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I Am Here, and I Always Will Be (Exodus 40) · Prodigal Hope

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  SPEAKER_00: Exodus 40 this morning.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are here at the very,
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  SPEAKER_00: as Pastor Eric mentioned,
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  SPEAKER_00: we are here at the very end of this book that we have been trudging through for
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  SPEAKER_00: the past 34 different sermons.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's 34, this is the 35th sermon in this particular series.
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  SPEAKER_00: Arriving here at the end of this book and at the end of If you're keeping track
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  SPEAKER_00: of such things,
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  SPEAKER_00: by the way,
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  SPEAKER_00: we are ending this sermon series almost a year to the day when we began it.
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  SPEAKER_00: We began preaching on Exodus in August 17th,
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  SPEAKER_00: actually, of 2025, and here we are, August 23rd, 2026, at the very end.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you might remember from the very beginning we've been striving to see the book
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  SPEAKER_00: of Exodus not just as a book of history.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's some stuff that you remember from Sunday school,
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  SPEAKER_00: the flannel graphs and all that kind of stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just as history, but seeing it as a book of revelation.
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  SPEAKER_00: What does it not only tell us about God's people,
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel, but what does it tell us about us, God's people, the church, Israel?
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what we could say,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you want a technical way to understand this,
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  SPEAKER_00: this is what we could say is redemptive history.
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  SPEAKER_00: God is showing us who he is and also who he always will be.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just for the sake of Israel, but for our sake as well.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of course, what we're learning today.
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  SPEAKER_00: Is what Moses learned most vividly back in Exodus chapter 34.
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  SPEAKER_00: That God, who is God?
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  SPEAKER_00: He is the Lord, the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: Merciful, gracious, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what we're learning almost over and over again.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I think one of the most striking things about the book of Exodus is the fact
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  SPEAKER_00: that this book doesn't just say that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Exodus isn't a book that just says, trust in God, he's merciful and gracious.
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  SPEAKER_00: Actually, no, it shows that.
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  SPEAKER_00: It proves that almost over and over and over again.
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  SPEAKER_00: All the different scenes,
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  SPEAKER_00: all the different moments we've seen the people of God
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  SPEAKER_00: and seen what they've struggled with and seen the ways in which he's led them.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's proving that very fact that he is a God, the Lord, merciful and gracious.
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  SPEAKER_00: From the Exodus itself,
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  SPEAKER_00: when God's people are brought out of Egyptian bondage to the Red Sea,
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  SPEAKER_00: all the way to where he brings them to Sinai,
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  SPEAKER_00: every single step of the way is just one more unfurling step,
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  SPEAKER_00: one more unfolding step to see and understand and perceive God's heart.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is who Yahweh is.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is Yahweh, Yahweh, the God who is unfathomably holy.
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  SPEAKER_00: We can't even contain it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remember in Exodus 19,
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  SPEAKER_00: he comes down in that cloud of glory and the people of God, they're trembling.
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  SPEAKER_00: We can't even contain, we can't even fathom how holy he is.
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  SPEAKER_00: And yet...
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  SPEAKER_00: Yahweh, that same God,
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  SPEAKER_00: unfathomably holy,
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  SPEAKER_00: He is keen, He is interested, He is desirous to be with His people.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be near them.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be among them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we've seen that sort of unfold as we've learned about the tabernacle.
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  SPEAKER_00: But go with me really quick.
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  SPEAKER_00: Keep your finger in chapter 40.
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  SPEAKER_00: Go with me.
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  SPEAKER_00: Go all the way back to chapter number 3.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because this has been the heart of God from the very beginning.
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  SPEAKER_00: Even if we weren't aware,
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  SPEAKER_00: even if Moses wouldn't have been aware or been sort of all the way understanding
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  SPEAKER_00: of what would be meaning by a tabernacle in this tent of meeting...
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  SPEAKER_00: God was,
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  SPEAKER_00: even at the very beginning,
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  SPEAKER_00: he was unfolding that purpose that I want to be near, I want to be with you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 3.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the scene of the burning bush, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 3, look at verse number 7.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the Lord said,
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  SPEAKER_00: he's talking to Moses,
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  SPEAKER_00: I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt
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  SPEAKER_00: and I've heard their cry.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because of their taskmasters.
