Transcript

Sermon Transcript: Authentic Worship

5/8/2023 Jeff Schwarzentraub 45 min read

Pastor Jeff:

Father in heaven, we give You glory, honor and praise, Lord, because You and You alone are worthy to receive it. Lord, we ask that in these moments that we look into Your living and active Word, that You would speak directly to us, because Lord, as a people, we believe that every time that Your Word is preached faithfully and accurately, that You speak directly to us. Lord, we want to hear You this morning. We want to hear You move in our hearts and we want to be changed by Your grace. So now for all who have gathered who desire to not only hear the Lord of the Lord this morning but will believe what Jesus says and who will by faith put into practice what He shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Understanding the design of something is important in order for it to work. I want to tell you this morning, you were designed to worship. Worship is what God created you for. Whether you know it or not, all people are worshipers. It's just who or what are they worshiping? You say even people that are irreligious, even people that aren't Christian, they still worship. You can go to a rock concert of some pagan person and people will be singing all the songs with their hands above the air swaying in unison. Some people worship their job, some people worship money, some people worship a relationship. Worship is when you give your ultimate trust to something, and idolatry is when you give your ultimate trust to that which is an ultimate. Who you were designed to worship is the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever you came in here this morning looking for, I'm telling you that your answer is in greater worship of the Lord.

What you're really wanting is greater worship of the Lord, because here's the reality of worship. When you worship the Lord and when you bring God your best in worship, He fills you with an incredible joy. He fills you with peace in the middle of whatever circumstances you're in. Worship is not about only what you're bringing to Him, it is about what you're receiving from Him when you worship. Now, the reason we need to talk about what authentic worship looks like is because in the history of the church, if there's anything people argue about in church, it's what? Style of worship. Style of worship, how should we worship? Should we use music? Should we not use music? What kind of music should we use? Should we have a pipe organ or a piano, or should we have guitars and drums? How should we do it? What kind of song should we sing? How long should we sing? What should it look like?

I'm not talking about any of that today. I'm talking about worship. I'm not talking about a style, I'm talking about five truths that you need to have in your own heart to see if you're truly an authentic worshiper. An authentic worship means this: authentic means not copied. It means real. It means genuine. It means how do you as an individual, how do we as a body bring collective worship to the Lord? If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a worshiper to the Lord or to wonder, "Do I engage in the truths of what God is actually looking for?" I believe God has a Word for you today. If you'd open up your Bibles to Exodus 30. We're going to be in Chapters 30 and 31 today taking a look at authentic worship. It's really interesting 'cause as I've been studying this text over and over, I think about when people think about the Book of Exodus, people think about this.

They think about Moses floating down the Nile in a basket as a little baby. There's a few scriptures that talk about that. They think about the plagues. There's some scripture about that. They think about the parting of the Red Sea. There's a little scripture about that. They think about all these things that relate to Egypt and their deliverance, but the whole back half of this book is all on how to worship and that God goes to incredible links to tell these people once He gets them into the wilderness and once He's there, "Here's what I'm really looking for. Here's why I called you out of Egypt. Here's who I am. Here's what I want you to know." That's why I just want to affirm you, BRAVE Church. There are very few churches in the country that could explain the entire tabernacle to a group of people that would say, "Give us more."

There's very few churches in the country that could hear about the priestly garments that would be hungry for that and say, "Give us more." I love BRAVE Church because I know you're hungry for the Word and you want to know what God has to say. But I want to give you a little refresher about the tabernacle in case you weren't here when we went over it. So this first slide here shows the inside and the intricacies of the tabernacle. I'm not going to walk through all the pieces of furniture, but what you'll notice today, we're going to talk about that laver, which is outside the tent of meeting, and we're also going to talk about the incense that goes right up before the Holy of Holies. Those are two articles that God is going to add now to the tabernacle, and He's going to spend two chapters putting this together so we'll understand what these two areas are, the altar of incense and that first part out there, the laver. What we're going to take a look at with authentic worship are five truths about authentic worship.

Now, you won't hear me talk about style today. You're not going to hear me talk about preferences today. You're going to hear me talk about why our God is worthy of all your worship today. Out of these five truths I'm not even asking you, remember all five? I'm asking you, what has the Holy Spirit prompted in your life of an area that you can take a greater step of growth in becoming a more true authentic worshiper of the Lord? So let's jump right into the text. In Exodus 30, starting in Verse 1, He says to Moses, now Moses has been getting all sorts of instructions. He says, "Now moreover, you shall make an altar as a place of burning incense." That's that altar of incense you just saw. "You shall make it of acacia wood. It's linked shall be a cubit and its width shall be a cubit. It shall be a square," So that's 18 inches X 18 inches or a foot-and-a-half by foot and-a-half, "and its height shall be two cubits," or three feet high.

"Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with pure gold. It's top on all sides and all around and it's horns, and you shall make a gold molding all around it. You shall make two gold rings for it. Under its molding you shall make them on its two side walls on opposite sides, and they shall be holders for the poles which to carry it. You shall make the poles of a acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put this altar in front of the veil that is near the arc of the testimony in the front of the mercy seat that is over the arc of the testimony. That is where I will meet with you." Now remember, acacia wood is that strong wood, it's going to be overlaid with gold. It's going to have poles because this tent, this tabernacle, this is going to be a portable place of worship for everywhere Israel goes so that they can go as well. Then he's going to talk about what he's going to burn, what incense is going to burn on the altar of incense.

Verse 7 says, "Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. He shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps," so start it in the morning. "When Aaron trims the lamps at twilight or at night, he shall burn the incense. So at morning and night, there shall be a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. You shall not offer strange incense on this altar or burnt offering or a meal offering, and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. He shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations, it is most holy to the Lord." So this offering of incense is to be offered in a way that perpetually not only day and night and all the time goes up to the Lord, but it's going to go up all the time throughout generation to generation to generation to generation. God is so specific.

