SPEAKER_00: So we have been going through this Exodus series together, which is really cool.
SPEAKER_00: I've been able to meet with uh Travis and Jared uh almost weekly for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we've been going through the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: And uh you may be wondering, like, man, why have we been in this book so long?
SPEAKER_00: I think we've been in Exodus longer than I worked at my first job.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a pretty long time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but man, what a gift it has been to me.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's the study I didn't know I needed.
SPEAKER_00: It really has been that way.
SPEAKER_00: It showed up for me like that in my life, and it's been so encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if Glenn Power is in this service or the next one, but I just want to give a shout out to Glenn.
SPEAKER_00: He would meet with our teaching cohort.
SPEAKER_00: Glenn, there you are, buddy.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thank you for your heart to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: He has fed us and he has uh cheered us on and he has really just been a huge support.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Glenn, for your heart, for the gospel, for the kingdom, and for coming alongside and helping us with this series in such a big way.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you so much.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you would open your Bibles with me, we're gonna uh look at our anchor passage this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We are, you can flip to the end of the Exodus now.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty cool, right?
SPEAKER_00: We can go to the very last chapter, chapter 40.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't bring a Bible with you, if you don't have one, there should be one in the seat back.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and if you don't own one at all, please take that home with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's our gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna jump into Exodus 40 here.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start in verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put it up on the screen for you as well.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out.
SPEAKER_00: But if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted.
SPEAKER_00: So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, and in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.
SPEAKER_00: So that's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Give yourself a round of applause.
SPEAKER_00: You guys made it through 40 chapters of Exodus, and there it is.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, it feels a little anticlimatic, a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's like, well, what happens next?
SPEAKER_00: And you're right, there's more to the story.
SPEAKER_00: And so you might be saying, well, why such the big deal about Exodus?
SPEAKER_00: What is it about Exodus?
SPEAKER_00: When we when we started this series, remember we said, like, man, if you can get Exodus, the rest of the Bible really starts to come to life for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that uh that really has been true for me.
SPEAKER_00: And so if if you're just walking in today and you feel like, man, I'm here at the end of the movie.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm walking in late.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, any time to jump in the word of God is always a good time.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna recap just a little bit to catch you up.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm hoping by doing that, uh where we are where we're headed will kind of land for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you know the story, most of us do.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Moses is kind of an unlikely figure that God chooses to deliver his people.
SPEAKER_00: He has a big call on his life.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses' life, it starts off kind of shaky.
SPEAKER_00: He starts off as a baby in a basket floating down a river.
SPEAKER_00: His mom sends him because there's the decree by Pharaoh to kill all the firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's Moses, he's floating down the river, and in an early plot twist, he gets rescued by none other than Pharaoh's own daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Plucked from the waters, brought into Pharaoh's palace, uh, and he's raised uh really in a life of privilege.
SPEAKER_00: And he gets a lot of things that his people are not exposed to.
SPEAKER_00: He gets a first class education, uh, he has comfort, he has all the comforts of the world that anyone would want.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens later is Moses as an adult, he starts to come into this identity crisis.
SPEAKER_00: He realizes that he's actually not Egyptian, that he's Hebrew, and his people are being mistreated.
SPEAKER_00: And so this stirs something up inside of him, and he's like, I want to go and write this wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So he heads out of the palace, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes or so, and he sees uh these two guys fighting, and he tries to intervene.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses comes in kind of hot, right?
SPEAKER_00: He has all this pent-up uh ideas and thoughts, and so he comes in pretty hot and he ends up killing the Egyptian guy.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's been free for, I don't know, maybe an hour, and now he's on the run.
SPEAKER_00: And so he flees Egypt and he's running and he's running and he runs out of steam, and he, and I don't know if he just stops, but he he stops at this uh town called Midian.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Bible says that he just kind of starts to fade off into obscurity a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: He starts tending sheep, he gets married, he has some kids.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the interesting thing about the town of Midian uh the name actually means strife.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we have Moses left a land of strife, Egypt, and he flees and he settles in the land of strife.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us can relate to that?
SPEAKER_00: Like when we're fleeing from God, when we're running from our calling, sometimes we're just running from strife to strife.
SPEAKER_00: I know it can feel like that for me sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But here's here's a fascinating thing that God does, and I love this about the story, is that God meets Moses in his strife, right where he's at.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like, hey, meet me over here.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, when you get your stuff together, I got I got it I got something for you.