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  SPEAKER_00: I know their sufferings.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I, notice this phrase, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
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  SPEAKER_00: And to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land.
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  SPEAKER_00: A land flowing with milk and honey to a place of the Canaanites and all the Ites.
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  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says there.
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  SPEAKER_00: I've seen your plight.
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  SPEAKER_00: I've seen your predicament.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I am here.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have come down to remedy it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And significantly,
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  SPEAKER_00: at several other junctures throughout the history of God bringing his people out,
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  SPEAKER_00: he repeats the same sentiment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Flip over chapter number six.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is rehashing, but we're closing out this series.
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  SPEAKER_00: So we're rehashing, making sure all of this sinks in.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter number six and look at verse number six.
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  SPEAKER_00: God again is speaking to Moses.
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  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 6 verse 6.
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  SPEAKER_00: Say therefore to the people of Israel.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's giving Moses some words.
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  SPEAKER_00: What is he supposed to say?
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  SPEAKER_00: I am the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: I am Yahweh.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I will deliver you from slavery to them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.
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  SPEAKER_00: And with great acts of judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will take you to be my.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then all of this, of course...
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  SPEAKER_00: You flip over to chapter number 25.
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  SPEAKER_00: See how this promise of God,
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  SPEAKER_00: this intention of God to bring his people out but then bring them to himself and
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  SPEAKER_00: then bring them to a place where he is dwelling with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: It culminates here in chapter number 25 where he expresses that quite candidly.
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  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 25 verse 8.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remember he's given Moses instructions on the tabernacle,
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  SPEAKER_00: the tent of meeting and he says let them make a sanctuary.
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  SPEAKER_00: That I may what?
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  SPEAKER_00: Dwell.
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  SPEAKER_00: That I may tabernacle in their midst.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of it is leading to that.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of it is leading to this moment where he's bringing them to a place
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  SPEAKER_00: where he's actually going to be with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I go through all of that.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of that is really important because not only is he going to spend
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  SPEAKER_00: the next several chapters from chapter 25 onward explaining what that's going
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  SPEAKER_00: to look like.
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  SPEAKER_00: What it means that he's going to dwell with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I point that out because of what happened.
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  SPEAKER_00: Flip back to chapter 40, verse 34.
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  SPEAKER_00: What happens?
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  SPEAKER_00: The cloud,
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  SPEAKER_00: then the cloud,
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  SPEAKER_00: covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
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  SPEAKER_00: Stop.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what we've been building to the whole time.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what we've been waiting for the whole time.
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  SPEAKER_00: By this time, In the narrative, their tabernacle proper, the structure is finished.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of the carpenters have put away all of their saws and hammers and nails because it's done.
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  SPEAKER_00: Their labor is over.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't take long at all before the last little clasp was hung on
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  SPEAKER_00: the very last curtain of the outer court of their tabernacle before suddenly,
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  SPEAKER_00: like a rushing,
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  SPEAKER_00: violent wind, a cloud of glory just descended and filled the whole structure.
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  SPEAKER_00: And imagine seeing that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Imagine stepping back and watching that occur.
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  SPEAKER_00: This cloud of glory, billowy glory.
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  SPEAKER_00: The same cloud, by the way.
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  SPEAKER_00: The same cloud from Exodus 13 says, That God promised would lead them.
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  SPEAKER_00: This cloud of glory.
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  SPEAKER_00: This cloud and pillar of fire that would lead them.
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  SPEAKER_00: That would shepherd them throughout all of their journeys.
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  SPEAKER_00: That same cloud is now with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: That same cloud that descended on Sinai in Exodus chapter 19.
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  SPEAKER_00: That was so full of thunder and lightning and smoke.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was now in their midst.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was now with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Right in front of them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And as Moses recalls at the very end of these.
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  SPEAKER_00: He recalls it twice.
