God's Presence: The Tabernacle and Our Priestly Calling

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Exodus 27:20-21** - "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come."
2. **Exodus 28:2-4** - "Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor. Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest. These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons so they may serve me as priests."
3. **Exodus 30:1, 7-8** - "Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense... Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come."

#### Observation Questions
1. What specific instructions were given regarding the lampstand in the tabernacle? (Exodus 27:20-21)
2. Describe the garments that were to be made for Aaron and his sons. What materials and colors were used? (Exodus 28:2-4)
3. What was the purpose of the altar of incense, and how often was Aaron instructed to burn incense on it? (Exodus 30:1, 7-8)
4. According to the sermon, what does the lampstand symbolize in our spiritual lives today? [37:53]

#### Interpretation Questions
1. How does the continual burning of the lampstand relate to our role as light bearers in the world today? [37:53]
2. What is the significance of the detailed description of the priestly garments in terms of our spiritual responsibilities? [46:43]
3. How does the process of consecration for the priests in Exodus 29 foreshadow our own spiritual journey? [55:00]
4. In what ways does the altar of incense represent the power and importance of prayer in our lives? [01:01:53]

#### Application Questions
1. The lampstand symbolizes our call to be light in the darkness. What are some practical ways you can keep your spiritual light burning in your community, even when it requires sacrifice? [37:53]
2. Reflect on the weight and beauty of the priestly garments. How can you embrace the responsibility of serving God and others with a heart of sacrifice and dedication in your daily life? [46:43]
3. The consecration process involved washing, robing, anointing, and sacrifices. How can you apply these steps to your own spiritual journey? For example, what steps can you take to ensure you are spiritually "washed" and "clothed" in Christ? [55:00]
4. The altar of incense represents the prayers of God's people. How can you cultivate a life of constant prayer, and what specific steps can you take to intercede for others more effectively? [01:01:53]
5. Practicing the presence of God means recognizing that we are always in His presence. How can you remind yourself of God's presence in your daily activities, and what changes can you make to live more consciously in His presence? [01:04:59]
6. The sermon mentioned the importance of spiritual disciplines. Identify one spiritual discipline you want to focus on this week. How will you incorporate it into your daily routine to keep your spiritual light burning? [41:08]
7. As priests, we are called to help others find their way into God's presence. Think of someone in your life who is struggling spiritually. What specific actions can you take this week to guide them closer to God? [50:19]

1. "Our greatest need is not these felt needs that we have that we keep trying to fill with everything the world has to offer. Our greatest need is to be in the presence of God." [28:41]


2. "We go through life with this restless heart, these restless emotions, trying to fill it and calm it with everything we can, when it's really God that we need most." [30:40]


3. "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." [31:43]


4. "We have a Creator, and our hearts will only be at rest when we're with Him, in that fellowship and relationship with Him." [31:11]


5. "We are sinful. So how do sinful people get into the presence of a holy God and be made welcome there? There has to be an answer to that problem." [34:52]


6. "It's one thing to curse the darkness; it's another thing to light a candle. He wants us to light the candles, to be the light in those dark places." [40:03]


7. "We take the presence of God everywhere we go. He's in us, we dwell in His presence all the time. We don't go in and out." [01:04:59]


8. "If you want to see the power of God in your life, we must be a people marked by the presence of God and serious prayerfulness in our lives every day." [01:08:56]


9. "It's about presence and prayer. He's called us to be priests of God through presence and prayer." [01:01:53]


10. "We are washed clean, clothed with Christ, leaving here with the anointing of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and His presence of God will be with us from now on." [01:14:27]

### Day 1: Bearing the Light of God's Holiness
The lampstand in the tabernacle, with its seven lights, symbolizes the perfect light of God's holiness. As priests under the new covenant, we are called to keep this light burning in the darkness of the world. This means actively engaging in our spiritual disciplines and being a presence of God's light in our communities, even when it requires sacrifice and discomfort. The lampstand's continual light reminds us that God's presence is with us in every situation. We must learn to practice this presence daily, combining it with a life of prayer, to experience the fullness of God's power and provision in our lives and ministries. [37:53]

**Bible Passage:**
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house." (Matthew 5:14-15, ESV)

**Reflection:**
Think of a specific area in your life where you can be a light in the darkness. How can you actively engage in this role today, even if it requires sacrifice or discomfort?