SPEAKER_00: God comes and meets Moses where he's at.
SPEAKER_00: And he appears as fire in this bush, and he and he calls out to Moses, and Moses is like, What is this strange sight?
SPEAKER_00: I must go see it.
SPEAKER_00: Can't blame the guy.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Yeah, this bush is called my name, it's on fire.
SPEAKER_00: But he notices the observation is that the bush is on fire but not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: So we have this powerful element of fire that could quickly run away, but it's it has a restraint to it.
SPEAKER_00: And so God reveals himself to Moses, he actually gives him his name, The Great I Am.
SPEAKER_00: I am the God who has been, the God who will be.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses, you're the guy that I'm calling into this story.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses has a host of excuses like we all do.
SPEAKER_00: I stutter, I don't know if you saw the uh top ten most wanted in Egypt, but I'm at the top of the list.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm on the run.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sure I'm the guy?
SPEAKER_00: I know other guys.
SPEAKER_00: And God's like, you're perfect because you think that you're disqualified.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm the one who qualifies you.
SPEAKER_00: Would you trust me?
SPEAKER_00: And the ultimate promise there, what God says to Moses, will echo out through the entire Bible, and he says, Moses, I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses captures early on in this ancient text a foundational truth that God's presence is the true reward.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament will later say, Through Christ I can do all things.
SPEAKER_00: When he is with us, we can do the impossible, because we have a God who works and operates in the impossible things.
SPEAKER_00: And so Moses believes God.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Okay, I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: And then God tells him the next hardest thing.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, I actually need you to go back to the place you just came from.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us know that when we want to go forward and we want a real change in our life?
SPEAKER_00: God often tells us to go back to the place that we're running from.
SPEAKER_00: We go back before we can go forward, and that's true in Moses' life.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Go back to Egypt, that place that you ran from.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: So he does, and he says, I want you to go to Pharaoh, the guy who's in charge, the most powerful guy on the face of the earth, and I want you to tell him something.
SPEAKER_00: What does he tell him?
SPEAKER_00: What was the phrase?
SPEAKER_00: Remember?
SPEAKER_00: Let my people go.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses goes in, he says the line, let my people go.
SPEAKER_00: And Pharaoh's like, yeah, it's mildly interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of funny, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm chill on that.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, why don't you go back to work and I'm gonna make things even harder for you?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that another truth?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we're like pursuing God and trying to make change, and then opposition comes, and it's like, man, maybe I should just go back to where I was.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses recalls God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm gonna be with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so he continues, and what it really sets the stage for is like this cosmic showdown between God and Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: And enter the ten plagues, there's frogs, there's rivers of blood.
SPEAKER_00: It gets wild.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and read it if you've never read it.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, Pharaoh humbles himself, even if temporarily.
SPEAKER_00: He lets the people go.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Yeah, get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: They're fleeing, they're taking off, they get cornered at the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like there's nowhere to go.
SPEAKER_00: And God does one of the greatest miracles.
SPEAKER_00: He parts the Red Sea, right?
SPEAKER_00: So the Israelites go across on dry ground, their enemies are swallowed up, and they're on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Yes, we did it.
SPEAKER_00: End of story.
SPEAKER_00: If that was the end of the story, Exodus would only be like four or five chapters.
SPEAKER_00: But we know it's 40.
SPEAKER_00: And so that should tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: There's a journey ahead of the Israelites, and what they will learn in that journey is everything that Exodus is about.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's not so much the destination a lot of times, but it's the journey on getting to the destination that really forms us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're gonna see here with the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: And so last week, um the last couple weeks, we we kind of catch up to what where Moses is kind of more toward the end of the chapter, and he helps deliver the Ten Commandments, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's up with God on Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: It says the finger of God is is sketching out the tablets, and while they're doing that, what do the people do?
SPEAKER_00: They get complacent, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're like, Where is this Moses guy?
SPEAKER_00: He checked out on us.
SPEAKER_00: We should take things into our own hands.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank God none of us do that anymore, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's an old thing.
SPEAKER_00: We don't take things in our old hands.
SPEAKER_00: We perceive God is silent on something, right?
SPEAKER_00: So that's what they do.
SPEAKER_00: They fashion a golden calf.
SPEAKER_00: Why a golden calf?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's a thing to it, but they used, interestingly, the gold, the plunder that they got from Egypt that God kind of gave them as a sign of victory.