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  SPEAKER_00: Verse 36.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's where this cloud would be, as he says, throughout all their journeys.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the moment we've been waiting for.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the moment that all of Exodus has been building up towards.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of those other previous moments and all those previous promises
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  SPEAKER_00: that we've just been through have been anticipating this.
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  SPEAKER_00: They've been looking forward to this.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now it's fulfilled.
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  SPEAKER_00: The glory of God is in their midst.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there's been a number of things, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_00: We've been through the different stories.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's been a number of remarkable events that have occurred already in the narrative, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Red sea splitting apart and manna,
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  SPEAKER_00: bread falling out of the ground and quail just appearing on the ground.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lots of...
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  SPEAKER_00: Incredible events,
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  SPEAKER_00: but nothing,
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  SPEAKER_00: despite all of the remarkable things they've already seen,
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  SPEAKER_00: nothing can rival the glory and the presence of God,
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  SPEAKER_00: not on some faraway distant mountain peak, right in the middle of where they are.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yahweh and all of his glory showing up right where they are.
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  SPEAKER_00: Taking up residence with the people that he calls to himself.
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  SPEAKER_00: That he calls, what does he say in chapter 19?
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  SPEAKER_00: His treasured possession.
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  SPEAKER_00: Needless to say, this was the moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 40 verse 34.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the moment that would define God's people.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is indeed a defining moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: As Moses cried out, remember chapter 33?
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  SPEAKER_00: He's pleading with God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Go back to chapter 33, verse 16.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because what does he say?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does he say is what distinguishes God's people from every other surrounding nation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 33, verse 16.
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  SPEAKER_00: For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight,
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  SPEAKER_00: Moses, please, I and your people?
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  SPEAKER_00: Is it not in your going with us?
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  SPEAKER_00: So that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: He knows and he pleads that what makes us distinguished,
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  SPEAKER_00: what sets us apart, is the fact that you are actually with us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now, that's true.
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  SPEAKER_00: God was actually with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: You see, what defines...
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  SPEAKER_00: What establishes, what safeguards the people of God is that very fact.
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  SPEAKER_00: God's occupying presence becoming the preoccupation of his people.
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  SPEAKER_00: That they are so consumed,
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  SPEAKER_00: they are so occupied by,
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  SPEAKER_00: that they don't need anything else, they don't want anything else.
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  SPEAKER_00: Filling up the whole place.
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  SPEAKER_00: God, you see, Yahweh, he isn't just the one that God's people happen to follow.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's the one that they can't live without.
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  SPEAKER_00: And God's people are made into the people of God as they obey his words,
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  SPEAKER_00: long for who he is, and follow where he leads.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's Exodus in a nutshell.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what all of this has been sort of leading us towards, leading us to see.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the message for us,
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  SPEAKER_00: the message for us as we're reading all of this is that God's still in
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  SPEAKER_00: that business.
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  SPEAKER_00: God's still in the business.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is just as intent on shaping us, Stonington Baptist Church.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's intent on shaping you into a people that craves,
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  SPEAKER_00: that keeps God's word, craves God's words and waits on God's words.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's just as intent on that as he was all of those thousands of years ago.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's still in the business of shaping you into his people.
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  SPEAKER_00: Shaping you into the people who are delighted to obey him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Knowing what disobedience leads to as Moses and company were very aware of.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you read this chapter, it's really fascinating.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're going to read a couple of the verses.
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  SPEAKER_00: Go back to chapter number one because for the first 15 verses...
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  SPEAKER_00: God runs through pretty much everything that you've already heard from previous chapters.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yet again,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you didn't think that humans were sort of forgetful and maybe a little bit dense,
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  SPEAKER_00: why does God repeat himself so often?
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe because he has to.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because for the first 15 verses, what does he do?
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  SPEAKER_00: He repeats himself.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look again, the Lord spoke to Moses.
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  SPEAKER_00: On the first day of the first month, you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you shall put in it the ark of the testimony.
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  SPEAKER_00: You shall screen the ark with the veil.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you shall bring the table and arrange it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you shall bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you shall put the golden altar for the incense before the ark of the testimony.
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  SPEAKER_00: And set up the screen for the door of the tabernacle.
