1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,880 Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our 2 00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:07,960 lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message 3 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:12,240 would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you 4 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:14,840 to the life changing love of Jesus. 5 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:18,640 May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow Him today. 6 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:20,520 I want to begin with our confession. 7 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,400 We do this every week and this is this is a declaration of 8 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:26,200 truth and. Sometimes we feel. 9 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:30,400 This. And sometimes we don't, but we 10 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:34,040 believe that truth is truth. And so our confession as his 11 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,120 church, as his people is that we are badly broken. 12 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,160 Yes, you are. Grace and peace to you. 13 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:46,040 That idea, that declaration of badly broken and deeply loved. 14 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:50,440 We kind of, that's a summary of what we began touching on last 15 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:52,280 week on our series that's going to go all the way through 16 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,600 Easter. Badly Broken and deeply loved is 17 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:57,560 a picture of life outside the gate. 18 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:03,160 You remember we saw last week in Eden, We looked at Genesis 1 and 19 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:06,880 we saw that God created a world and it was formless and void. 20 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:09,600 It didn't have shape. It didn't have substance. 21 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,840 It was unfit for life. God was there, but there was no 22 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:15,480 space for. Us there and so we. 23 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:17,600 Saw God. What we saw God doing was 24 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:23,240 creating a home, fashioning, fashioning a space where He and 25 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,360 we could dwell together. And we saw His intention and 26 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:32,440 calling it he created space, he said let there be time, day and. 27 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:33,280 Night. And there was. 28 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,560 Time and then there was water above and water below, so there 29 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:40,080 was atmosphere and then there was water and dry land. 30 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:44,000 And so with his words, with his voice, by his intention, he 31 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,360 created space. And then for the next three 32 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,040 days, he filled that space, and he filled the sky with. 33 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,160 Sun and moon and stars, he. Filled the sky above the the 34 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,360 waters above with birds. And fish in the sea and then 35 00:01:58,560 --> 00:01:59,600 the. Last day he. 36 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:03,600 Filled the land. With animals and mankind. 37 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:08,759 And what we saw was the 7th day after He had formed and filled a 38 00:02:08,759 --> 00:02:11,000 world and he called it over and over again. 39 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,200 He saw that it was good. We saw God stop. 40 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,240 And rest and. Sit down. 41 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:18,040 He didn't rest because he was exhausted. 42 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:20,560 He wasn't sucking wind or out of shape. 43 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:27,000 He was done and what we saw was that place where God sat and 44 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,520 throned over His creation was a. Temple. 45 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:33,840 It was a home. But it wasn't like other temples 46 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:37,680 in the ancient Near East where God sat far removed and high 47 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:40,720 above from his people. God created in this home, this 48 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,440 place that He ordered. There was a partnership. 49 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:46,840 It was purposeful. He had authority and He shared 50 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,400 His authority with us, and he created mankind and He set him 51 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:53,000 in a place called. Eden and Eden. 52 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,120 Was in bloom. Eden was already fruitful. 53 00:02:56,120 --> 00:03:00,200 There is God's authority and our authority partnered, and the 54 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,640 plan and the goal was to fill creation. 55 00:03:03,920 --> 00:03:06,360 With this order and this goodness, through the 56 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:12,080 partnership, God created a home for us to dwell with Him. 57 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,360 When God could have done anything he wanted, when he 58 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,560 could have structured and built anything that he wanted, He 59 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,360 built. He built a place for him and. 60 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,880 Us to be together now we weren't the. 61 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:28,320 Same In that space there were distinct roles. 62 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:33,960 God's role was always and inescapably to have absolute, 63 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:38,200 ultimate, final authority. Only God can call something from 64 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,200 nothing. Only God can separate the waters 65 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,080 above and the orders below. But that doesn't mean that we 66 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,040 didn't have any authority. The authority that he gave us 67 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:52,600 was real and it was authentic. He had a role and he gave us a 68 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,640 role. And in that, in that combination 69 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:58,320 and that communion, the plan was for. 70 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:05,080 Goodness forever. But those roles actually end up 71 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:10,640 becoming part of the problem. His role and our role, those 72 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:12,520 distinction. There's actually a word. 73 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:14,200 And it may be a surprising word to you. 74 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,760 It's probably a word that you've heard before, but maybe. 75 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:20,000 Not in this context. The idea this word that 76 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,640 describes and illustrates the distinction between who God is 77 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:27,840 and what God does and who we are and what we do is the word. 78 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:33,960 Holiness and the word holiness is a description of. 79 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:41,960 What God is that we are not. And you may have heard holiness 80 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:46,480 uses this impossible challenge to be good, to be better than 81 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:48,600 you are. And maybe that generally means 82 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:51,920 like to get your lust under control or to stop cussing so 83 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:55,520 much or or to vote a certain way or to do something like this 84 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:59,160 with your money. And so holiness has almost well 85 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:03,760 has often been used to describe some kind of a behavior set, but 86 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,560 it goes much deeper and different than that. 87 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:13,760 Holiness is all the things that God is in his ultimate, ultimate 88 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:17,240 Ness, in his ultimate authority and his ultimate power. 89 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:21,360 And it's not what we experience now, but it's that holiness, 90 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:22,560 right? And so you may have heard 91 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:24,760 holiness, it may have been like a sledgehammer for you, right, 92 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,960 to remind you what you're not. And it may carry all kinds of 93 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:32,320 like weight and guilt and shame. But the important thing to see 94 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,640 is in that order, in that system. 95 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:38,360 God's holiness is what made the partnership possible. 