### Day 2: The Weight and Beauty of Our Calling
The detailed description of the priestly garments in Exodus highlights the beauty and weight of our calling as priests. These garments represent the perfection and holiness required to be in God's presence. As modern-day priests, we must be willing to bear the weight of this responsibility, serving God and others with a heart of sacrifice and dedication. The priestly garments remind us that our service to God is not to be taken lightly but with reverence and commitment. [46:43]

**Bible Passage:**
"And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood." (Exodus 28:2-3, ESV)

**Reflection:**
Reflect on the responsibilities you have in your spiritual life. How can you approach these duties with a renewed sense of reverence and dedication today?


### Day 3: Consecration and Spiritual Cleansing
The process of consecrating the priests—washing, robing, anointing, and sacrifices—foreshadows our own spiritual journey. We must be washed clean through baptism, clothed in Christ's righteousness, anointed with the Holy Spirit, and continually reminded of the power of Jesus' sacrifice. This consecration enables us to serve effectively as priests in God's kingdom. The steps of consecration are not just historical rituals but are deeply symbolic of our spiritual transformation and readiness to serve. [55:00]

**Bible Passage:**
"And you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod." (Exodus 29:4-5, ESV)

**Reflection:**
Consider your own spiritual journey. What steps can you take today to further consecrate yourself to God's service, whether through prayer, study, or acts of service?


### Day 4: The Power of Prayer
The altar of incense, with its perpetual burning, symbolizes the prayers of God's people. As priests, we are called to maintain a life of constant prayer, interceding for others and staying connected to God. This ongoing conversation with God empowers us to fulfill our priestly duties and bring His presence into every aspect of our lives. The altar of incense serves as a reminder that our prayers are a continual offering to God, rising before Him day and night. [01:01:53]

**Bible Passage:**
"And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel." (Revelation 8:4, ESV)

**Reflection:**
Identify one person or situation that needs prayer today. Commit to praying for them consistently, and consider how you can intercede on their behalf throughout the day.


### Day 5: Practicing the Presence of God
Living as priests means recognizing that we are always in the presence of God. The lampstand's continual light reminds us that God's presence is with us in every situation. We must learn to practice this presence daily, combining it with a life of prayer, to experience the fullness of God's power and provision in our lives and ministries. Practicing the presence of God involves a conscious awareness of His nearness and a deliberate effort to include Him in every aspect of our lives. [01:04:59]

**Bible Passage:**
"Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." (Romans 12:11-12, ESV)

**Reflection:**
Throughout your day, make a conscious effort to acknowledge God's presence in every activity. How can you remind yourself of His nearness and involve Him in your daily tasks and decisions?

Welcome again, everyone. We're so glad you're here with us today. Welcome, Smyrna Campus. We're so glad you guys are connected there. And we want to welcome everybody joining us online as well.

I know on this holiday weekend we've got a lot of people traveling, a lot of people tuning in online. We're happy to have that available for you.

As we begin today, I wanted to mention a couple of prayer requests. I know we can't always mention all of them in our church family, but I did want to mention a couple of recent deaths. Jackie Denning is here. We want to be praying for her and her family in the passing of her sister. Also, John Riley and the death of his father.

And I know that at the same time, Smyrna Campus also has Pam Doran going into Vanderbilt Hospital this week. She's been going through some health challenges, and they're going to be doing some more work on that. So please keep her and her family, her and Steve, her husband, and others in prayer.

And I know there are many other needs within our church family. Let's go to God in prayer together.

Father, we're just grateful for this opportunity we have to approach your throne of grace with confidence, not in ourselves, but in our Savior. Jesus makes a way for us to come directly to you and enter into your presence and dwell there and bring you our needs so that we can find the help that we're looking for from you.