SPEAKER_00: And they used the very thing that God blessed them with, and they used it for an idol to fuel their idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: Good thing we don't do that anymore either, right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't take the good things that God has given us and use them for selfish means.
SPEAKER_00: But that's exactly what they did.
SPEAKER_00: Moses comes down from the mountain and he's just like in this righteous indignation.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, What are you guys doing?
SPEAKER_00: You thought we forgot about you?
SPEAKER_00: We were up on this mountain crafting a law of love to give you guardrails on this life that God has destined for us.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what you do.
SPEAKER_00: It's like committing adultery on the honeymoon, right?
SPEAKER_00: They had just received covenant with God, and as quickly as they received it, they broke it.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what here here's something that's easy to kind of pass by is that when the Israelites finally realize that there's a consequence to their sin, to this idolatry, that God's presence might not go with them, when that looms over the camp, like, wait a minute, God actually may not continue to go with us.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that those words were distressing to them and that they began to mourn.
SPEAKER_00: And they stripped off their what?
SPEAKER_00: Their ornaments, the jewelry, their own form of glory.
SPEAKER_00: They stripped it off.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times when we want to see the glory of God, we have to strip off our own glory.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to get low and we have to have a broken heart, a godly sorrow, not a worldly sorrow that just kind of regrets that we got caught or that we're in a bad situation, but a godly sorrow that says, Man, I've broken faith with you, God, and I don't want to go without you.
SPEAKER_00: And they get to this wonderful place where they're like, hey, we don't want our enemies to fall at our feet.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want the land of milk and honey if you're not in it, God.
SPEAKER_00: Man, who are these people, right?
SPEAKER_00: Who are these Israelites?
SPEAKER_00: Man, the journey they've gone on, they've gotten to a beautiful place where they see God as the prize.
SPEAKER_00: They they see what Moses heard and saw at the burning bush, that the greatest reward is God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: And they wouldn't go without it.
SPEAKER_00: And so Moses goes back up the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: We saw this last week.
SPEAKER_00: He intercedes on their behalf.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, God, please don't wipe these people out.
SPEAKER_00: Give us another shot.
SPEAKER_00: And then Moses says something pretty phenomenal.
SPEAKER_00: He tells God, Show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Think about what Moses had seen up until that point.
SPEAKER_00: He saw the Red Sea parted, he saw manna fall from heaven, he saw water from a rock, he saw Pharaoh get wiped out.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: That means he believes God for more, number one.
SPEAKER_00: But I think our our um relationship with this word glory, especially in the English language, I think it really falls short.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Hebrew, the word for glory is kovod, and and and kovod more means like the weight of who you are, your essence, the being.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Show me God, what makes you you.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's not something so much as gonna be a firework in the sky, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, show me, but God actually answers, know me.
SPEAKER_00: And he reveals his character.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm merciful, I'm compassionate, I'm slow to anger, I'm abounding in love to a thousand generations, but I also don't let the guilty go unpunished.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm also just and Moses realizes that the glory of God is that he's merciful, he's compassionate, he forgives sin, but he's also a just God.
SPEAKER_00: And holding those two things in perfect tension is the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because those two things in anyone else's hands get corrupted.
SPEAKER_00: But God, holy and pure, holds these two things perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Moses, that is my glory.
SPEAKER_00: That is my glory.
SPEAKER_00: There is a glory of God that shines bright, and he says, You can't see that part because you'll die.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna tuck you in this rock, and that glory's gonna pass by.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know my character.
SPEAKER_00: And so God does pass by.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is tucked in the cleft of the rock, and and and what happens next is um they they start to come together and they receive the next kind of version 35 through 40 is kind of a rehashing of the tabernacle instructions again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you came across that and you're like, I thought we read this, and you did.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but here's the thing these new instructions, the ears that they're falling on, are a changed people.
SPEAKER_00: And you see the way they respond to these instructions, a spirit of generosity breaks out in the camp.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that Moses is like, hey, we got enough stuff, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Stop bringing stuff for the building of the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: There's a joy, there's like a renewed excitement in the air.
SPEAKER_00: The people are coming, like, we want in.
SPEAKER_00: How can we get in on what God is doing here?
SPEAKER_00: The first uh documented like filling of the Spirit of God lands on two guys, they're like laborers in the camp.
SPEAKER_00: It says they're filled with the Spirit of God to do the work that God called them to do, and then they turn and they're equipping others.