If you drop your eyes down to Verse 34, He's going to talk about what kind of incense they're going to have. He says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, take for yourself spices, spectate, and onycha and galbanum, spices with pure frankincense. There shall be an equal part of each. With it you shall make incense a perfume, the work of a perfumer, salted, pure and holy. You shall beat some of it very fine and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. The incense which you shall make, you shall not make in the same proportions for yourselves. It shall be holy to you for the Lord. Whoever shall make any like it to use his perfume shall be cut off from his people." So God even goes to great details about the recipe for what this incense needs to be and how it needs to smell for him, and the people are not to use it for themselves.

Like, if you like that, you're not going to put it on your neck. You're not going to go on date night and put this out there. Anybody that does this, it's going to be put out from the Lord. Why? 'Cause this is holy unto the Lord. What is he teaching these people? He's teaching them this, number one, that authentic worship perspires to perpetually seek the Lord. Authentic worship perspires to perpetually seek the Lord. Now, why did I use the word perspires? I used the word perspires 'cause it rhymes with all my other first words that I have today, but I also choose the word perspires because here it's a work to seek the face of the Lord. It's not an easy thing to do.

I meet many people that have come to know the Lord. They're new believers, they're new Christians, and they start making statements like this. "Pastor, I'm so excited. I know Jesus. I will be here every Sunday. I'm going to start reading my Bible every day. I'm going to pray every day. I'll be at every first Tuesday." Oh, man, it's going to be awesome." It's hard to do, isn't it? There's a discipline that goes behind seeking the face of the Lord. Let's make it a little more pragmatic for some of you more seasoned believers. Have you ever got up in the morning wanting to pray and sat down to pray? There's so many distractions inside your heart and so many distractions going on in the world that you can sit there and about 25 minutes later you look at yourself and say, "What am I even doing? I haven't even started praying yet." Does that ever happen to anybody else?

Congregation:

Yeah.

Pastor Jeff:

My friend likes to call it how the devil uses weapons of mass distraction, and they're real. They can be external with somebody that feels a certain way about you or you think they feel a certain way about you or a meeting that you have to have that day or a conversation that you need, and you're sitting down to pray about it. But all of a sudden now you're rehearsing in your mind all the way that that thing's going to go. Then there's internal things about yourself and who you are and who you're not and what you should do. The next thing you know, you've sat down to seek the Lord, or you've sat down to pray, or you've read the Bible and you've read an entire chapter and you've said, "I don't even know what I just read." Why is that? Because it takes work to get into the presence of God. It takes work to see His face.

The reason God wanted to have an altar of incense right before the Holy of Holies as a perpetual reminder, not only day in and day out, night and day with smoke going up all the time, but to be a perpetual reminder for all generations so that Israel, when they saw smoke, they would see exactly that God was receiving the worship from them, that God is always looking to say, "Are my people worshiping me?" I don't know if we can put up that second slide that I had earlier. I did it earlier in the first service, but it's a picture of the tabernacle. There you go. It's a picture of the tabernacle. You can see the smoke coming out of the back on this one. This is what it would've looked like from an overhead view if they would've had a drone or a plane in the first century in that time. But you see the smoke coming up. If you were encamped in Israel, you would've always seen smoke going up.

You would've always known that worship is going up to our God all the time. So what is worship? Worship is not a Sunday morning experience. It's not a Saturday experience. It's not a Tuesday experience. It's a all the time experience that whatever we do in Word or indeed we do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our life is a worship of Him. Friends, it takes work. It takes work, and it takes sweat, and you will perspire to seek the face of the Lord and to do what He wants you to do. It is the work, 'cause I believe that some Christians falsely think that now that I'm a Christian, if God really wants me to grow, I guess he'll just grow me. There's no automatic growth. It requires a responsibility on your part to pursue Him, to listen to Him, to desire what He wants, to put into practice what He shows you. There's a lot of sweat equity that goes into that. It doesn't just happen overnight.

If you meet somebody where you notice the fruit of the spirit in them, they have love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and fruitfulness and faithfulness and self-control, you see all these things in their life. They're gentle. They seem to love the Lord. They're learning new things. I can assure you that they spent time going after the Lord. Some of the men that I appreciated the most when I was in seminary were not the professors that told us about their degrees. It was the guys that were 70s, 80s, some even in their 90s. When they were teaching a class, they would pause and say, "This is what the Lord showed me this morning when I was doing my Bible study," and they would almost be in tears. I remember thinking as a young believer in my late 20s, early 30s, "This is amazing. These guys are 70, 80, 90 years old and they're crying because they're learning new truths about Jesus."

I remember I talked to Professor Howard Hendrix one time, I'm like, "How is it you so much? How do I get to where you are?" his answer was, in typical fashion, "Because I don't do what you do." I'm like, "Well, what do you mean, 'You don't do what I do?'" He's like, "Well, what'd you do this weekend?" I was a youth pastor, and so I told him who I hung out with and what movie we went to see and all. He's like, "Yeah, I didn't do any of that." I'm like, "Well, what did you do?" He goes, "I spent time with my wife," and he goes, "I studied my Bible, and I took notes." I'm like, "Okay." All right. It was a work. There's a desire that has to come from our willingness to get in front of the Lord. It's not automatic.

Just 'cause you show up at BRAVE doesn't mean you're changing. You have to participate in it. Just 'cause you open your Bible doesn't mean you're changing. You have to participate in it. Just 'cause you pray, it doesn't mean you're changing. You have to participate in, and it's work. I always thought there would come like some magic gene at some point in time in my walk. I'm still waiting for it. I've been a Christian for about 34 years now. I'm still waiting when it's going to get easy, when I'm just going to wake up in the morning and the heavens are going to part. I'm going to hear angels singing and be like, make my way to my chair in my office and just be like, "I can't wait to pray."