Father, we pray for these that we mentioned already today, but there are others within our church family, so many needs. And you are a God who cares about every single one—every grief, every hurt, every challenge, every opportunity, every blessing.

Father, you are the one who is the source we need to go to, and we thank you that you hear us and that you answer us. And Father, more than anything else, because we know we can trust you and your love and your character, we just pray for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

There were some visitors that went to the zoo, and they were surprised to see this exhibit. It had lions in there and some lambs, and they had a sign on the exhibit that said "co-exist." It was intriguing that they had the lions and the lambs in there together.

So the visitors found the zookeeper that was working there with the lions and all and asked, "How is it possible that you're able to have this display with lions and lambs in there together?" He said, "It's really not any problem at all. We just add a few lambs every now and then."

Some things aren't meant to go together, right? Some things aren't meant to be in the same place at the same time, or there's going to be bad consequences.

And today, as we're looking at our study, we're going through the book of Exodus. If you've got your Bibles, we're going to be picking up in Exodus chapter 27. We've been looking at the tabernacle over the last week and now this week—the design of the tabernacle, the design for it, the instructions to build it, and the instructions for the worship that was going to take place there.

He gives great detail instructions through Moses on this tabernacle and what he wants to happen there. Last week, we talked about the fact that we saw that our greatest need is not these felt needs that we have that we keep trying to fill with everything the world has to offer, and then we still aren't satisfied. That's not really our greatest need.

Our greatest need is to be in the presence of God—to dwell in the presence of our Creator. You see, that's what we're made for. That's what we're designed for. That's why we exist—to be in that relationship with Him, in His presence, dwelling with Him and the creative world that He gave us to dwell in, in His presence.

Last week, we talked about the fact that this great plan that God has, this amazing plan for His glory and our good, is to restore that relationship so that we can once again dwell in His presence—in that creation that He wants us to be able to enjoy.

I used a term that I heard another pastor use, a version of this, and I really liked it: He's re-Edenizing the world. He's restoring everything back to Eden. And as we see that happening, it gives us great hope.

The tabernacle was built to demonstrate that God is working out that plan to bring us back together again and to make us realize that what we really need is to be in the presence of God and to have His presence in our lives.

When we get that, when we understand that, and we know that God's prepared a way for that to happen, then that begins to solve a lot of the deep-rooted problems in us spiritually and emotionally.

When we start realizing what the greatest need really is, we stop chasing all the other things thinking that they're going to satisfy that need that we have, that we feel deep down. Sometimes we don't even know what it is, and we're filling it with the wrong things, trying to, and it's just not satisfying.

Augustine would say it like this: "You've made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." Isn't that true? We go through life with this restless heart, these restless emotions, trying to fill it and calm it with everything we can when it's really God that we need most.

Because we have a Creator, then our hearts will only be at rest when we're with Him, when we're in that fellowship with Him and that relationship with Him.

So what I want to talk to you about today is how we need to get back into the presence of God and how God has, in the tabernacle, clearly demonstrated to us what's going to happen in order for us to be back in His presence.

C.S. Lewis would say it like this: "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." That's the only logical explanation. Nothing here really satisfies completely.

That's a good indicator that we're not made for this world. We're made to be in the presence of our Creator. And so we're going to be talking about here in the tabernacle and some of the furnishings of the tabernacle how God is inviting us into His presence.

He has tabernacled with us already, right? We saw that already in the instructions to build the tabernacle. God is saying, "I'm coming to be with you, and I'm going to make a way for you to come in and be with me." He took the first step. He initiated this furnishing process, and what He did to make a way in.

And now He's teaching us in the tabernacle, "Here is what has to happen. I've come to you, and now I'm going to give you this way to find your way back into my presence so that you can dwell there."

But what I want to talk about today in that process God gives us to get back into His presence is that there's a great big problem that has to be overcome for us to go back into the presence of God.

We introduced it a little bit last week, but I want to really dig a little further into it this week with some of the workings of the tabernacle here. You see, God—here's the problem—it really is these two things: it's God's holiness and our sinfulness. That's the problem with us being in the presence of God.