SPEAKER_00: So it's really like this picture, this early picture of a faith community, a church who believes God.
SPEAKER_00: There's excitement, there's enthusiasm, they're bringing their first fruits, and they're turning and lifting up and encouraging one another, and they're going toward where God is calling them.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful picture.
SPEAKER_00: And again, that's where we get, and it's like, okay, that's a great place to end.
SPEAKER_00: Like, could it end there?
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's still Leviticus, and there's still Numbers, and there's still Deuteronomy, and they continue the story.
SPEAKER_00: It can feel a bit like the Rocky uh saga, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're my Rocky fans.
SPEAKER_00: You grew up in the 80s and 90s, and like you watch it in real time, like the whole franchise, right?
SPEAKER_00: And Rocky I feels like that's the end of the movie, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, against all odds, he defeats Apollo Creed, he's like running up the stairs in Philadelphia, right?
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, and the music, and he's like, Adrian, and you're like, that was a great movie.
SPEAKER_00: And then what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, and it's like, man, we still haven't got to Hulk Hogan, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: T, like the Jacked Russian dude, Drago, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, all these things are still to come.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's kind of like Exodus 40, it kind of like ends on a cliffhanger almost.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know they're gotta get to where?
SPEAKER_00: The promised land, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the final destination, and they're not there.
SPEAKER_00: And so, let's see what we could learn from this today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at really uh one thing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to answer one question for us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Why is Exodus such a big deal?
SPEAKER_00: Why all this time?
SPEAKER_00: Why is the story so long?
SPEAKER_00: And I think the Bible is gonna clue us in to why that is.
SPEAKER_00: For one reason, uh Jesus and the New Testament writers think that Exodus is a pretty big deal.
SPEAKER_00: And if they think it's a big deal, I think we should think it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is referenced throughout the New Testament actually more than Abraham, actually more than 80 times.
SPEAKER_00: If you count the Red Sea, the Passover, if you count the tabernacle and their time in the wilderness, these references show up in the New Testament over 100 times.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Jesus, why would the New Testament writers hearken back to the book of Exodus so many times?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible gives us another clue.
SPEAKER_00: This means that Exodus isn't just background information, it's actually a testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 3.5, I'll put this up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: You can jot it down in your notes.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 3.5 is gonna give us a clue here.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, a pretty clear statement on why this is.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 3.5 says this of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, bearing witness.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your neighbor and say, witness.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was a servant and a witness, right?
SPEAKER_00: To what?
SPEAKER_00: What would be spoken by God in the future?
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: This verse sheds so much light on why Exodus is such a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is a servant, and Moses as a witness.
SPEAKER_00: And on their face, it's like, yeah, okay, Moses was a servant and a witness.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's cool.
SPEAKER_00: But again, our relationship with the English language, we get the short end of the stick a lot of times on these words, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like love.
SPEAKER_00: I love Italian food and I love my wife.
SPEAKER_00: Totally two different things, same word, right?
SPEAKER_00: Same here.
SPEAKER_00: These terms for for witness, actually, uh, or servant, rather, um, most of the time, the word servant, actually all of the time, the word servant in in the Old Testament or in the New Testament shows up as just like, hey, uh, you're you're just that, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're a servant, you're doing someone else's job.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, it's the word doos, like bondservant.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But in this uh passage right here, when it's describing who Moses is, they're actually using the word theropon.
SPEAKER_00: And therapon is is the type of witness, uh a type of servant rather, who lives in the king's palace.
SPEAKER_00: It's someone who has intimate knowledge of the king's business.
SPEAKER_00: In so many words, it's a credible witness, right?
SPEAKER_00: I spent a lot of time in courtrooms in my previous career, and I can tell you that there's a huge difference between a credible witness and a non-credible witness.
SPEAKER_00: It'll make a break or case.
SPEAKER_00: And what the Bible is saying here, that Moses is not your run-of-the-mill servant, he was a servant who served the king, and his testimony would actually be legally binding in a court of law.
SPEAKER_00: And so when it says that Moses is testifying, it's saying that his testimony matters and it carries a legal weight.
SPEAKER_00: So we should pay attention, is what the Bible is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to what Moses is the witness to and what he's testifying to.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is Moses testifying to would be the next logical question.
SPEAKER_00: We know he's a credible witness, we know he has something important to say.
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_00: What is Moses saying?
SPEAKER_00: What is Exodus really saying?