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  SPEAKER_00: And on he goes.
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  SPEAKER_00: You shall do this.
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  SPEAKER_00: You shall do that.
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  SPEAKER_00: On and on he goes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Making sure that Moses and everyone knows exactly where things should be.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's giving precise arrangements and locations for every single furnishing in
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  SPEAKER_00: the tabernacle proper.
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  SPEAKER_00: And around 15 times in 15 verses, Moses hears those same two words echo in his ears.
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  SPEAKER_00: You shall, God says.
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  SPEAKER_00: God is letting his expectations be known loud and clear.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what I expect.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is how I expect to be worshipped.
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  SPEAKER_00: And again, how do we understand this?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, we can understand this like this.
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  SPEAKER_00: What Israel is putting up,
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  SPEAKER_00: what Israel is constructing,
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  SPEAKER_00: the tabernacle, wasn't something that they came up with.
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  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't just something that Moses on the spur of the moment,
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  SPEAKER_00: ah, yeah, I think we should build this thing.
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  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't Aaron's charm and charisma saying,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know what will rally the people of God if they have this awesome place to go
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  SPEAKER_00: and meet at?
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  SPEAKER_00: No, this wasn't from them.
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  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't out of any human mind.
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  SPEAKER_00: This was God's mind being displayed on the earth through this physical structure.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was devised by him.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was designed by God to be a place where he,
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  SPEAKER_00: God, God could commune with his people and they could commune with him.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a place of worship.
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  SPEAKER_00: Which, we can say this,
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  SPEAKER_00: lets us know that all of those you shalls,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you read it,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's 15 times,
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  SPEAKER_00: all those you shalls,
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  SPEAKER_00: do this,
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  SPEAKER_00: put this here,
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  SPEAKER_00: that let us know that worship of God and fellowship with God are only done
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  SPEAKER_00: in accordance with his words.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go on.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a rabbit trail, planned rabbit trail though.
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  SPEAKER_00: But what defines, I think, too many modern worship, quote unquote, experiences.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's the whole thing revolves around.
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  SPEAKER_00: It becomes something that we curate.
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  SPEAKER_00: If worship is curated by you, tailored by you into what you want, that's not worship.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's Netflix dressed up as church.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because you're only picking and choosing what you want,
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  SPEAKER_00: making sure everything fits your little algorithm with everything tuned
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  SPEAKER_00: to your likes and your preferences.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not worship, not at least according as I find it in the Bible.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: The late, and it sounds weird saying this, the late Votie Bauckham.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember Votie, he passed away I think last year or so.
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  SPEAKER_00: Great preacher.
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  SPEAKER_00: He passed away, I think, out of a heart attack or something.
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  SPEAKER_00: But anyways, he said this, which I find very, very apt to this very section.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said, quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: our worship,
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  SPEAKER_00: meaning the church's worship, isn't a response to how Jesus makes us feel.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, our worship is a response to Jesus's worth, regardless of how we feel.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think you can find that on display here.
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  SPEAKER_00: You shall do this.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because I am worth it.
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  SPEAKER_00: God is worth it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not because it was making Moses and Aaron feel good.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, because God is saying this is how.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the appropriate mode in which I am expecting to be worshipped.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what's fascinating is that Moses,
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  SPEAKER_00: the leader of God, The one God called and said, you are going to lead my people out.
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  SPEAKER_00: He here leads an effort to do exactly that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this, this is so fascinating.
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  SPEAKER_00: After all of these, you shall put this here, do this, that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
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  SPEAKER_00: This Moses did.