But that's not how my life works. It's not how your life works. There's things that are happening, there's things that are going on. There's disruptions and distractions and all these things, and it takes a discipline to say, "I got to get after this. I got to go after the Lord." That's why a study of Jesus Christ is so fascinating. Mark 1:35 says, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went to solitary places where there He prayed." His discipline all the time was to get up and go seek the face of His Father. When he was 12, what'd He say when His parents found Him in the temple? "Did you not know I needed to be in My Father's house?" When He picked His 12 apostles, He stayed up all night praying on the cross in Gethsemane. He's praying, He's praying, He's praying, so much so the only thing we have recorded of His disciples of Lord teach us is what? Lord teach us to-

Congregation:

Pray.

Pastor Jeff:

... pray. How is it that that's your drawing card? That's where you go and He would say this, "I and the Father are one. If you've seen Me, you've seen My Dad. I and the Father are not one. You and the Father are not one." How much more discipline does it take on our part to go after the Lord? By the way, don't ever lose this. Don't ever forget, we say the A in brave stands for authentic and relationships and it is, it's being genuine. It's not being false. It's not being copied. It's not being what everybody else thinks you need to be, but being authentic in relationship starts with your authenticity, with your father. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength so that you can love your neighbor as yourself." If you can't be authentic before God and pour out your heart before God and cry out before God and share with God, "God, I've been trying to get over this sin for X amount of time and I can't do it. Lord, I'm coming to you. I've asked, I can't change myself."

Then you hear the voice of the Lord say, "I know that. That's what I've been waiting for you to say. You've been trying for ages. Now let Me do it. Let Me show you the steps you need to take. Let Me show you what you need to do." Do you ever cry out your heart before the Lord? Do you ever pour out your heart before the Lord? Do you ever tell Him what you're upset about or disappointed in, or is it not a relationship? Is it just a religion for you? "Well, He's God and I'm here and I don't need to ... I pour my heart out before the Lord. I tell Him what I'm excited about. I tell Him what I'm angry about. I tell Him what I'm frustrated about, and I tell Him ... You can speak into any of those areas because I'm not even telling you that they're right. I'm just telling you who I am and I want to make sure that we're having a genuine relationship and that it's authentic. It takes work to be authentic.

When you think about all the people that you know, it's important for you to be authentic and the same and all those relationships, but the people that know you the most will give you a resume as to whether you're being authentic or not. "Yeah, I see what you say, but I watch what you do." But when you're close to somebody that says, "I see what you say and yeah, you're that you're, you're growing. I see you trying to get closer and closer all the time," that's authenticity. God wants us to become more authentic with Him so that we in turn can become more authentic with others and authentic worship, authentic worship perspires. It works at perpetually seeking the face of the Lord. Amen. Number two is this: authentic worship, not only perspires to perpetually seek the Lord. Number two is this, authentic worship requires, it requires your financial resources. It requires your financial resources. Now, don't leave. Just hang with me, okay? It requires your financial resources. Notice what he says to Moses in Verse 11.

The Lord also spoke to Moses saying, "When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord. When you number them so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone who is numbered should give half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel that is 20 garahs, half a shekel is a contribution to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered from 20 years old and over shall give the contribution to the Lord. The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel when you give the contribution to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves, you shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel, and she'll give it to the service of the tent of meeting that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord to make atonement for yourself." So here's what he requires. This is Israel now, this is not us. This is Israel.

He's telling Israel every person, rich, poor, when they get counted, every person is going to give how much? Half shekel. Doesn't matter if you're a billionaire, you give a half shekel. Doesn't matter if you don't have anything, you better come up with a half shekel. Why? Because that's what's going to protect you. I've numbered you, you've called your numbers out. This is who you are. Now, you're responsible to bring this to me. When you bring this to me and you give me this shekel, I'll make sure that you're taken care of. I'll make sure that you have this provision. All throughout the Old Testament, God had them give tithes. Tithes means 10th, a 10th of what they had.

On different festivals and all the different things going on, you could average, the average Israelite would give about 23 1/3% third percent of their income to the temple every single year. Now, many of you're saying, "Well, praise God, I'm a New Testament Christian 'cause Jesus paid it all. It's finished. I don't have to give God anything," and you would be right. We don't charge for church. We don't sell seats. If we sold seats in church, the ones back there would be way more expensive than the ones up here. It's the opposite of sporting event, but we don't charge for that. But what does God require? On the Old Testament, God says in Malachi 3, "Test me in this."

It's the Old Testament equivalent of the triple dog dare like. "You're robbing me with tithes and offerings. Bring me the whole tithe. Bring it to me and see if I don't take care of your land. See if I don't take care of you, see if I don't make sure you have everything you need." Now, as New Testament Christians, we say sometimes, "Well, that's Old Testament. We're not under the law, we're under grace. I don't need to tithe." I would say, "Okay, we can make that argument. I can argue that with you." However, when I look at the Old Testament and I say, "Hey, thou shalt not murder." I look at the New Testament. Jesus didn't abolish murder. He said, "Don't even call your brother an idiot." Old Testament, "Do not commit adultery." "I'm a New Testament Christian." Okay, you're a New Testament Christian. "Don't even look lustfully with your eyes or think something in your heart."