96 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:43,040 The separation of holiness is what describes life outside the 97 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:44,920 gate. See, God's holiness is what 98 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:47,920 allows him to create the garden in the 1st place. 99 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,440 It was God's holiness that fashioned a space already in 100 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:58,800 bloom when we walked. In it is that holiness that the 101 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:04,760 serpent refrained as restriction in the garden. 102 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:07,640 We knew that God was different from us. 103 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:09,960 We knew that God had ultimate authority. 104 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:13,840 But the question is. The subtle implication was, why 105 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:17,440 wouldn't God want you to be like him? 106 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:22,720 Why wouldn't God want you to have ultimate authority in this 107 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:25,160 place? And as humanity in the garden, 108 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:27,280 with all the goodness around us said, you know what? 109 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:31,640 That's a good question. I wonder why he wouldn't want me 110 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:36,040 to do that, and the response was to grasp. 111 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:40,280 At control. Sure, it's fine that I could 112 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:41,920 name the animals. Whatever I want, but. 113 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,280 Really, I want to be able to decide what is good and what is 114 00:06:45,280 --> 00:06:48,840 real and what is ultimate. And so in a world where all we 115 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:52,880 had experienced was the goodness of God in this perfectly ordered 116 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:58,200 relationship, we decided that we didn't just want to be with God, 117 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:02,760 we wanted to be like God. We wanted to be God. 118 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:04,600 And so. But the problem is. 119 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:08,840 If we're in a garden that God is created by his omnipotence, if 120 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:12,240 we're in a garden that God has sustained by His character and 121 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,680 by His nature and by His Holiness, well, if we don't want 122 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:20,840 that anymore, what happens is we are removed from that and that 123 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:23,120 is the last image that we saw of. 124 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,600 Eden last week, walking out of a. 125 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:31,240 Garden full of God's. Good provision for us into the 126 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:37,480 wilderness from the last image we saw of Eden last week was a 127 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:43,440 gate close behind us barring our re entry. 128 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:47,120 Not able to get back to the life. 129 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:51,760 And the goodness and the plan that God had created us for. 130 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:55,560 That gate is what keeps us from the garden. 131 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:59,160 But where we left last week was the gate that keeps us from the 132 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:06,200 garden doesn't keep God from us. The truth about. 133 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:11,120 Humanity is that since that moment, since we grasped for 134 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:17,000 control, we've lived exiled in the wilderness. 135 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:22,400 That word wilderness can often be a Christian cliche. 136 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:24,680 If you've been a Christian for a while. 137 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:26,800 If you haven't, I'm putting new lingo in your language. 138 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:28,080 This is good. Like you can use this for your 139 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:29,680 language. Like if you've been a Christian 140 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,200 for a while and you follow, you may talk about being in a 141 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:35,840 wilderness season, and maybe that means like a season of of 142 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:38,880 spiritual dryness where you sit down and you pray, but you don't 143 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:41,400 feel anything. Like you don't have that burn 144 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:43,960 kind of in your chest or you try to worship and you don't have an 145 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:46,960 emotional response to worship. Or or you just. 146 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,240 Feel like you're not connected to God, like like God is far 147 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:52,960 away and all of. Those can be aspects of it, but 148 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:55,400 this idea of wilderness? That we find in Scripture is. 149 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:57,760 So much bigger. It's so much deeper than that. 150 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:00,000 Wilderness in the scripture is tangible. 151 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:01,880 You can feel it, you can taste it. 152 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:06,920 Wilderness hangs on you, it clings to you, and it defines 153 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,440 every aspect of where you are and how you go. 154 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:12,040 It is the definition and the distinction from what we were 155 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:13,920 supposed to be. We saw it last week. 156 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:17,400 Wilderness in our sexuality looks like what was created to 157 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:19,720 be. A partnership in creation. 158 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:24,280 Sex was a good gift given to us by God for for a purpose, so 159 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:27,440 that we could know another intimately, so that we could be 160 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:30,600 known in the very fabric and fiber of who we are. 161 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:34,880 It was supposed to be a picture of how intimacy and union 162 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:39,560 creates life, but instead we traded that for the ability to 163 00:09:39,560 --> 00:09:43,160 choose how we use it. We want to use it for our 164 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,840 pleasure. We want to use it to control 165 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:48,800 another, to extract something for the other. 166 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:52,960 And So what wilderness in our. Sexuality looks like loneliness 167 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:59,000 and fracture, and that unfulfilled sense. 168 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,960 Of giving yourself to. Someone and not having them give 169 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:09,760 back in return. Wilderness is real work. 170 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:13,960 Exile. The work in exile is different 171 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:16,200 work. Isn't a result of the curse 172 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:18,480 before the curse? Before the fall? 173 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:21,000 We worked in the garden alongside God. 174 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:23,600 Our work. Listen, the idea behind work was 175 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:27,560 work was God's gift of allowing us to partner with omnipotence. 176 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:30,840 We have a God who can do anything, who by the word of his 177 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:32,920 mouth can create something from nothing. 178 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:35,200 He didn't ask us to make oranges. 179 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:38,840 He asked us to take the orange tree and spread the orchard as 180 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:41,720 far as it could go, so that everybody who wanted. 181 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:45,080 Could have some. We don't have to fabricate. 182 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:47,440 We don't have to. We don't have to establish and 183 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,240 build an empire for ourselves. God created everything that we 184 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:54,240 need and we got to partner with Him, but we traded partnership 185 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,880 with omnipotence. For hustle for a. 186 00:10:57,880 --> 00:11:01,520 Few extra hours for a few more shifts so that I can buy the 187 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:03,760 House of my dreams, the car of my dreams, the. 188 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:07,880 Vacation of my dreams and exile in our job feels like 189 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:12,480 purposelessness. Going to work day after day, 190 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,840 working for someone who neither cares for you or considers you 191 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:18,800 and wondering, is this what it's supposed to be about? 