God's holiness—the Bible on repeat calls God in His holiness a consuming fire. That's not a refiner's fire; that's not what He's saying. God does want to refine us, and He puts us through a refining fire process sometimes, but consuming fire is different.

In the Old Testament Hebrew and in the New Testament Greek, when it talks about this, the words that are used mean that this holiness, this consuming fire, nothing can survive under it. Nothing can survive it that is not pure and holy.

God reveals we've all sinned. Can we be in the presence of a God in pure holiness who is a consuming fire with our sin? You see, that's the problem. We have in us the desire to dwell in the presence of God, but there's also this fear that should be there. It's a right fear that if we enter into the presence of this God who is all holy with our sin, we won't be able to dwell there. In fact, we will be consumed, destroyed in His presence.

We are sinful. So how do sinful people get into the presence of a holy God and be made welcome there and be allowed to stay there? There has to be an answer to that problem.

And the tabernacle, remember, is a foreshadowing of God's plan to make it possible for His sinful people to be restored again in that relationship—to be back in His presence again.

And so I want us to look at several things here in the tabernacle today that help teach us for us to come back into His presence. So since we're sinful, we've got to see, "Alright, what needs to happen? What are the steps?"

And I want to start in Exodus 27, verse 20, with the lampstand that's in the holy place in the tabernacle.

"Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning in the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law. The sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for generations to come."

Now, if you read on, He gives more details all through these chapters dealing with the tabernacle of this lampstand. It's a golden lampstand. It has seven lights on it—seven being a number in Scripture that signifies wholeness and perfection.

So He's saying there's this perfect light there in this holy place that is to be kept burning. The time when there's darkness, this light needs to be burning. And that light, that perfect light, represents this idea that His plan for His people is that we are able to be in the presence of this perfect light of the holiness of God.

He wants us to be able to see. The priests are able to go in there. They're supposed to be—here's the instruction—keep the lights burning all the time from dusk until the light of the sun comes up again. You keep this light burning the whole time. Never let it go out.

It's symbolic of the fact that in the darkness of the world, in the darkness of our sin, God is the presence of that light, of that holiness, of that purity that we have a desire built into our hearts and our souls to be in the presence of that light, of that holiness.

What it means for you and me is this: in God's plan, remember, it's a foreshadowing; it's looking ahead. In God's plan, Aaron and his sons were the priests under the old covenant that would enter into the holy place and keep those lights burning.

But we, under the new covenant, are called priests of God—all of us. So what's our role? To keep the light on. To keep the light shining in the darkness. To be the presence of the light of God in the darkness of the world where we live today.

I understand, I truly do, as a parent and a grandparent, this desire to protect our kids and keep them from the hard, bad stuff in the world. I do, I get it. If we could just put a shawl around our kids or wrap them up in bubble wrap, wouldn't that be great? No harm at all; nothing bad could happen if we could just do that somehow for our kids.

Sometimes we go so overboard with that that we run so much from the darkness that there's no light present there anymore. We do have a responsibility as parents to protect our children as best we can.

But friends, if we keep pulling the light out of the darkness and running from the darkness, there's nothing but darkness left. And God's plan is to redeem the darkness and take His light into those dark places.

He's called the church to be that light. He's called us to be the priests of God in our culture today who bring that light to the dark places of our world.

Now, He gives us boundaries. He gives us instructions. He's not wanting us to be foolish about this in a bad way, but He is wanting us to be willing to risk—to be that light presence in the darkness. To be willing to sacrifice, to be willing to invest time and energy and resources the same way the priests had to invest time and energy and resources to keep those lights burning in the holy place there in the tabernacle.

He wants us to be willing to invest ourselves as priests of God today to be that light in the darkness. It's one thing to curse the darkness; it's another thing to light a candle. He wants us to light the candles, to be the light in those dark places.

It's easy to curse the darkness and complain about how bad everything is. It's a whole different thing to be light in those places. He's called us to be the light—to quit running away from and start lighting into the darkness.

What it means for you and me as priests of God is Jesus is the light of the world. He identified Himself that way when He was here in the flesh. He told us, "I'm the light of the world." But a little later on, as He was about to ascend back to the Father, He said, "You are the light of the world."

