good thing I don't have a job yet. If you have any income at all, you babysit and make 10 bucks, a dollar should go to the Lord. I mean, get in the habits because if you're faithful with little, you'll be faithful36:12 with much and tithing has nothing to do with God needing your money. Tithing has to do with your heart giving worship to God and walking in his ways. That's what it looks like. So those of you that36:24 are angry with me for saying that to you, you're probably angry because you're not worshiping and you just got called out. And for those that love the Lord, there's something in you that says, I don't36:36 know if we can trust God with this money or do it, but we're gonna try because I love the Lord and I want him to get the first fruits of what we have. I mean, that's what it looks like. So he's telling them, I want your36:46 heart and if I have your heart, you're gonna walk in my ways. If you walk in my ways, it means everything that you benefit from comes back to me first so that I know that you're recognizing that I'm the 1 that's done it36:56 for you. And then the second part of verse 26, I find most people at Brave don't struggle with. It says, You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. Anybody struggling with that these37:08 days? I mean, here was the deal. I mean, predominantly it a pagan ritual that if you could boil a goat in its mother's milk and your womb wasn't open, this would help open37:20 your womb. It was a superstition that would help in the fertility process. Say, that's silly, I would never do that. How many superstitions do we have in our culture? I mean, I know people that are trying to sell their37:31 house, there's all sorts of superstitions they do. I know people have different trinkets in their homes, superstition that they have. I mean, horoscopes, superstition. I mean, don't read horoscopes. I mean, if you're atShow more
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