192 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:23,680 Is this Eden we're building? An empire in a world that we're 193 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:25,880 not really sure we care that much about. 194 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,200 Shows up in our community, in our connections, in our 195 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:33,080 relationships. Humanity was naked and 196 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:36,320 unashamed. Think of the implications of 197 00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:38,640 that. I don't like to walk out of my 198 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:40,720 restroom, right? Because I'm like 50 years old 199 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:42,120 and things like hanging like they've been. 200 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:44,000 Places they didn't used to, right? 201 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:46,880 There was no body image issues in the. 202 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:51,960 Garden Eve never wondered where. You know, that's where that 203 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:57,800 piece of cake went, right? There was There was No Fear of 204 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:01,280 rejection. There's No Fear of being judged 205 00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:07,800 or overlooked. But we removed vision of the one 206 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:11,000 who created us in his image, who saw us and said I think you're 207 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,240 beautiful. We were separated from that. 208 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:15,480 Voice that tells us that. We're enough we. 209 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,600 Separated from that voice that wakes us up in the morning and 210 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:21,160 says, I have purposeful, meaningful work for you to do 211 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:24,400 alongside other people who have purposeful, meaningful work for 212 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:25,960 do. We stepped outside of that. 213 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,360 And so now what? We settle for these carefully 214 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:31,560 curated perspectives and a little box on these little 215 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:35,040 square pictures on our phone, and we're projecting a power 216 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:38,360 that we don't have or a success that we don't feel, hoping 217 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,920 against all hope that will someone will look at us and 218 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,760 think we're pretty enough or smart enough or successful 219 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:46,560 enough or good enough to envy and to emulate. 220 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:49,320 We've traded community for image. 221 00:12:52,680 --> 00:12:54,840 And listen, I want you to hear me say real quick like I know I 222 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:57,840 get loud and, and, and you know that there's no judgement in 223 00:12:57,840 --> 00:12:58,720 that. I know. 224 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,000 Why we do it? Because all of us have made 225 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:03,160 honest. Mistakes and been judged. 226 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:05,880 And condemned for it. And so I understand that 227 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:10,160 instinct to go never again. I'll never again subject myself. 228 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:11,600 To that. But friends, that's the 229 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:18,040 wilderness we traded being known for being. 230 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:25,360 Fabricated we've replaced vulnerability with performance. 231 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:32,640 That's exile and in our parenting, parenting is God's 232 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:35,640 gift to us to partner what it was like I mean, just think 233 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:38,400 about the Godhead in Genesis one, right? 234 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,880 Let us create mankind in our image and he created male and 235 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:45,400 female and now in the context of our loving marriages and our 236 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:48,920 relationships, we get to. Experience, not entirely, but 237 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:52,120 something like that. We get to create life and we get 238 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:55,400 to watch it and tend to it, and we get to help form that life in 239 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:57,960 a way that's going to be able to respond to the God in the world 240 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:00,080 and fill it with goodness and life. 241 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:02,920 And we're so afraid that someone's going to put something 242 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:06,000 in and we should listen. I grew up in the 90s, man. 243 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,760 We didn't have videos and stuff like that. 244 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:10,720 Like we were pretty safe. Now there's Everything 245 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:13,760 Everywhere in We're afraid of our kids, but it wasn't supposed 246 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:17,080 to be that way. Our desire and our children is 247 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:18,280 to make. Something that's going to 248 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:22,280 outlast us. We know we're listen, the 249 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:25,920 mortality rate continues to hover around 100% for humanity. 250 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:30,320 But you know something? Ecclesiastes tells us that he 251 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:32,720 has placed eternity in the hearts of men. 252 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,440 We know that we're not. We know that death wasn't. 253 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,080 Part of the original picture. We know that it's not like that. 254 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,440 And So what we want to do is we want to create something that's 255 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:43,800 going to live after us, that's going to that's going to when 256 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:46,040 we're gone, that's going to be able to carry the things that 257 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,640 we've seen and the things that we've known and the things that 258 00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:50,760 we've done, want to carry that into the next thing. 259 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:53,960 So we've got this eternity that we're striving for, that we're 260 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:59,480 reaching for, and we spend every single day in a bare knuckles 261 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:07,800 bloody war against time. Again, I hope is that you don't 262 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:12,080 hear judgement in this. I'm in the same war, in the same 263 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,120 battle as you are. This is not a catalog of our 264 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,640 moral failures. What I hope you hear me doing is 265 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:22,120 describing what it's like to live apart from what we were 266 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,880 created for. To live separated from the 267 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:28,880 reality that God designed us for you. 268 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:32,360 That the reason that you ache for that is because it's in you. 269 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:35,840 Listen, these ideas of having something that lives past you, 270 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,240 these ideas of creating something good and being a part. 271 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,280 There's a reason that purposeless jobs suck the 272 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:46,240 lifeout of us. Because at a cellular level, we 273 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:48,320 know it's not supposed to be that way. 274 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:51,200 This isn't some fever dream that we're imagining. 275 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:53,240 It's across times and across cultures. 276 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,880 It goes everywhere. It is the image of God that 277 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,280 exile can't fully stamp out, but neither can it. 278 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:05,800 Fully help us realize we were created to know the God that 279 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,200 fills and satisfies us. We tasted it. 280 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:13,360 It was on our tongues. We experienced it. 281 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:18,800 And then we chose autonomy and then we chose. 282 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:22,800 We wanted to do it our way. Sure, I'll do the work, but I 283 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:24,880 just want to decide what sex is about. 