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  SPEAKER_00: According to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's putting it into practice.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in fact,
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  SPEAKER_00: from here,
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: all the way down through verse 33, you're going to find that same refrain on repeat.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 19.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: as the Lord commanded Moses.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and he set up the veil of the screen
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: and screamed the ark of the testimony as the Lord had commanded Moses.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he arranged the bread on it before the Lord and As the Lord has commanded Moses
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: on and on it goes.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, verse 27, verse 29, verse 32.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that is happening here.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: From the placement of the Ark and the Holy of Holies to the placement and
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: the lighting of the lamps, it's executed with exactness, with precision.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: They are following the pattern that they've been given.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: The pattern for worship,
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: the program for how they are going to come into contact and communion with the holy,
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: unfathomably holy God.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was given to them.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: God has a specific way that he wants to be worshipped.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say that, don't misunderstand me.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: This has nothing to do with worship styles and bands and whether
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: or not your church has a band or whether or not your church has fog machines.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: This has nothing to do with that.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can worship God with fog machines or not.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the point.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: All of those things can be legitimate or illegitimate.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: It all depends on what?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on your heart.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on your posture.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on your posture as you're approaching this God that you've been called
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: to come into contact with.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's evident,
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: by everything that occurs here,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Moses and the rest of Israel, they've been sufficiently humbled.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: They've been humbled.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: They know their own actions.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: They know their own hearts.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think they understood,
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: at least in part, just how incredibly holy, but also incredibly merciful God is.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And also,
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: we have to hasten to say this too,
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: that I think they now understood,
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: at least partially,
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: as much as possible,
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: that God's words, they are not confining, nor are they restrictive.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: God's commands were not meant to prevent them from going out
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: and experiencing joy somewhere else.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what they were.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: God's commands and keeping those commands,
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: that's the surest and the shortest road to enjoying God.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he gives them to us.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this is our purpose as human beings.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: What is our purpose?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: What is our chief end?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: As the catechism says, our chief end is to what?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: See, contrary.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: See, your sin nature is going to lie to you.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: The old Adam, we can say, is going to lie to you.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: The old person, the old sinner inside you is going to lie to you.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they're trying to get you to believe that obedience is a burden.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: That all of this, oh man, I have to do this.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that when he's calling you to something, he's calling you back to subjugation.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: When God calls his people to obey,
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: he's not calling them back to a life of being subjected to a tyrannical taskmaster.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: When he lays out the pattern for worship and communion, he's not enslaving them again.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: What is he doing?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, he's showing them that the life that he wants for them is all about him.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: This life that I want for you,
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: this life of glory and goodness and purpose and love and favor, it's all about me.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And as you come into contact with me and community with me, you get to experience that.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that God is doing is aimed at drawing his people closer and closer to himself.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the point.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Obedience was never the road that they took to get there.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Don't misunderstand.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Obedience is what it looks like when you're already there.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: You don't obey in order to get into God's favor.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: No,
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: favor happens first and then we obey because of what God has already done and we are
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: so enraptured with that.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Put differently, keeping God's commands is Was never meant to feel heavy.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells us this.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 11 verse 30.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think the Israelites, if I can surmise.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites, I think, definitely knew.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: They definitely remembered what a heavy yoke felt like.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just, it was like last year.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: They were in Egypt.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: They were in Egypt.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Heavy yokes, what do they feel like?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: They feel like making bricks without any straw with a guy with a whip wielding it
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: behind your back who didn't really care if you succumbed to the heat and died right
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: in front of him.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't really care.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a heavy burden feels like.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: God is not putting them back into that paradigm by calling them to obey.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, God's people are servants.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Paul even says,
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: the passage that we've referenced a couple times throughout this series,
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 6, what does Paul call us?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: He calls us slaves of righteousness.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a world of difference between a slave who is obeying
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: because he dreads what will happen if he doesn't and a child who obeys
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: because they're trusting their father.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the difference.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's being put on display to us right here in this moment with Moses and
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: the rest of God's people obeying their Heavenly Father,
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: their precious, merciful, loving, patient Heavenly Father.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our obedience to God, much like Israel's, doesn't emerge and spring out of fear of a tyrant.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: It springs and emerges out of a love for a Father who is merciful.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And gracious and abounds in steadfast love and patience and kindness.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: when I tell my kids to put on their seatbelts in the car,