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Old Testament, "Tithe, 10%." New Testament, "I own it all. Be generous to me with all that you have." So if the Old Testament's 10%, the New Testament's 100 in everything that you own and every way that you give is a reflection of your worship to the Lord. That's why I say as a New Testament Christian, a tithe is a great place to start. It's a great place to start. Now, before I went into the ministry, I worked a job. I never tithed. I was like, "I'm not doing that. I don't really feel like that's that important to my life." But do you know how many scriptures there are even in the New Testament about money? Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is there will your heart be also." If you look at your bank statement or your financial statement for your credit card throughout the month, and you look down that list, I promise you, where you give the most money, you've thought about more. You care about more. You think about more. That's why God says, "Well, where should it go?"

It should go to your church. Why? Because that's where you're getting spiritually nourished. Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Your local church is where you're hearing the Word of God, being fed the Word of God. It's preserving your soul until you meet the Lord. It's of inestimable value. When you give to the Lord, what you're saying is, "Lord, You came to the earth, You became incarnate flesh. You fulfilled the law. You died on the cross for all my sins. You rose from the dead. You gave me life abundantly. I had nothing to do with it. Hey, my gift back to You could never, ever repay You. But it's a way of saying first and foremost, You are getting my best." Here's the thing, when you give to the Lord that way, which I started doing as about a 25-year-old, and part of my reason for doing it was the Malachi 3, "I'm going to test you in this 'cause I'm hardly making any money and I know I'm going to run out.

Lord, if I run out, I'm quitting the ministry. I'm going to get a real job." Not only did I never run out, He always took care of all my needs, and I'm not just talking financial, I'm talking every kind of way. I don't worry about money. I'm never worried about money. I didn't worry about money when God called me to be an evangelist and we had to raise support to do it. I'm like, "Lord, I'm not asking people for money, You can provide for me. If You don't, then I'm not going to do that anymore." When we moved out here, I'm like, "I don't know if anybody's coming to the church, but Lord, You're the same source. So You got to provide for me and my family, 'cause now we got a different vehicle to ... God's never failed. He'll never fail. Now, for some of you that are here and say, "I can't afford to tithe. We got this bill and this bill and this," you're always going to have that. People that don't tithe, they're always anxious about money because you think it's yours.

I'm here to tell you today, it ain't yours. Jesus didn't need their money in the Old Testament. Jesus doesn't need your money in the New Testament, what does Jesus want? He wants your heart. He knows if first and foremost, He gets your resources, your financial resources, He has your heart. Some of you will say, "Well, I don't see the difference between money and my heart." I listen to some people, they like to gamble. They like to play poker, all this kind of stuff, and I'm like, "What?" "But I don't do it for the money. I just do it for fun." I'm like, then do it with monopoly money, see if you have as much fun 'cause you won't, or you really are having fun," 'cause there's something about money that's attached to our heart. We start thinking more about how we can have more. By the way, I know I'm talking to the wealthiest people in all the world comparatively, even if you say, "I have nothing," you have clothes on your back and most of you have a place to live.

If you don't, you have people that are here that will help you. We're living in a wealthy area here, and God's saying, "I want this." That's what Jesus was telling Israel, "I want this and I want this," and He was telling them how to tithe and how to resource the temple and do all that. Why? 'Cause He didn't want them to rely on their own earnings. He wanted them to rely upon Him. One way that you're a worshiper is not just when you perpetually seek the face of Jesus, but when you are giving of your resources, first and foremost. It's the habit. Jesus gets my first. He gets my best. That's who He is. He's always going to get that. That's not even mine that belongs to Him. Then I'm looking for ways over, above and beyond to see how I can service Him. Now, if you're not generous and you're calculated, here's what you're thinking. "Is he talking 10% net or gross right now? Is he talking 10% goes all to the church or something?" Listen, I'm not talking that way, I'm talking about your heart. How much has Jesus done for you?

What's it worth to you? That's your offering. That's your tithe. That's what it looks like. You're responding to Him saying, "I don't know that you're worth anything this month 'cause I got a doctor bill." That's what you're saying when you don't give. See, when you give, here's what I found. It doesn't mean that when you give God's obligated to give you back tenfold or a 100 fold the amount that you give, it doesn't mean that. I'm not teaching prosperity gospel in the sense that, "Give to God and He'll make you rich." I'm not telling you that, but I am telling you this, you give to God first, and He's your primary source when things come up, which it will for you, whether you give or not, you can tell the Lord, "Hey Lord, it's your problem because it's your money, 'cause I've already shown You that it's Yours, so You got to figure out a way to take care of this and navigate through it, and I'll trust You with it," and God's always good about making those things happen.

Story after story after story people come through, "This happens. This happens. Check happens." Because why? Because you put God first. Worship is seeking His face perpetually. It's requiring your financial resources. Let me read to you from the New Testament what Paul, as he was instructing his protege, Timothy to teach the church. He says in I Timothy 6, he says it like this. I Timothy 6:6 he says, "But Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment." Now, contentment is a word that we don't understand in America at all. It means you're fine where you're at. If you never accumulate another thing, you're good, you're content. It's okay. We'll take people on mission trips all across the world, and they'll be sitting in a place where there's orphan kids. There's 50 of them and they don't have anything, and these kids have huge smiles on their faces and they're so joyous. As Americans we're like, "How can they be joyous? They don't even have stuff?"

I'm like, "They're joyous because they don't have stuff." The older you get, the more stuff you get whether you want stuff or not. Then the older you get, you look to give it away 'cause you, "How'd I get all this stuff?" Stuff will not satisfy your heart. Stuffing your heart keeps the worship of God from being there. Be content. "If we brought nothing into the world, we can take nothing out of it. If we have food and covering with these, we should be content. But those who want to get rich, those who want to get rich, that means money's a motivation fall into a temptation and a snare of many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money," not money, money's not evil. Money is not evil. Have a lot, have a little, it's not evil. "The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil," and some by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Don't yearn for money. If you have it, then just be more generous, and don't be like I used to be, "Lord, well, if I make a lot of money, then I'll be generous." Be generous now. If you're faithful with little, you'll be faithful with much. If you're not faithful with little, you'll be just as unfaithful when you get more. If you're the kind of person, "If I win the lottery," by the way, don't play the lottery, you're not going to win, "but if I win the lottery, Lord, then I'm going to give all this money away." You won't. You won't give any larger percentage if you win the lottery than what you do right now. You'll spend it the exact same way that's why worship requires your resources, because when you're giving to God and you're telling the Lord, "Hey, everything I have is Yours. You gave us this first. I'm telling You, Lord, You're in charge of my health. You're in charge of my resources. You're in charge of everything I need this month.