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to close out our time together here by looking at two things.
SPEAKER_00: What was the greater thing that Moses was testifying to or bearing witness to?
SPEAKER_00: And the second thing is what does the story of Moses in Exodus warn us about?
SPEAKER_00: Because in Exodus, there's there's encouragements and there's also warnings.
SPEAKER_00: You guys okay with that?
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's do it.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, alright, Moses was awesome.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a diss on Moses, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We uh Moses has a place of honor, and we know that Moses was a deliverer, he was an intercessor, he was a mediator.
SPEAKER_00: Through Moses, God gave instructions for the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: We know that.
SPEAKER_00: And what this really sets up is that whoever the Messiah is gonna be is gonna come after Moses, and whoever is gonna come along and claim to be the Messiah will have to be greater than Moses in all of these areas.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what he's he's setting a very high standard.
SPEAKER_00: Joe Shmo is not gonna be able to come on the scene and say, Hey guys, I'm the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Because whoever's coming to claim to be the Messiah is coming to a people who absolutely know the story of Exodus, they have it memorized the first five books, the Torah.
SPEAKER_00: They know who Moses is.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not greater than Moses, as an intercessor, as a deliverer, as someone associated with the tabernacle, man, we don't got time for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's a high standard.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I want to look at is how is Jesus greater than Moses in these different categories?
SPEAKER_00: Alright, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus as the great intercessor.
SPEAKER_00: So I have these three different categories: intercessor, deliverer, and tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: We know that the Messiah has to be greater than Moses in all three of these categories.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone here think that they could they could fill that?
SPEAKER_00: Any takers?
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone want to give their uh argument on why they they are greater?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's a high calling, right?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, in the most humble, loving, and kind way, will make his case on why he is the greater intercessor, he is the greater deliverer, and he is the greater tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna look at that.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's look at Moses the intercessor.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 17, we're gonna journey back.
SPEAKER_00: Today's the last day, so we're gonna take a look back before we go forward.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 17, if you remember the battle with the Amalekites, Moses intercedes for the people where?
SPEAKER_00: On a hill, right?
SPEAKER_00: You remember where he's holding up his hands, and when he drops his hands, the tide of the battle turns, and his arms get tired, like anyone else's arms would get tired.
SPEAKER_00: And he has his friends come along, right?
SPEAKER_00: Aaron and her, and they come and they hold his hands up together.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful picture of friendship and also interceding together.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing is that later, fast forward to the New Testament, we come across another hill and another intercession.
SPEAKER_00: And this time the hill is called Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: And on this hill, this holy hill, there are three crosses.
SPEAKER_00: The two on the left and the right have guilty men hanging on them, the one in the middle, an innocent man.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just innocent of criminal charge, he's actually innocent of sin.
SPEAKER_00: He is sinless, he is blameless, and he's he's nailed to a cross between two criminals.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a picture of interceding.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and so Moses had friends to hold his hands up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had nails to hold his hands up, and those nails are there because of my sin and because of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's what held Jesus to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference between Moses and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says something else held Jesus on the cross, and that was the joy set before him.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of joy is that joy to see redeemed sons and daughters saved by the blood and saved by the cross?
SPEAKER_00: And so he endured the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that Moses interceded on a hill to win a battle, and we see Jesus interceding on a hill to win the war, to win the war over sin and death, and to give Satan his final blow.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that Jesus is the greater intercessor.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's move on.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the greater deliverer, and some of these kind of run hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus the greater deliverer and sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: So God used Moses to deliver, right?
SPEAKER_00: He delivered the people out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And that was a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: It was a magnificent thing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a thing that we should give glory to God for.
SPEAKER_00: But this delivery was just a physical delivery.
SPEAKER_00: He moved them from one place to another physically.
SPEAKER_00: Their feet carried them, they had to walk, they had to journey.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses led them and he delivered them from one place to the next.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses couldn't lead them all the way.
SPEAKER_00: A spoiler alert for the very end of the story is that Moses actually doesn't get to enter the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: He comes right up to the threshold and it says that he can only see it from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually Joshua who leads the people into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And here's an interesting side note about the name Joshua it's actually translated in the Hebrew to Yeshua, which is the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so Moses brings them up to the door, and Joshua or Yeshua, an early echo, leads the people actually into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And that matters.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have Moses the deliverer, he delivers the people out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at Jesus, the deliverer.