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: that's not me stealing their joy away from the joyride we're about to go on.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not me acting as a tyrant.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's me loving them.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm loving them in that moment.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And similarly,
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: that's what God's commands are like throughout Exodus,
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: throughout the rest of the Bible, by the way.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't given because God wants to make you squirm and sweat.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, they're given because he cares.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: He cares about you.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: They are caring commands that come out of the heart,
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: the loving, caring heart of a God who cares for you and desires your good.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is the drastic difference.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the drastic difference between where Israel is right here
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: as they're setting up the tabernacle and where they were.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because in Egypt, what?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: In Egypt, all they heard was work or you'll be beaten.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Work or you'll die.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: But at Sinai, what do they hear?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: At Sinai and beyond, they say, obey because I am the God who redeemed you.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Remember chapter 20?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is the verse we emphasize at the beginning of the Ten Commandments.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is God's preamble to the Ten Commandments?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 2,
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: out of the house of slavery.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they to have no other gods before Yahweh?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they to not lie and cheat and steal and lust and commit adultery
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: and all those kinds of things?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because of who God is.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the favor that he showed them when he brought them out with his mighty outstretched hand.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: See the point is this.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: That was a drastic change from Egypt to Sinai.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now they are in the loving care of a loving Heavenly Father.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: A similar drastic change has occurred in your life and mine.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's occurred in us too.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: How?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because God and Christ has set us free from sin and death.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: He has delivered us, as Paul says in Colossians.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's delivered us from that domain of darkness.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And He has transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the awesome point,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: the point that's emphasized,
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: your place in the kingdom doesn't hinge on your performance itself.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is,
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: what bears churchgoers down,
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: what bears Christians down,
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: is they think that their place in God's favor is hinged on their performance.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I gotta obey, or now I'm not gonna be, no, it's not hinged on your performance.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Obedience is gonna become a delight to you when you unhitch it from your performance
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: and the basis of your assurance.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: How did Israel get made into the people of God?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because God brought them out.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: They left it not a single pinky before God brought them to himself.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the same thing happens with us.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: God's people were obeying every you shall,
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: not because they were trying to give themselves assurance of their standing
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: with God, nor were they trying to convince themselves because they belonged to God.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, they were doing so because they knew that they did.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole point of the cloud.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole point of this rushing,
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: whooshing cloud of glory coming down and filling that whole place and showing them
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: where they needed to go.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was God's assurance that, hey, you, you are mine.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 36, same text throughout all their journeys.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel was set out.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: To the day that it was taken up for the cloud of glory or the cloud of the Lord was
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: on the tabernacle by day and the fire was in it by night in the sight of all
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So the cloud of glory showing up wasn't.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: There, it wasn't there on the other side of good behavior.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was there to fulfill God's promise to them that I want to be near you.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be with you.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when the cloud moved, they moved.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when the cloud rested, they rested.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not because God wants to keep them guessing.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to keep them on their toes.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, he's showing them to be dependent on him.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Navigating the wilderness as you find if you read Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't as easy as punching in an address to a GPS.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't handed a map.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, here you go.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Navigate here.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: What were they given?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: God's people were given a cloud and a promise.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And a promise that the cloud would always be there.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Leading them, guiding them throughout all of their journeys.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: That cloud was there to show them that God was there.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: That he was with them.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, again,
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: if you read those books,
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: you're going to find how often the people of God put that to the test.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Quite frequently.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Read Numbers.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Read Deuteronomy.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: But every single time,
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: because people failed,
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: every single time they wanted to throw in the towel, there he was.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: He showed up.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: To show them that he was there.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still here.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the cloud is basically preaching to God's people.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still here and I always will be.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you're doing so awesome.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you got everything put together.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not because your performance is just out of the charts holy.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because I never could be.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm there because I have promised to be your God.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we are too.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're right there.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Feeling the dauntingness of a road ahead of you that is filled with uncertainties and unknowns.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Too many to even count.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Too many to tabulate.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's declining health for you or a loved one.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you see someone.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just lose strength, lose their abilities that they used to have.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's actually losing someone who is close to you.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the feeling that all of your finances are poof, they're fleeting.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's infighting within the ranks of your own family.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or whether it's just plain old worry about