Lord, I don't even know if I'm going to come through, but I'm going to trust you and here we go, and let's do the ... You start living that way, you will see God come in ways that you've never seen. That's worship. Giving is an act of worship. Number three is this, authentic worship desires transformation by God's presence. Authentic worship desires transformation by God's presence. Authentic worship is not just, "I'm going to sing songs to God." Authentic worship is, "I want God to change me. Notice what he says starting in Verse 17, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'You shall also make a labor of bronze.'" That's the labor that we talked about, the basin out front, "With its base of bronze for washing, and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. Aaron and his sun shall wash their hands and their feet from it." Why their hands and their feet? It's the only part of their body that wasn't covered. So symbolically, they're washing their hands with this water to show that it's ceremonially clean.

"When you enter, Aaron, the sun shall wash their hands and their feet from it. When they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die." Was that an important washing? I think it was, "For when they approach the altar to minister by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to the Lord, so they will wash their hands and their feet so that they will not die, and it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and for his descendants throughout their generation." So what are they called to do? "Hey, before you go in the tents of meaning, you better make sure your hands and your feet are ceremonially clean or you're going to die." This is a big deal. You're representing the Lord and so you better make sure that's what's going on. Now, if you think about the tabernacle the way it was set up, there was the bronze altar out front. That's where the blood sacrifice took place.

That would be the equivalent of justification. That's where Jesus came and bled and died and laid down his life, and you've been made right with God. But then you have this laver and this washing, this represents what's called sanctification. So there's justification and sanctification. Let me explain. Justification happens at the time you repent of your faith and you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that He's the Christ, the Son of the living God, and you welcome him into your life. You've been justified. That means you've been judiciously told you're in. Your sin is completely forgiven in total. Then there's a day where you meet Jesus in heaven, that's called glorification. That's when you become like Him and you don't have sin in your body anymore. You won't even know how to sin. That's glorification, that's glory.

In the middle we have what's called sanctification, which is Jesus says we're holy. Jesus declare us righteous and true and good. Jesus says we're perfect because the Father sees us through the lens of His Son. However, in our lives, there are ways that we're not behaving in accordance with how Jesus sees us. So there's this progressive growth or progressive sanctification or this progressive moving ahead in sanctification so that my outside aligns with what Jesus already sees on my inside. That starts through His Holy Spirit being deposited in my life at the moment that I believe, and it continues until I meet Jesus Christ face-to-face. So for all of us here, if every single person has repented and trusted Jesus and is justified, none of us are glorified, so you know what that means? We all have ways of growing inner identity together. There's something in our life that's still not perfected yet.

There's something that's still not being worked out just right yet, and it's different for you than it is for me. Here's what we falsely think. We falsely think, "Well, I'm pretty good," or we think, "Well, I'm to a place now when I look at a cross section of the United States for most Christians, I'm at the peak end." That's not worship. Worship is when I go before the Lord and I say, "Search me and try me and know my anxious heart and see if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting. Hey, God, I know there's got to be things in the way I think about things, my emotions, the things I say, the things I do, they're not aligned with what you want me to be. Perhaps sometimes they're glaringly obvious and perhaps other times they're hidden." I'm saying to the Lord, "Lord, You don't want me to stay where I'm at. You want me to reflect more of your glory in my life? What do I need to change? What needs to look different from me?"

That's what that bronze laver was representing. It was the washing, it was the continual washing. So you ask yourself the question, "When do I get to the place where I can stop washing, stop growing in Christ?" When you meet Him, He'll tell you, "Stop. You're arrived. You're here. Until that time, all of us have massive room for growth and that while God sees us as perfected and perfect on the inside, outwardly, we don't always display what our true identity is. God's wanting us to live in that alignment for transformation, and that comes through His presence. Notice what He does with this anointing oil in Verse 22. "Moreover, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Take also for yourself the finest of spices of flowing myrrh 500 shekels and a fragrant cinnamon, half as much, 250, and of fragrant cane, 250, and of cassia, 500 according to the shekel of sanctuary and of olive oil a hin. You shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume mixture, the work of a perfumer, it shall be a holy anointing oil.

With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the arc of the testimony and the table and its utensils and the lamp stand and its utensils and the altar and its incense, and the altar of the burnt offering and all of its utensils and the labor and its stand. You shall also consecrate them and they shall be most holy. Whoever touches them shall be holy. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may minister as priests to me. You shall speak to the sons of Israel saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on anyone's body, nor shall you make any like it in the same proportions. It is holy and it shall be holy to you. Whoever shall mix any of it, like it or whoever puts it on any layman shall be cut off from his people.'"

So this anointing oil, much like the incense that we saw has to be made just right for God, and then what does it mean? It means they were going to anoint every part of this tabernacle. Anoint means to smear or to rub. They were going to take this oil, they were going to rub it on every piece of furniture in there, all the walls, all the curtains. You remember from last week, how they put it all over the priests so that they would be anointed. It was symbolic of their anointing of the Lord. Anointing literally means consecration. It means to be set apart for the service of the Lord. It's to allow God's presence to reign and rule in that area.