SPEAKER_00: You can write this down, I'll reference this one for you.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 2:14 says that Jesus shared in our humanity, he showed up in flesh and blood, right?
SPEAKER_00: He leaves heaven, comes to earth, so that he would break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and to free those who have lived their lives in slavery by fear and death.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see Jesus with the Bible saying that he's a spiritual deliverer.
SPEAKER_00: He does move us sometimes physically, but first and foremost, he delivers us spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: In the old covenant, sacrifices had to be made over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Yearly, the high priest would go and make atonement for the people, but it was temporary.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like weed killer, right?
SPEAKER_00: I I we moved out to the country.
SPEAKER_00: I was from the city, and I'm like, man, weed killer is the biggest scam.
SPEAKER_00: It's got to be the biggest racket, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because if it actually killed the weeds, why would I have to buy it again?
SPEAKER_00: It's like I buy it over and over and over.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't actually kill it.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta do it over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: It's temporary.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like the sacrifices that were going on at the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: They had to do it over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: But Hebrews 10, I'll put this on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10 verse 11 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again.
SPEAKER_00: And he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sin.
SPEAKER_00: But when this priest, being Jesus, had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: There's no repeats, there's no going back.
SPEAKER_00: Time after time, when he said it is finished, it was finished.
SPEAKER_00: And what signified that is that he sat down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Once and for all, Jesus is the greater intercessor, and Jesus is the greater sacrifice and deliverer.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at our last uh category here, the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God gave Moses very detailed instructions on the tabernacle, and he led that effort.
SPEAKER_00: And we just saw at the end of chapter 40 that God's presence comes down in a cloud and rests in this tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: It worked, they did it.
SPEAKER_00: God approved and he comes and he dwells in their midst.
SPEAKER_00: But one caveat, one thing.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't enter the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't go behind the curtain into the most holy of holies and actually be in God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: There was still this barrier.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, sin, and number two, a physical curtain or a veil that said, you can only come this far.
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, man, Moses again and again, like, get so far.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't get to go all the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's this ongoing lesson that there's something greater.
SPEAKER_00: Something greater is to come, is really what Exodus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Enter Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can put this in your notes again.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of John starts off by saying what?
SPEAKER_00: The word Jesus became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
SPEAKER_00: But that phrase dwelling among us is actually literally translated, tabernacled among us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came and tabernacled, came in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: And the ancient Eastern audience who heard this would have definitely made that connection.
SPEAKER_00: They know the tabernacle, they know Exodus, they know the story of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And so when John says Jesus came and tabernacled with us, he's using that language to make that connection that this is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: He's tabernacling with us.
SPEAKER_00: God's presence manifested through Jesus in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 27 records the physical event when Jesus cries out in a loud voice and gives up his spirit on the cross and says, At that moment, the what?
SPEAKER_00: The curtain of the temple was torn in two.
SPEAKER_00: This curtain that stood as a physical barrier between the people and God was broken the moment Jesus gave up his spirit on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 27 records that.
SPEAKER_00: By how the blood of Jesus, a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain that is what?
SPEAKER_00: His body.
SPEAKER_00: With shame?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: With guilt?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: With excuses on why we're not the guy?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: It says with the full assurance that faith brings.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of faith?
SPEAKER_00: Faith in the risen King, the Messiah Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the greater tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: He is.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he is the greater intercessor.
SPEAKER_00: He is the greater deliverer.
SPEAKER_00: He is the greater sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the greater tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is greater than Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: That is who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we're not dissing Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is to be honored.
SPEAKER_00: He makes the hall of faith.
SPEAKER_00: We know that.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a difference between honor and worship.
SPEAKER_00: We can honor Moses, but worship and praise belongs to one and one only, and that is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Exodus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Why Exodus?
SPEAKER_00: Exodus is the testimony to the coming of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: A greater one is coming.
SPEAKER_00: We fell short in our flesh as Moses and the Israelites who represent us.
SPEAKER_00: We fall short.
SPEAKER_00: But through Christ we enter into the very presence of God, and it gets one step better.
SPEAKER_00: Before Jesus leaves, he says, I will not leave you orphaned.
SPEAKER_00: I will leave you with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And what does the Bible say?
SPEAKER_00: We become living temples, living tabernacles.
SPEAKER_00: Us, we, the people of God, get to possess the Spirit of God in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: How more personal can we get but the breath coming from our lungs that testifies to the goodness of God?