284 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,480 Sure, like I'll have the relationships, but I want to 285 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,720 decide what to do with my money. I want to decide where I go. 286 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:36,200 We were liberated from what we saw was this tyranny of. 287 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:43,640 God's holiness, but we were liberated from a world where His 288 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:45,920 goodness creates everything that we ever need. 289 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:52,400 We were liberated into a world without the goodness that He 290 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:56,880 brought with Him. And that's what we're searching 291 00:16:56,880 --> 00:17:01,960 for ever since forever. The problem is we. 292 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:05,359 Hear this exile right, we read the story about being outside of 293 00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:05,839 the. Garden. 294 00:17:05,839 --> 00:17:08,200 We see the heading and it talks. About oh, it's the curse, right? 295 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,040 And so we read about this exile, we read about this wilderness, 296 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:14,920 and and because we distrust holiness, we think that exile is 297 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:17,000 like God's. Silent treatment, right? 298 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:18,400 Like. Like we think that God's just 299 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:20,800 like a little too thick to. Talk to us right now. 300 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:23,880 Right kind of arms folding. Is like shaking his fingering. 301 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,040 Listen, I want to tell you our holy God is not throwing a 302 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:33,960 temper tantrum because you had a lustful thought, exile. 303 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:39,680 Is the reality that we. Chose exile is the reality. 304 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:47,800 That we continue to choose when we look at holiness and we look 305 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:48,360 at. The. 306 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:51,720 Path and the plan, and we choose our own way. 307 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:59,720 Once again, we choose exile. That's not where we left last 308 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:01,120 week. Do you remember? 309 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:08,760 We left with the gate closed. We left with mankind walking 310 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:13,880 into the wilderness. But we read this Exodus chapter 311 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:19,000 25 verse 8, God coming to his people, and He said they are to 312 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:26,080 make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them. 313 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:30,960 Purpose of God's desire. For a sanctuary is so that 314 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:33,000 again, he could be restored to them. 315 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,480 So here's this question. We have a holy God. 316 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:38,120 With all his. Authority and all his. 317 00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:40,720 Goodness and all his. Power and all his intention for 318 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:42,360 us. And we have us and we are. 319 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:45,680 Afraid, and we are distrustful, and we are separated, and we. 320 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:50,560 Have this gap. How does a holy God and a fallen 321 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,080 humanity reside together? How how does it happen? 322 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,040 How do we bridge that gap? Well, that's what we talked 323 00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:57,240 today. But the first thing we have to 324 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:01,600 see is it begins with him, God said by his voice, his desire, 325 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:05,600 his intention, the same, the same voice that spoke light from 326 00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:09,080 darkness, the same voice that spoke the waters above and the 327 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:12,040 waters below said, I am coming to you. 328 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:16,800 You make me a space. Create a place for. 329 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:20,080 Me. And this voice spoken to God's 330 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:23,320 people in the wilderness. They had just spent 400 years in 331 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:25,920 slavery. They had spent 400 years under 332 00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:29,520 the authority of a king of a pharaoh who did not care for 333 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:33,000 them, who was not out for their flourishing, who did not provide 334 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,040 for them what they needed. They worked under slavery to a 335 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:40,240 king who said he will extract everything from them. 336 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:42,080 And that was the only system that they knew. 337 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:45,160 And So what God said is I want to show you what I'm like. 338 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:46,920 So now turn a couple over pages to. 339 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,160 Exodus chapter 29. He said I'm coming, make me a 340 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:53,640 sanctuary. And in verse 45 he said, listen 341 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,480 to the voice of your Creator, the voice of your holy God, hear 342 00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:00,120 his heart. He said, I will dwell among the 343 00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:04,640 Israelites, and I will be their God, and they will know that I 344 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:10,480 am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so 345 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:15,920 that I might. Dwell with them. 346 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:23,480 I am the Lord their God, he said. 347 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:31,600 I called you out to be with you. This is an invitation to Eden in 348 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:39,560 the wilderness and God said make a place for me, make a space a 349 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,760 defined. Space with an area that place 350 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,400 where God would meet with His. People was called the 351 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:51,200 Tabernacle. It was a literal, actual, 352 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:54,000 physical place among the company of Israel. 353 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:56,080 So now let's talk. Just a little bit about. 354 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:57,760 You know how the Bible is set up? 355 00:20:58,560 --> 00:20:59,680 God. Called his people. 356 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:02,200 Out he makes his kind of He says, hey, you're going to be my 357 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:03,280 people. I'm going to be your God. 358 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:11,280 And for the next 16 chapters, from Exodus 25 to Exodus 40, God 359 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:14,080 tells them how to make a Tabernacle. 360 00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:19,160 And let me just tell you, it is. Bro bro. 361 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:23,520 You've like got a little bit of the OCD on this one. 362 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:25,920 God, right? Like like, I mean, it is, it is 363 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:29,200 a so let me show you these are OK, 16 chapters. 364 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:31,880 What I've done is I've gone through this and I've taken out 365 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,280 simply the subject. Headings right? 366 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:36,480 Like like. Like the like this is what is 367 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:40,240 this And so this is what the subject headings in 16 chapters. 368 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:42,400 This is what it takes. To build a Tabernacle. 369 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:50,720 Dang dude. I mean it's furniture, right? 370 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,480 There's a table, there's an arc, there is an. 371 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,480 Ephod, there is clothes. There, there is all there's. 372 00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:59,840 All these kind of things, right? This is a heady list. 373 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:03,960 There are basins, there are altars, there are skins, There 374 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,160 are. Listen, at one point in this God 375 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,960 says, hey, there's two guys that I need you to call them out like 376 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,040 I want you to tell them because they're Craftsman and I'm going 377 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:12,440 to give them my spirit and they're going to make. 378 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:15,680 These curtains and they're. Going to make the God took he to 379 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,840 every every single detail he attended to every detail and 380 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:21,240 listen as your pastor just to show you that I am not. 381 00:22:21,360 --> 00:22:25,600 Out of touch with reality my. Guess is Exodus 25 through 40 382 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:29,080 are not your favorite. Devotional reading topics. 