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: the old timey things like political corruption and social collapse.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't, I'm sorry.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't handed a map to help us navigate that.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's no GPS that I can give you or that God can give you to avoid all of
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: the confusion and the difficulty and the sorrow that may be ahead.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: God promises something better than all of that.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Something better than any of that.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because the same cloud of glory that was with God's people throughout all
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: of their journeys, as Moses recalls, is with you and yours.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's with you.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Only better.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's not a cloud.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're not given a cloud.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're given a person whose name is Jesus, whose name is Emmanuel, as it says, which means what?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: God with us.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: The God who told Moses and Aaron and the people of God that he desires to dwell in
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: the midst of them.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: He shows up in Jesus,
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: not in acacia wood,
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: not in gold,
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: not in curtains,
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: but in flesh and bone, in a body made like yours so they could die just for you.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: See, all of this,
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: all of this whole narrative is pointing us to that wonderful,
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: marvelous fact that Jesus is the truer and better tabernacle of God.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that that place was meant to portray, he is that.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's the place where we meet God and God meets us.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's the place where God's glory comes down.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just hover out there somewhere.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: It comes down to right to where we are.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 1 chapter 3 or Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 he's the radiance of the glory
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: of God who shows up to obey wherever you fail.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Who shows up to die so that you can live.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who shows up And dies and resurrects.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: He rises again on the third day and ascends back up into heaven as the constant
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: and abiding and evergreen assurance that what?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here and I always will be.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's his assurance to you.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: My friends,
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: if there's one refrain that I hope you glean from this long and winding journey
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: through the Exodus, let it be that.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: That ours is a God who is with us.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what,
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: throughout all of our journeys,
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: just like Moses recalls, it's a fitting end, isn't it?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: The very last line throughout all of their journeys.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Remember,
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: he's writing this after everything that has transpired in Numbers and Deuteronomy
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: and Leviticus.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Things, if you read,
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: there's lots of places where God maybe should have pulled his hand away,
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: but he didn't.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: He was there.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he's right there with you.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And sick of all that you're going through Think of your trials and troubles with you
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: and your pain and your perplexity when it just doesn't seem to make sense.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this happening?
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's with you in times of doubt and confusion.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't know, he doesn't, I hate to say it, but it's the truth.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't always show us where the road is going to twist and turn.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't show us all of the Obstacles that may be ahead on the road ahead of us.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: But he gives us something better.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: The promise that he will never leave.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: One place and then we'll close.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Go with me to Joshua chapter 1.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think this phrase is immaculate.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it helps us cap off what we've been hearing about for 35 sermons now.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Joshua chapter 1.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse number 5.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is...
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: After the death of Moses.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: So fast forward a little bit.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Moses is dead.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Joshua is going to be his successor.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And listen to the words that are given to Joshua.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: This young man called to be the next captain of God's people.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: No man, God tells him, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about confidence.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And just notice this phrase, just as I was with Moses, so will I be with you.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: The same way in which God showed up all of those days of Moses,
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: the days of wandering,
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: the days of griping,
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: the days of complaining,
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: the days of rebelling,
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: and the days of repenting,
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: all the ways in which God showed up in all of those ways,
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: he is still the same God who shows up for Joshua in all of the days ahead.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: That promise is still true.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: He will never leave you nor forsake you.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, we can obey him.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: We can obey the Lord,
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: not out of fear or dread, but out of love for what he has done and accomplished.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we can long,
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: and we should,
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: we should long for him,
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: not merely for what he gives us or what he does for us,
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: but for who he is, his heart.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we can follow him wherever he leads us,
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: knowing and trusting the fact that he is leading us home.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because one day soon, who knows when.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: If I give you a date, it's going to be wrong.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not going to give you a date on when he's coming back.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because then it'll be wrong.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to do that.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: But soon, not long from now, he's going to dwell with us forever.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Face to face.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 21, verse 3.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is the last verse I promise.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation 21, verse 3.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: What does John say?
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, listen to these words.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: The dwelling place...
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: The tabernacle of God is with man.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he will dwell.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: He will tabernacle with them.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they will be his people.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: And God himself will be with them as their God unendingly.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that new creation.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: For there is no more crying.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's no more night.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no more wilderness.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: There we will be with God and he will be with us forever.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.