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: How sweet is God! How kind is God to his children?
SPEAKER_00: And so as we close out, church, there are a couple warnings.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, the New Testament refers to the Israelites in their journey as a warning against a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: Primarily, it says a hard heart.
SPEAKER_00: And we saw this idea of a hard heart show up several times in Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: Remember it happened in Pharaoh?
SPEAKER_00: But it also happened in the people.
SPEAKER_00: They saw the Red Sea part, they saw manna fall from the sky, they saw the miracles of God, and then they built a golden calf.
SPEAKER_00: Their hearts were hardened at some point.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, we want to see the signs and the wonders, and they have their place, but it does not take the place of an intimate personal relationship with the living God.
SPEAKER_00: That is what will keep your heart from getting hard and drifting.
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus, we have that.
SPEAKER_00: So the warning from Exodus, it says that if today you hear your voice, it quotes Psalm 95, the New Testament, when talking about the Exodus story, and says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as the Israelites did in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Together, encourage one another as long as it is called today.
SPEAKER_00: And so the remedy against a hard heart that we saw in the book of Exodus is number one, a personal and intimate relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And next is being a part of a faith community.
SPEAKER_00: Because it said, encourage one another.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we get to do when we show up on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: We get to encourage one another.
SPEAKER_00: We get to come alongside one another.
SPEAKER_00: And if you feel like your heart is drifting, like, man, maybe there's some calluses around my heart, it feels hard in some places.
SPEAKER_00: Man, this is the best place to vocalize that.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, you you'll be astounded at what can break off of you when you put voice to it and you speak it out and you cast it out and you start breaking off agreements with lies, and you can do that here.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a safe place for you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I feel like my heart is hard.
SPEAKER_00: Just say it.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I've been struggling with unbelief in this area.
SPEAKER_00: Just say it.
SPEAKER_00: Just say it and break it off.
SPEAKER_00: Let us encourage one another so that our hearts do not drift.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close out with something.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, worship team, prayer team, would you join me on stage?
SPEAKER_00: Um, again, looking at Moses' life, it's like, man, he only gets so far.
SPEAKER_00: He he wants to see the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get to enter the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: But I came across something in Matthew 17 that I feel like I've never really seen with this sort of perspective after coming out of this study in Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to share it with you, Matthew 17.
SPEAKER_00: There's another mountain, there's another cloud.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of Mount Sinai Exodus vibes happening in Matthew 17.
SPEAKER_00: There's an encounter taking place, and it says, After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them high up a mountain by themselves.
SPEAKER_00: There, he, being Jesus, was transfigured before them.
SPEAKER_00: His face shone like the sun, his clothes became white as light.
SPEAKER_00: Just then appeared who?
SPEAKER_00: Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament will tell us that the glory of God, the weight of God, the essence of God, the being of God is found in the face of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That He is the exact representation of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what did Moses ask God for?
SPEAKER_00: Show me your glory, God.
SPEAKER_00: And he can only see the back of it as it passed by.
SPEAKER_00: But here in Matthew 17, how sweet is God who shows up to meet with Jesus face to face, whose face is shining like the sun, it says, with what the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, God does not forget your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: He remembered Moses' prayer and request.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't come as fast as Moses probably would have liked, but you know what?
SPEAKER_00: It came and it happened.
SPEAKER_00: And I bet you Moses would tell you it was worth the wait.
SPEAKER_00: Church, God is worth the wait.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're praying for, I don't know what you're believing God for, and maybe it's been a while.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose faith, don't lose hope.
SPEAKER_00: God will answer if it aligns with his will, he will answer.
SPEAKER_00: We serve a faithful God, church, a faithful God, and he will meet you in all of your needs.
SPEAKER_00: And so, just like they heard, we want to hear this morning with fresh ears.
SPEAKER_00: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Open wide your heart, church.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, and and you feel like, man, I've never actually opened my heart to Jesus at all.
SPEAKER_00: I've never put my faith in him in that way.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know Jesus was a greater intercessor, I didn't know he was a greater deliverer, I didn't know he was a greater tabernacle, and that's for me.
SPEAKER_00: Just like this encouragement is saying say something.
SPEAKER_00: Tell somebody, tell the person who came with you, come up and pray with our prayer team.
SPEAKER_00: We would love to stand with you in that.
SPEAKER_00: But the warning is to not harden your heart to the message of the gospel that Jesus came to rescue and to save you.