Here's the question: If in this time in history, Israel experienced God through the tabernacle, and then they experienced God through the temple, and then Jesus came who tabernacled among us and was the presence of very presence of God, where does God dwell now? You are his temple. So what part of your life does God want to anoint and what parts of your life does God want to set apart for his service? Answer, ready? All of it. What you touch, what you smell, what you taste, what you look at, what you listen to, who you're around, what you do, every part of your life is to be consecrated and set apart as holy unto the Lord, which means everywhere you go, all day long, every day, you should not be embarrassed by who sees you or what is being done because in every aspect that you're doing it, you're bringing honor and glory to the Lord. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Because when you say some religious people say, "Well, on Sunday, you can't act like that. You're in church," and on Tuesdays, first Tuesdays don't act like that. We're in church," but there's other areas of your life that you'd be embarrassed to bring to church. Then why are you engaging in those activities, and why are you behaving in that way? Because what the Lord wants you to know is that all of your life is wholly unto Him, that because of Christ, you've been set apart. You've been anointed and you've been consecrated to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in everything. In all that you do, you're representing Him. It means wherever you go, you're representing Him. In whatever you do, you're representing Him. If you're a student at school as a sixth grader, you represent Him. If you're a mother, you represent Him. If you're a father, you represent Him. If you're a husband, you represent Him. If you're a wife, you represent Him. If you're single, you represent Him. What's He looking for? He's looking for your total consecration to Him. He's looking for your worship.

Here's why we don't do that, 'cause we're looking for things to happen to us in this world, "Well, once God gives me my spouse and I know who that is, and then I'm going to really start worshiping." "Once God gives me that child I've been wanting, then I'm ready to worship." "Once God gives me that house, then I'm all in." "Hey, once God gives me that job," before you ever get that, just become a worshiper of the Lord. Pursue Him. Seek Him. Give to Him 'cause if you're a worshiper of the Lord and you give yourself to the Lord as a single and you're looking for a spouse and you meet somebody who's a worshiper of the Lord, your chances of having a solid marriage increase exponentially. You take somebody that doesn't worship the Lord and you marry them and you think their job is you're going to worship them and they're going to worship you and you guys are going to be happy, you think you're miserable as a single now, you'll be miserable by a exponential factor when you get married. It's quiet in here, but there's some people that would say a hardy amen to that.

Congregation:

That's right. Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Be a worshiper. You're looking for that dream job. If you're not worshiping now, you won't worship when you get it. It will be a curse to you. It won't be a blessing. You want that dream house? Worship now 'cause if you get it'll be a curse to you and not a blessing. If you worship the Lord and He's first and foremost, then God can bring things in and out of your life and when they come, they're called blessings, "Thank you for this," and all blessings are temporary because this world's temporary. So we can recede blessings thanking the Lord because He's the one that brought them, and we're worshiping Him. That's what this is for. Your life is anointed. Your life has Jesus Christ's fingerprints all over you. He wants every part of your life to represent Him. That's why all throughout the Bible, Ephesians and Colossians both say this same thing, "In your former matter of life, you got to put this off and you got to put this on.

This is who you used to be. Put that off. This is who you are now, you're going to put this on." Hebrews 2:11 says it like this, "For both He who sanctifies, that's Jesus, and those who are being sanctified, that's us, are all from one father for which He, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren. Why does Jesus identify Himself with us? He's fully sanctified. We're in the process of being sanctified, but because He's the one doing it, we're brothers, we're sisters. We're in relationship with the God of the universe thanks to Jesus." Authentic worship, it perspires, works at perpetually seeking the face of God. It requires your financial resources. It desires to be transformed by His presence, and I love this one. It inspires your greatest giftings for His greatest glory.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Authentic worship inspires your greatest giftings for His greatest glory. Now, if you are Moses up on that mountain listening to God, describe all the things I want done, if you were gifted like me, here's what you'd be saying, "There ain't no way that's going to happen. Lord, I want to be obedient to you, but I don't even have a picture in my head of how to build something out of Lincoln logs. I don't even know what this is going to look like and perfume, and what do you want? I don't have the ability to do everything you want me to do." Sometimes God's going to ask you to do things, oftentimes God's going to ask you to do things you don't know how to do.

So notice what he does. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses 31 saying, "See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the spirit of God and wisdom and understanding and knowledge and in all kinds of craftsmanship to make artistic designs for working gold and silver and a bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. And behold, I myself have appointed him Oholiab the son of Ahisamak of the tribe of Dan.

In the hearts of all those who are skillful, I have put skill that they may make all that I have commanded you. The tent of meeting and the arc of testimony and the mercy seat upon it and all the furniture of the tent, the table and all its utensils and the pure gold lamp stand with the utensils and the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering, also with the utensils and the laver at its stand, the woven garments as well, and the holy garments for Aaron and the priest, and the garments of his sons with which to carry on the priesthood. The anointing oil also, and the fragrance for the holy place, they are all to make them according to all that I have commanded you."

Congregation:

Yes.

Pastor Jeff:

Here's what he's telling Moses, "Moses, I'm calling you to go tell the people to do this, but good news for you. I've appointed people in the community that know how to do all that stuff. You don't have to do it all." That's why when God calls you to do something on the inside, you're never going to do it all. If you could do it all, you're God. You need God to bring other people along that can do it with you, that can do things that you could never do. Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

That's why when you're hearing the Lord and you're prompted to get involved in doing something you've never done, you need to realize if God's calling you, He's calling others around you to do the same thing. Praise God. If I was Moses on that mountain, this would be probably my favorite chapter I've heard so far. I got craftsmen, I got perfumers, I got all this stuff. All you're going to have to do is walk down the mountain and say, "Build it." They'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Your job is to deliver the goods and tell people what I said. I've already anointed people to get it done. Now, if we believe that every human being has a unique fingerprint, which they do, we believe there's no two snowflakes that are alike. Here's what I want to tell you. When God created and fashioned you, He created you in a unique way to serve Him that nobody else can do and nobody else has ever been able to do.