383 00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:32,360 Right, like this is like the book of Numbers, right? 384 00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:33,600 Like where? You're just a little bit going, 385 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,600 OK, I don't need this. But listen also as your pastor, 386 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:40,440 I want to tell you what we have here is one of the most 387 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:44,800 shockingly beautiful expressions of God's heart in all of 388 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,320 Scripture. You cannot get away from this 389 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,800 right? Because what God said is it is 390 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,760 so important that I be able to dwell with you, that I'm not 391 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:55,200 leaving. Anything to chance? 392 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,280 I'm not leaving anything to chance that you and your 393 00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:00,360 distrust miss it or that you who don't get it. 394 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,120 We see in Genesis chapter one this beautiful poem about how 395 00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:06,360 God separated and formed in fashion. 396 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:12,040 Exodus 25 through 40 is not nearly as poetic as Genesis 1. 397 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,480 It's the same. It's the. 398 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:19,960 Same heart of the father that just wants to be with his. 399 00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:24,920 People, sometimes I have to help my children clean their room, 400 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:27,040 not so much anymore because they're grown, but there are 401 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,000 times where it's just like, I cannot be in there with you 402 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:34,880 because yuck. And So what do you say? 403 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:36,240 Like the dishes, you got to put your clothes up. 404 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,000 You got to do this, right? Is that me being obnoxious? 405 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:42,480 Yes, because I'm sinful and because I'm not like God, right? 406 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:50,720 But the illustration is the same father who wants to be a Listen, 407 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,400 let's get specific the. Father, who wants to be with? 408 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,480 You. Helping. 409 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,720 Us form a space and fill it together. 410 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:04,800 This is Eden. He did it in Eden. 411 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,720 He created a. Space and he started and he said 412 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:09,880 just go be fruitful and multiply now just go do what? 413 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:11,440 You do. Now go do exercise your 414 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:13,120 authority. This is the same thing. 415 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:15,520 This is the thing here. And he did it for us. 416 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:17,760 This is not some obsessive compulsive God. 417 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:22,200 This is not some micromanaging God who is just trying to have 418 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,160 His way because he does. This is a God who realizes that 419 00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,320 holiness is an architecture for intimacy. 420 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:34,320 Holiness is the structure that allows us to experience God as 421 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:39,680 He is every cubit, every thread count, every pomegranate sewn 422 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:44,040 into every Him, on every rope, every kind of wood that you can 423 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:48,560 imagine inlaid with gold and the robes and all of this, every 424 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:53,720 single thing. Because he could not wait to. 425 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:57,200 Move in and be back where his people were. 426 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:02,960 My son Jackson is at college. He's far away, and every once in 427 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,560 a while he comes home. There's a whole different energy 428 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,440 when Jackson's coming home. My kids are like my girls at 429 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:09,680 home. They're just like, be nice if 430 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:11,680 you fill the fridge like that for us, you know? 431 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:14,400 Like, we're here. We're here every every day, 432 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,000 right? Listen, I want you to sense 433 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,320 like, like I'm a sinful, selfish person and my heart resonates 434 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,360 with fatherhood like that. That's the image of God. 435 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:28,920 That is how God feels about you coming home, about you getting 436 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:30,840 to experience him, about you getting me there. 437 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,360 He couldn't wait to move in. Here's the problem. 438 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:43,000 Wherever we go, there we are. All of our fears and doubts and 439 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,000 insecurities and distrust and grasping for control. 440 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:51,240 And autonomy, it's all there in the wilderness with us. 441 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,080 It's all there defining our relationships with God and each 442 00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:59,520 other. And So what Lent is about, the 443 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,720 season of Lent that we're in leading up to Easter, is 444 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,200 honestly sitting with that pattern. 445 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,920 Eden wasn't an isolated incident, it was a reflection of 446 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,040 the character of God. The Tabernacle wasn't an 447 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,880 isolated incident, it was a reflection of the character of 448 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,360 God. There's this pattern of God 449 00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:23,440 calling out separating. Forming and filling and 450 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,640 inhabiting. That's what Genesis 1 is. 451 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:28,200 That's what Exodus 25 through 40 is. 452 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:30,840 He rescued his people from slavery. 453 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,240 He gave them a form of a place where he could dwell and 454 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,680 inhabit, and then he filled that place with his presence. 455 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:41,880 It's the same father impulse. He always does the same thing, 456 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:44,320 always the same thing, and so do we. 457 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:48,480 He always takes the initiative. To respond to us. 458 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:52,040 And we always perceive His Holiness as a threat. 459 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,720 God's just trying to keep me from having fun. 460 00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,040 God's just trying to get in my pocket. 461 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,920 God just wants my. And so with our fear and 462 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,480 distrust over the holiness of God, we cling to our stuff. 463 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:12,720 And we once again back into exile, wondering why things are 464 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:17,840 the same, wondering why we once again find ourselves rejecting 465 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:22,880 the home that we were built for, rejecting the Father who has 466 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:26,560 crossed time and eternity to be with us. 467 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:32,200 And since we've been in the wilderness for so long, we just 468 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:36,440 decided that we'd furnish it. We'll furnish the wilderness. 469 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:40,360 We'll dull that ache. We'll make it so that it's not 470 00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:42,560 existential, it's just kind of ambient. 