And where is the light needed the most? It's in the dark places. So we need to be keeping ourselves where we need to be so that we can shine bright lights in the dark places.

That means it's so important to have the spiritual disciplines in our lives, like He's commanding them to do here in the tabernacle. There are daily practices that we need to do so that we keep the light on.

We're not keeping the light on when we are the light that God wants us to be. We can't welcome the darkness into our lives, into our hearts, into our souls, and expect them to be a light for the people that God wants us to be a light for.

The priests could not be in there lighting those candles until they dealt with their own sins on the altar. They had to get rid of those; they had to have those covered by the blood sacrifices so they could be in there providing that light.

And that's what we need to do when we are the priests of God today. We've got to deal with our sins, friends. We've got to repent. We've got to turn from them. We've got to find cleansing through the sacrifice God has provided through His Son, Jesus.

And then we have to walk in the light as He is in the light so that we can light up this dark world with the love of Jesus. The lampstand is a beautiful symbol foreshadowing of God's plan to be people who keep the light on.

You remember that old commercial? I think it was Motel 6. You remember? "We'll keep the light on for you." Friends, the world needs us to keep the light on for a lost world in the darkness of sin.

He's wanting us to be the people who keep the light on all the time for that lost world.

Well, then you can read more about that in different chapters here in this section on the tabernacle. I want to go to the next thing that He talks about specifically next in chapter 28, and that's the priestly garments that He describes here.

Remember, He's called us to be priests of God today—men and women to be priests serving in His tabernacle.

Here's the thing: when He describes the priestly garments, when you get to that in chapter 28, I just want to read through some of it real quick here.

"Have Aaron, your brother, brought to you from among the Israelites along with his sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer and Ithamar, so that they may serve me as priests. Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor. Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron for his consecration so that he may serve me as priest. These are the garments they are to make: an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons so they may serve me as priests. Have them use gold and blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen."

Now, I want to stop there because he goes on to describe some other parts of how the priest would be robed and prepared to go in and serve in the holy place for God, where the lampstand is, where the table of showbread is, where the altar of incense would be. They are going to go in there and minister for God in those places.

But he gives them this description of how they are to be clothed for that. So I'm just going to walk you through it kind of quickly here.

A breast piece, it's gold, and it's blue, purple, scarlet yarn, fine twine linen. There are four rows of stones, he says, for the breast piece that are set in gold, each with names of the sons of Israel, with twisted cords made of gold and a pocket that contained Urim and Thummim.

And then there was an ephod of gold. There was blue, purple, and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen. There are two shoulder pieces attached to the linen, two onyx stones set in gold. They were also engraved with the names of the sons of Israel.

There was a robe; it was all blue fabric with pomegranates and bells of gold sewn into the hem. There was a coat of checkered work. The turban was a signet engraved with a signet. It was saying "holy to the Lord." Then there was a sash, and there was a variety of gold chains and medallions and bells.

So I want you to think about a couple of things here with the way he introduces in chapter 28 the design of the garment for the priest to wear while they're ministering in His presence.

Just a couple of things. The first one is this: when you read through the description, here's what you're going to find out. It's extremely heavy to wear. It's going to require a lot of effort to walk around in this thing and do the stuff that God is calling them to do, which indicates a servant's heart—a willingness to serve under hard conditions.

There needs to be a willingness to serve as a priest of God. We're willing to serve as a priest of God as long as it doesn't interfere with anything else. We don't want anything else to get in the way of anything else, no. We don't want it to interfere with our sports. We don't want it to interfere with our entertainment. We don't want it to interfere with how we want to spend our money. We don't want it to interfere with our lives the way we're living them and we're comfortable with. We don't want to be uncomfortable.

We're willing to be a priest of God as long as we don't have to be uncomfortable doing it. And yet the whole foreshadowing of what it means to be a priest is it's going to be uncomfortable.

It's going to be beautiful; it's a beautiful thing, but it's not comfortable. You see, beauty and comfort don't always go together at the same time. But in this case, you have beauty and comfort together—beauty and sacrifice, beauty and service together.