He's done it and He's given you this opportunity with which to live, which means this to be authentic, you can't worship like anybody else. You can't be like anybody else. Oh, sure. You can have mentors, you can have godly people. You can have people in your life that you're learning under, but you can never be them. There may be things about them that you like or characteristics that you adopt or adapt, but at the end of the day, God made you to be you and bring Him worship the way He wants you to bring Him worship. Can I tell you why this is so important? 'Cause my journey went something like this. When I started feeling called of God to serve in ministry vocationally full-time when I was about 19 years old and wrestled with God for about four or five years, I didn't want to do it because in my mind, that meant this. I grew up in a Methodist church. Pastors were usually older and older being probably my age or older, but I was 20, 20 years old.

I remember thinking, this was my thought as a 20-year-old, "If I become a pastor, it means I'm going to have to wear a clerical robe, which is like a dress, and I'm going to have to go to old women's Bible studies," meaning if you're over 50 or 60, that was considered old to me at the time, "I'm going to have to pretend that I like it and I don't want to do any of that." So I felt hemmed in like God's calling me to ministry, "But there's no way I'm doing that. That sounds like the worst job on the planet." But as I wrestled with the Lord and kept pouring up my heart to Him, here's what He said, "Jeff, all I'm asking you to do, can you be you and tell other people about me?" "I can do that," but I can do it in a way that none of you ever can. You can't be me. You know what? You can do it in a way I can never do. I can't be you. The problem that we have in church too many times is too many people are trying to become somebody else when they can't even be like the somebody else they're trying to become. God made you to be you.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

It means that you don't have to quit your job and go to seminary and become a pastor. If you're being called, it means this, what is God prompting on your heart to do and what's your next step of faith? You can serve God in a variety, myriads of occupations and vocations. You can serve Him as a mother. You can serve Him as a dad. You can serve Him as a husband. You can serve Him as a wife. You can serve Him as a single. You can serve Him in the business sector. You can serve Him as a teacher. You can serve Him in any number of ways where you can reflect the glory of God in your life. When you're doing what God puts you on the planet to do, there's incredible joy in doing it, and it's not a burden. I don't know if you know this, not I like what I get to do. There's no other church I'd rather be at than BRAVE.

There's nothing I'd rather be doing on Sunday morning than teaching His Word. I love it. It's not a chore to me. It's not hard for me. Talk to a lot of people like, "Oh, man, you got to prepare for the sermon." I'm like, "I love preparing for the sermon. I love studying the Word. I love preaching the Word. I like to talk. I can talk a lot longer than what I give you on Sundays, I promise. It fits my gifting, but it doesn't mean that because I'm a pastor at BRAVE I'd be a good pastor at some other church. There may be other things that they're looking for in their pastor that I'm not good at, but I learned a long time ago, quit comparing myself with other people. By the way, this is a side note. I wasn't preparing to say this. If you're on social media, it'd be a good idea to get off 'cause all that is comparing yourself with other people you're never going to be, and it's going to make you miserable.

Sidebar, somebody needed to hear that. God called you to be you. God called you to be you, be uniquely you. Everybody's always going to try to fit you in a mold 'cause all they can see is what they can see and what God's calling you to be, nobody else has ever done. That's why when we see the stories in the Bible, where do you see slayer of a giant on a job description for a young David? Where's that in the Bible? All the things that God's going to have you do, it's not just what the world sees that you fit into. Be who you are. Use your gifting. What brings you great joy is you honor the Lord with the gifting that He's given to you? If you're able to do that, you're right smack dab in the will of God. Oh, by the way, "I don't even know what my gifting is." That's why cadres are so important. You get in a community with a group of people, they'll see your gifting before you will.

They'll encourage your gifting before you will. That's why it's so important to be in a cadre too, 'cause what's the way we end the cadre? What's that final third as we look forward? Obedience. "Here's what God's calling me to do. Here's where God's calling me to be out among the lost. How do I do that?" Friends, I'm telling you this is so important because most of us were raised in schools where we were taught kindergarten to first grade, first grade to second grade, second grade to third grade, third grade to fourth grade, on and on. "Now you got to do this to get into high school. You grades better be good or you're not going to get into that college. If your college grades aren't good, you're not going to get into that grad school, 'cause you got to go down and got to get ... and you got myriads of people following the world system that are miserable.

Yes, you got guys my age, 52 that are doing a job they absolutely hate because their mom and dad told them when they were 10 they had to do it. By the way, you don't have to stay in that job, you can quit. God will to honor it. But we get trapped because now, "I got to do this because I got to keep affording this, and I got to keep doing this and I got to keep ... You were created to worship the Lord. You were created to honor Him. Like if you can have a school where you teach kids how to be courageous warriors for Christ's name, which is what we're going to do at BRAVE Academy, by the way.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Yeah, teach them all the academic disciplines and teach them about how all that fits together and how God's the ruler over all that. But at the same time, teach them how they're fearfully and wonderfully made, and they're unique and that God has a work for them that only they can do and they can look forward to that. It changes the way you study because you realize God's got something for me here's. It's by grace, we're saved through faith. It's not our own doing. It's a gift of God so that no one should boast. But you know what the next verse says, "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works with God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." He's already formed and fashioned you for great things. You don't have to go searching for it, it will come searching for you. The way you find it is by worshiping Him, and then you realize all the gifts that God's given you.