471 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:44,840 Yeah, we're just a little bit. Lonely, but we got our. 472 00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:46,760 Addictions. We're a little bit bored, but 473 00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,640 we've got our credit cards. We're a little bit afraid, but 474 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:52,560 we've got enough people and stuff to distract us, right? 475 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:58,840 Lent is removing all of those. Things and allowing ourselves to 476 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:05,400 get hungry again for the home that he just keeps offering. 477 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,080 That's the garden and the wilderness confirms it. 478 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:18,760 God wants to be with his people, but something. 479 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:23,120 Has to be done. About what we bring into holy 480 00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:26,160 places right like that. Like that's the thing if the 481 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:27,800 wilderness. Could cure us it would. 482 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:29,440 Have cured us. We would have entered the Israel 483 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,240 would have entered the Holy Land and they wouldn't have had any 484 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:32,960 problems. If the wilderness could cure us, 485 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:34,560 then our loneliness would fix us. 486 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,760 But we just keep doubling down. We just keep betting on the same 487 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,640 horse that continues to finish dead last every time, over and 488 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,360 over again. There's a problem that we bring 489 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,840 with us. And the problem is that's the 490 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:48,360 problem that has to be dealt with. 491 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,560 That's the problem that God has to address. 492 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,960 And there is a word for the way that God makes that dwelling 493 00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,240 possible. There is a word for the way that 494 00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:01,080 God takes a tent, build, fight by sinful human hands and is 495 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,960 then able to indwell it and fill it with his holy presence so 496 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:07,720 that we can not just understand it, but experience it. 497 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,960 That word. Is atonement. 498 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:20,840 Atonement is how God inhabits space with sinful people. 499 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:31,000 And I know you just like, well, why doesn't he just like wink at 500 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:32,680 it? Like why like God, why can't you 501 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:34,960 just like say it right? Well, there's a picture in 502 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,320 Leviticus. So Leviticus 16 is the chapter 503 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:40,880 that talks that. So the, the Hebrew word for 504 00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:46,440 atonement is kafir, right? And it is where we get the word 505 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,880 the Jewish high holy day, right? Yom Kippur is this day and it is 506 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,680 a day once you heard, I would encourage you this week or today 507 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,160 or whatever, go home and read Leviticus 16. 508 00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:00,320 And yeah, it's an interesting chapter for sure because it 509 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:05,560 talks about what it takes for the for the high priest, in this 510 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:07,400 case, it's Aaron. For the high priest to enter 511 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,480 into this place. I just want to read one verse or 512 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,480 a couple of verses. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 29 513 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,200 God says through Moses, this is to be a permanent statute for 514 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:19,640 you in the seventh month on the 10th day of the month. 515 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,000 You are to practice. Self denial. 516 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,160 Now listen. He doesn't say hey whenever you 517 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:26,640 want, hey whenever you feel like it, hey, if your guilt ever gets 518 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,280 really bad and really heavy, then on that day you can go. 519 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:33,000 That's not God's holiness. We don't get to just recklessly 520 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,480 crash into the place. He is holy. 521 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,520 It would consume us if we did. If we just barged carelessly 522 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:41,520 into the presence of God, it would consume us. 523 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:43,120 So he says, here's how you do it. 524 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:44,960 There is a date and there is a place. 525 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,320 Practice self denial. Self denial is Eve going Nah, 526 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,000 I'm not going to take that I'm going to go over here and start 527 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,720 planting orange trees I'm going to leave that alone like God 528 00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,240 said so he says practice now that self denial that's what 529 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:04,480 fasting is that's why we say no to social media or to food or to 530 00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,840 whatever it is that that you choose to fast so we can just go 531 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:11,000 I didn't get it right but I'm going to practice I'm going to 532 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,440 get it right now we. Practice self denial and no. 533 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:18,040 Work because in this world we work to provide for ourselves. 534 00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:21,200 On the Day of Atonement, we recognize that He calls us to a 535 00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,000 or where He provides, we manage, we. 536 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,320 Partner atonement will be made. For you on this day to cleanse 537 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,240 you. And you will be clean from all 538 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:37,880 your sins before the Lord. The Day of Atonement was one day 539 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:43,960 a year where one man would take the blood of the sacrifice, and 540 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,840 he would go behind the veil into the very presence of God. 541 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,280 And you remember what we said in Eden, right? 542 00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:53,160 The image of God is about representation, right? 543 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,120 Like we in our forming and filling and managing of 544 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,040 creation, we represent the wisdom of God. 545 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:03,320 Well, now this high priest enters into the presence of God, 546 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,400 and he represents the people just because it's one. 547 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:10,840 Guy doesn't mean it's private. It doesn't mean listen, I know 548 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:12,680 we. Live in a very individualistic 549 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:14,320 world, right? In a very individualistic 550 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:17,480 culture where we want to say my sin is my issue, it's my 551 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,280 problem. There's nothing of that in 552 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,840 Scripture. What the high priest is doing is 553 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:26,160 bringing the sins of the people. We as a humanity are separated 554 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,200 and fallen away from you. And we represent that 555 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:32,920 brokenness, that fallenness, that contamination. 556 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:35,520 We bring it into the presence of God. 557 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,560 And what happens is then when we walk out and we return, he 558 00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:44,840 returns with a space cleanse prepared for his dwelling. 559 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,600 Again, this isn't some control free. 560 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:48,760 God. This is a God. 561 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,520 Who is so concerned that we have access to his? 562 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:56,080 Presence that he leaves nothing to chance. 563 00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:01,160 No hope that maybe this. Time we'll get it right. 