The other thing I want you to think about is when you read the description of the garments is that the garments themselves represent what a perfect high priest would be.

I mean, remember the lampstand—seven lights, the perfection of God. If you're in the presence of that perfection, the only thing that can dwell in the perfection of that light is the perfection of God, giving us this perfection to be in His presence.

And so He describes the kind of clothing the priests were going to wear in a way that really illustrates the perfection of God.

Now let me point out what I mean by this. The ideal high priest will be a man of heaven. Remember the description of the tabernacle—the materials that were used as you entered in. The further, the closer you got to the ark where the presence of God was at the mercy seat, the finer the ingredients were, the materials were that were used in the tabernacle.

In other words, the closer you get to God, the more it needs to be something that represents who God is. And so the person who would enter into the presence of God—the priest—are going to be clothed with the kind of garments that represent the majesty, the glory, and the holiness of God.

To be in His presence means you have to be clothed with what's needed to be in His presence. I want you to think about that. Hold on to that. If we're going to be in the presence of God, we have to be clothed in the right way to be in His presence.

Notice something else about the garments. The ideal high priest is a man of heaven who walks in all the beauty and the glory of the presence of God, but he also represents and he's responsible for the people of God.

Remember, he's wearing the names of all the children of Israel, the different tribes. He's wearing that on his shoulders and on the breastplate. He's representing all of the people of God as he goes into the presence of God, clothed in this way.

So he's representing the beauty and the holiness of God, but for the people. He's not coming in his own name; he's coming in the name of the others who are being invited into the presence of God.

So think about this: as the role we have as priests, we have to be clothed in the right way to represent well the people of God when we come into the presence of God.

And then he says he carried with him this idea of being responsible for people that are entering into the presence of God. We have a responsibility as priests of God to help others find their way into His presence too.

We're not entering in just for us. And the sacrifice, the clothing that we have to wear, the sacrifice we make, it's not just for us. It's not even just for our spouse or our children or our family. It's for everyone who needs to find their way back into the presence of God.

As priests of God, we are called to take that on—not by ourselves, in His presence, with His power, with His provision—to take on this responsibility of helping others find their way back into the presence of God too.

What a great and awesome responsibility for the priest of God to know God's called me to something bigger than myself. My life means more than just what I get, what I can do, what I can get from God for my good. My life has a greater purpose than that.

So does yours. As a priest of God, He's called you to take on your part of the responsibility of bringing others with you into the presence of God Himself.

And there are people around us every day who are still so separated from the presence of God, and they're floundering, and they're looking for something to fill those voids, and they're trying everything that's not the right thing back into the presence of God.

The priests of God are the ones who are supposed to be helping them find that way.

So as much as the garments represent the high ideal of the high priest, of the one who can be in the presence of God, here's the next thing we want to see in some of the things of the tabernacle today.

The main subject of the next chapter, after it talks about these priestly garments, chapter 29, is all about the consecration of the priests.

Now, why does it do it that way? Why does it talk about the clothing first and then it goes to the consecration of the priests? Why wouldn't you consecrate the priests first and then put on the clothes? Seems like it's a little out of order until you realize this is how ordinary, sinful people—in this case, it was going to be Aaron and his sons—and in the new covenant, it's us.

How can ordinary, sinful people enter their priesthood? It's by this process of consecration that these priests have to go through.

So in chapter 29, I want you to go back and read this in detail later. We're not going to read through all of this, but in chapter 29, you see four elements to the consecration of the priests. The clothing is already described. He's already said, "Make this clothing for them to wear when they go into my presence. I want them to be clothed this way."

But sinful men have to put on those clothes. So how are they going to be able to wear that? They have to be consecrated. They have to be set apart for it.

So we see in chapter 29, in verse 4, it says that Aaron and his sons, first of all, are washed. And it's not just sprinkling some water on them; they're scrubbed down from head to toe.

Now, it's a ceremonial washing, but it's a real washing, right? They are literally going to be washed like this before they can put on this clothing. And then they are robed, right? They are robed with the clothing that God has prepared for them to wear.