Here's the question you want to ask, "God, how can I take everything you've given me and give You the greatest glory back with them? What does it look like for You to use my life? I'm willing to do whatever You want for Your glory. If it's here, if it's somewhere else, if it's using this gift or that, I'll do it all for You. I want to make sure that You're pleased with what I'm doing." if you know that the Lord is pleased with what you're doing, there's a lot of things that you can do. For me, I know he's pleased with what I'm doing. This is what I'm called to do. Nobody else may ever be called to do this. That's fine. What are you called to do? See, He's not calling you to be churchy. He's not calling you to be religious. He's calling you to be a worshiper and then let Him live His life in and through you. That's why Colossians 3 says, "Whatever you do, whether in Word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

That means whatever you do just honor Him. Just give God all the glory. You say, "Well, I'm doing a job I can't honor God." Then get a different job. There's myriads of jobs out there. God will take you on a journey. But start with the worship of Him. Honor Him. Let Him inspire you to give your greatest giftings to Him for His greatest glory. Let me give you the fifth point here. Authentic worship does this too. It admires and obeys His statutes. It admires and obeys His statutes. He's going to talk about the sign of the Sabbath for Israel. He said, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel saying, you shall surely observe my Sabbaths for this shall be a sign between me and you throughout the generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.'"

Israel still is observing the Sabbath to this very day. "Therefore, you are to observe the Sabbath for it is holy to you. Everyone who profane it shall surely be put to death. For whoever does work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days, work may be done, but on the seventh day, there is to be a Sabbath of complete rest holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant." Sabbath's important for Israel, Friday night to Saturday night, set apart, no work, honor the Lord, worship His name. Verse 17. "It should be a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever."

In case you're wondering how long it took God to create the world, He's going to tell you, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens in the earth. But on the seventh day He ceases from labor and He was refreshed. The Lord created a whole heavens in the earth in six days, rested on the seventh as a model for us as to how we should live. When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God, which we'll talk about in the coming weeks. What is he telling Israel? He's telling them, "Hey, the sabbath's important." "Why?" "'Cause I want you to spend one day a week worshiping Me." You say, "Well, where's that in the New Testament? We're not under law, we're under grace."

Well, the new covenant, we're in the sabbath of rest, which means we're in Christ all the time, which means I think it's a good model to try to set aside one day a week. But it certainly doesn't have to be Saturday. It certainly doesn't have to be Sunday. But you're setting time aside to worship the Lord, to prioritize Him. Here's what's really interesting 'cause you see how serious God is about the sabbath? That's why the Pharisees, the religious people, 'cause if you're religious, you'll think about it as, "I got to set aside a time. I got to set aside a day. Dates are important, times are important," all this kind of stuff. Jesus comes on the scene, when did Jesus do most of his miracles? On the Sabbath. When Jesus healed that guy with the mud and made a mud pie and put it on his eyes, did Jesus need to make a mud pie to heal the guy's eyes?

Congregation:

No.

Pastor Jeff:

No, but making a mud pie was considered what? Work. What was he doing? He was mocking the religious people of the day saying, "You've turned worship of God into a religious holiday just to dot and check the box." The Sabbath was created for man to refresh in the Lord. When you love the Lord, you'll admire His statutes. When the Bible says this, you'll want to do it. You'll want to appreciate what God does. Early in my Christian life, I would read through the Bible and there were things I would read, and "I love that. Nothing I can do can make God love me any less. He loves me so much. This is awesome." There's other things I saw in the Bible and it would convict me to the court. I'm like, "I don't like this book anymore. Maybe this is a cultural thing, I'm going to shut it." What I've come to appreciate is all of the Word is true.

Even to this very day when I'm reading something where I'm like, "I don't like that. That doesn't feel good to me." I know it's not because God's not good. I know it's because I'm not aligned and that there's things that God wants to change in me. When you can admire the Word of God and when you can say, I want to put it into practice," 'cause guys, the Word of God is only as good as what you'll put into practice. If you come to BRAVE just to hear the Word and to know the Word and to appreciate the Word, it's not enough. You have to obey the Word. Obey it, put it into practice. It's what God's telling you. It's not what somebody else is telling you.

It doesn't matter what I think about how you should obey the Word, unless you're my children. But I care about what God's telling you about how you should obey the word, and I want to help you and encourage you to do that. Amen? This is what he is talking about. Did you notice today as we were talking about all this, how much time we've talked about screaming guitars and organ music and style of worship? When people fight over that, that's just a distraction of the enemy to fight over something that's insignificant. You can worship the Lord with music and without music and with singing and without singing.

You can give God praise. He tells us to sing the Lord a new song. You worship with a new song, you can worship with a traditional song, not getting into any of that. I'm getting into people that are seeking the face of God, people that are wanting to hear from God, people that are giving of their resources to God, people that are being transformed by God, people that are giving their greatest giftings to God and people that are obeying God's statutes. That's what worship looks like. When's that happen? It's not just on Sunday morning. It's for all time, and that's what God wants for us. It's the way I wanted to end today is by being reminded of a meal that Jesus had us take called communion, the body and blood of Christ. It's what celebrated literally all around the world all the time, because this is what brings us together. This is truly why we worship. We love because He first loved us.

We worship because God the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. We worship because we had no way of getting to God, but God wanted to make a way for us to get to Him, so He sent His Son as the bridge. Jesus laid down His life on a cross. He died and He rose from the dead three days later to offer life to anybody, anybody who would know Him. Through repentance of your sin and through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can have life in His name. If you've trusted Him as your personal Lord and Savior, we're going to come up and celebrate this meal together after you hear this song sung over you. So Father, we just give You praise, glory, and honor for today. Lord, help us become true worshipers of You. Lord, even as we hold these elements in our hand, Lord, we just trust that You're going to use them for Your glory and remind us of what You've already done. We give You praise, glory, and honor in Jesus' name, amen.