564 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:07,880 The priest brought contamination and he returned with atonement. 565 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:12,160 And the good news now is that the people of Israel could say 566 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,960 our God is dwelling with us. We do have access. 567 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:20,960 He is as one among us. Atonement is a crucial, vital 568 00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:25,400 part of our story because atonement restores what sin 569 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,160 contaminates. And listen as you get into that 570 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,760 Leviticus 16 and as you read all about that. 571 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:35,200 It's gruesome, there's a lot of blood and there's a lot of death 572 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:37,120 and we can just go. How could God do all? 573 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,680 The blood and the death on that. Read the news, you think? 574 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:43,400 We don't have. Blood and death. 575 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,640 Here's the idea behind this God didn't choose this. 576 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:50,360 This wasn't the original plan. It wasn't supposed to be like 577 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,440 this. When you remove the giver of 578 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:55,920 life, all that's left is death and it plays out every day, 579 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:56,880 right? In front of us. 580 00:33:57,360 --> 00:33:59,240 And we baptize it. Oh, you got to have it. 581 00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,680 You got to do that. It wasn't supposed to be that 582 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:03,280 way. That's not God's desire. 583 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:09,600 Desire. I did a funeral for a 16 year 584 00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:16,239 old young man this year. This week, one of the most 585 00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,760 impactful demonstrations of love in a community that I've ever 586 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:21,960 seen. But over and over and over 587 00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:27,560 again, 200 times, I watched 141516 year old young men walk 588 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:31,360 through the doors of this funeral Chapel, strong and brash 589 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:33,639 and brazen and brave. And they walked. 590 00:34:33,639 --> 00:34:35,520 In because that's what we've. Trained them to do and. 591 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:37,480 That's what we've told them that they need to be. 592 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:42,239 And I walked them walk in together, arm in arm, brave 593 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,199 striding out the front. But a crazy. 594 00:34:44,199 --> 00:34:46,760 Thing happens, man, the closer you get to that casket. 595 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:53,520 They weren't brave anymore. You can blame them. 596 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:59,760 I just grieved. So many kids had to have that 597 00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:04,160 experience. So many kids had to look at 598 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:07,200 something that they shouldn't have to process. 599 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:16,320 To ignore the contamination of sin is to say would be for God 600 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,240 to say I'm OK with that. I'm OK with loneliness. 601 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:25,360 I'm OK with young people trying to define themselves by their 602 00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:30,480 sexuality or by their income or by their their Instagram feed. 603 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:35,320 We can all agree that wouldn't be a very loving, father 604 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:40,680 fatherly thing to do. And So what God does is remove 605 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,600 every doubt. About how committed he. 606 00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:52,000 Is to us entering into His presence, thought of everything, 607 00:35:53,640 --> 00:36:00,400 thought of everything. But the problem is because 608 00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:03,520 there's gravity in this mercy, right? 609 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:07,520 Like he has provided a way in for us, but it's heavy it. 610 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,400 Forces us to face. The reality that we have fallen 611 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:11,920 short, he has. Forces us to. 612 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:13,920 Face the reality that we don't measure up. 613 00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:17,400 It forces us to face the reality that we that we chose. 614 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:19,080 This that we, that we. Did this. 615 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:23,560 And because of that, we still perceive that holiness as a 616 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:26,040 threat. We still understand the list is 617 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:28,000 too long, the details are too much. 618 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:31,800 We can't possibly go over that. And so we still don't trust him. 619 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,560 Anybody who wants to give me that many orders in that 620 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,280 directions, he must not be trustworthy. 621 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:41,560 And then once again, the serpent is reframing God's holiness as 622 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:45,480 manipulation or as control. And so we interpret wilderness 623 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:49,200 now as punishment. God must be mad at me. 624 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:56,120 So I got to stop being so bad. Friend, I want to tell you that 625 00:36:56,120 --> 00:37:00,160 is a hopeless endeavor. That control thing. 626 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,640 It is baked in by the wilderness. 627 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:06,120 It is baked in by our entire lives in exile. 628 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:12,480 Holiness is not God's invitation to get your act together. 629 00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,720 Holiness is a gift. Holiness is what happens. 630 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:19,560 It's the gift of being with God again. 631 00:37:20,720 --> 00:37:23,320 Remember in our Proverbs series, this thing that we kept coming 632 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,080 back to over and over and over again is that we're shaped by 633 00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:29,800 proximity. Things that we stand closest to 634 00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:33,040 become what we look like, right? I remember talked about how my 635 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:37,200 music tastes have changed as I just get worn down and over and 636 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:39,880 over again by, you know, by the things that I listen to. 637 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,920 It's the same idea, Father. Wants to be. 638 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:45,560 Close to us. He doesn't say get holy and I'll 639 00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:47,680 come close. He says if you come close, I'll 640 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:51,920 transform you. I'll make you able to experience 641 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:56,840 all of Eden. When we resist that, everything 642 00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:57,520 in US tells. Us. 643 00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,080 We're resisting. We resist. 644 00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:01,360 Holiness because it's constrictive it right because it 645 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:03,120 just, oh, he just doesn't want us to have fun. 646 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,200 When we resist holiness, what we're resisting is nearness. 647 00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:11,240 We're resisting an experience of the God who loves us enough to 648 00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:16,320 make a way. Everything in the Proverbs, that 649 00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:18,480 whole idea of proximity, it's been pointing to this. 650 00:38:18,720 --> 00:38:22,160 You cannot remain unchanged when the Holy One moves into the 651 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:27,320 neighborhood. He just can't do it, but he 652 00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:32,480 comes. 1st. He moves in first and he invites 653 00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:35,640 us just to linger. That's not a threat. 654 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:37,120 We read that as a threat. I just. 655 00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,320 Want to say like it's my, it's my pastoral responsibility and 656 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:41,120 do that. That is not a threat. 657 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:43,680 This is not an angry God clicking his tongue. 658 00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:46,760 This is not a God with his arms folding, waiting for you to be 659 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:49,720 something that you're not. The whole point of this is God 660 00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:54,680 comes near to make us holy. He comes away to burn up the 661 00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:56,080 exile. He comes away. 662 00:38:56,240 --> 00:38:58,040 Yeah, sure. Like we're not back in the 663 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,040 garden yet. But listen, side note, I've read 664 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:03,200 the end of the book. Revelation 2122 sounds a lot 665 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:05,760 like Eden, fully abandoned and filling the earth. 666 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,520 We're not there yet, but he's here now and all he wants is 667 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:11,520 just for us to. Linger just a little bit. 668 00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,440 To let him refine our fires. What if he just says, hey, what 669 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,360 if you give that up for a minute and you start to see that you 670 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:20,560 don't have to keep filling your face to feel something? 671 00:39:20,720 --> 00:39:23,320 That you don't have to keep giving yourself away to feel 672 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:30,760 something. Command of God about purity and 673 00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:32,760 righteousness and generosity and love. 674 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:34,760 That is not the pathway to blessing. 675 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:36,560 I'm going to say that again. Are you listening? 676 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:41,360 The command of God is not the pathway to blessing. 677 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,680 The command of God is the blessing. 678 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:49,760 It is his presence in our lives so that we don't need to 679 00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:53,960 sacrifice our the image of Him in us, our fruitfulness, our 680 00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:57,000 nakedness and unashamed. We don't have to sacrifice that 681 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:01,960 to make somebody else thumbs up. It is to be existent in the. 682 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:06,480 Place where we are. Eternally loved and approved of 683 00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:13,280 the Tabernacle is not some neurotic God and his impossible 684 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:17,680 demands. Tabernacle is the exact same 685 00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:22,440 invitation as Eden. Will you trust me enough to 686 00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:28,280 partner with me in ordering this space, God? 687 00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,160 Didn't drop the. Tabernacle on their. 688 00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,120 Heads, he said. Here's what the. 689 00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:37,640 Form of holiness looks like you want to be a part of it. 690 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:42,920 He looks at your relationship with your children and says, 691 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,400 Holiness looks like let them go and teach them to love me. 692 00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:57,600 Do you want to be a part of it? There's nothing that I want you 693 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:02,560 to do because we so easily at this place, get into this place. 694 00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:04,680 We just go, OK, well now. All right, I'm going to go and 695 00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:07,040 not be holy. Well, that's backwards. 696 00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:13,000 I don't want to do that right. I'm not asking you to go out and 697 00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:15,440 behave in a certain way. Here's what I'm asking. 698 00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:20,120 Will you intentionally and deliberately this week begin to 699 00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:24,680 question your doubts and your fears about holiness? 700 00:41:27,240 --> 00:41:32,360 Will you begin to question why you think that this path that 701 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,320 you're on to make and create a way through your job or through 702 00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:37,320 your relationships with your? Will you begin to? 703 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,600 Question whether that is ever going to ever really be able to 704 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,600 deliver what it promises. If it was, it probably would 705 00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:50,840 have by now. We begin to entertain the idea 706 00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:56,360 that God's holiness is a gift. It is the experience of the life 707 00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,320 that we have been yearning for and longing for. 708 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:03,120 And will you then stay? There, stay there. 709 00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:09,080 Long enough to be shaped. Your part is the same as it was 710 00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:12,040 in Eden. The same thing that you were 711 00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:15,120 supposed to do in the shadow and the cool of Eden and all that. 712 00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:26,600 Not performance, not curation. Just don't walk away. 713 00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:39,080 Just don't leave his presence. Holy Spirit, you are that 714 00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:45,560 expression for us next week when we look at the temple and how 715 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,680 you filled that place. Lord, now This Is Us. 716 00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:55,760 And so, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would convict us this week 717 00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:58,440 when we're tempted to outsource our identity. 718 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:01,560 I pray that there'll just be like a little buzzer, a little 719 00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:03,840 ache in our head that would be like, that's not it. 720 00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:07,640 You don't have to give yourself away for that. 721 00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:17,680 When you bring conviction to our hearts about thought or behavior 722 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:23,320 or or a thing that we've put our hope in or our trust in or we 723 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,800 are afraid by something, when that happens, I pray that we 724 00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:33,840 would label it as exile and we would instead look at you in 725 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:40,840 that place. Father God, we trust that Your 726 00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:45,000 desire is to make a space in US and with us and dwell there. 727 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:48,600 And so that is our desires to once again partner with you. 728 00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:51,000 And Lord, we don't have ultimate authority. 729 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,000 We cannot do this apart from You. 730 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,520 We cannot. You take the initiative, You set 731 00:43:55,520 --> 00:44:00,640 it up, You make it happen. Give us the faith to be partners 732 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:07,400 in your redemption. Jesus, we ask these things in 733 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:11,560 your name and for your glory. Thank you for joining us today. 734 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:14,800 River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing 735 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,520 God's love in our lives and community, and we hope that 736 00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:19,520 you've been able to experience that today. 737 00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:22,720 As grateful as I am that you've spent this time listening in 738 00:44:22,720 --> 00:44:25,760 this morning, this podcast is no substitute for full 739 00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:29,680 participation in a local church. I love it when River City people 740 00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:33,000 listen to other pastors, but it is those who show up week after 741 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,920 week faithfully giving their support and time and resources 742 00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:39,280 that make all of this possible. If we can help you get connected 743 00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:43,280 to a local church, pray for you, or support you in any way, click 744 00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:44,920 the link in the description and let us know. 745 00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:47,600 If you'd like to financially support the ministry of River 746 00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,520 City, click the give link on our website in the description. 747 00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:53,680 Don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to share this with 748 00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:55,680 your friends. Thanks so much for listening. 749 00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,880 May the Lord bless and keep you in all grace and peace.