Then they are anointed with oil—that's the third part of the process. And then after that, there's this three-fold cycle of divinely appointed sacrifices. In verses 10 through 25, we see all these sacrifices that have to be given.

Even after the washing, even after the roving, even after the anointing with oil, there have to be these sacrifices that are offered before they can serve as priests and rightly wear these clothes to be in the presence of the light of God in His pure holiness.

These are all a foreshadowing of our calling as priests of God. Think about it for a moment. Under the new covenant, in order for us to enter into the presence of God and serve Him as His priest, we've got to be washed clean.

Baptism is a beautiful picture of that washing. When we come in faith and repentance, we're buried with Christ in the water to a brand new life in Christ. There's a cleansing; there's a washing. Is it ceremonial? Yes. But is it important and essential for us to be cleansed? Yes, it is both of those things.

So we are washed. And then it says we are robed. And if you remember in Scripture, when we're baptized into Christ, we put on Christ. We're clothed with Christ. That's the perfected clothing that we have to put on to serve as priests of God.

Jesus said they were anointed with oil, and the Bible tells us when we're baptized into Christ, He gives us His Spirit as a gift. There's this anointing of the presence of the Spirit of God that He gives to every man and every woman that comes into this relationship with Him through Christ.

You see the foreshadowing here? Of the process God gives us to be called to be His priest. And then there's this sacrifice process that had to happen.

Well, friends, none of that makes any sense. None of that has any power—not the power, not the professing our faith, not the being dipped in the water, not the idea of symbolically putting on Christ. It's not—it has no power or authority apart from the sacrifice Jesus gave on the cross.

That's what gives it its power. Otherwise, we're just saying words and getting wet, dressing up and playing a role. Without that sacrifice, none of that would do anything for us.

It is by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross that all of that has meaning and power and purpose to transform us into this people that could be in the presence of the light of God and represent Him in the world and take His light to the people around us that need it.

Hebrews 10 describes this so beautifully. In Hebrews 10, beginning with verse 10, He says that by that will, we've been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

God will make us holy when Jesus Christ has offered for all time one sacrifice for sins. He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool.

For by one sacrifice, He's made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First, He says, "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their hearts; I will write them on their minds." And then He adds, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

I'm so thankful for that part, and if you think about it, you should be too. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

You see, it's about the power of the sacrifice of Jesus. All of this in the tabernacle, all of those sacrifices, they were foreshadowing that perfect sacrifice that was coming.

We're never again—why are we still not offering animal sacrifices today? Because they're not needed. It's been paid in full once and for all by Jesus on the cross.

That's why Paul says in Galatians 3:26 and 27, "So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have done what? You clothed yourselves with what? With Christ Himself."

Instead of that heavy garment described for the priest in the tabernacle, we put on Jesus, and that's enough. That's all that's needed. Nothing else but to put on Jesus.

When we put on Jesus, we are clothed to be in the presence of the light of a holy God. We don't have to be afraid anymore of that consuming fire because everything's done. The work is complete. There's no more price to be paid, and we stand before that holy God who is a consuming fire, clothed with Christ so that we're not afraid anymore of the fire that would consume those who don't have that clothing.

I'll talk about one more article there in the holy place today, and there's so much more I want you to read through all of this; it's so detailed. But the fourth one is the altar of incense.

Remember, you've got the light, you've got the table of showbread—that's the unleavened bread that's there to remind them of God's provision for them through the time in the wilderness. The bread is placed there every day, replaced every day.

But then you've got the altar of incense. In chapter 30, beginning with verse 1, it says this:

"Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. It is to be square; keep it long and keep it wide, two cubits high. Its horns of one piece with it overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold. Make a gold molding around it. Make two gold rings for the altar below the molding, two on each side, opposite sides to hold the poles used to carry it."

Remember, this is portable. They're taking it from one place to another all the time.

"Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Put the altar in front of the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant, with the ark of the covenant law before the atonement cover that is over the tablets of the covenant law, where I will meet you. Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn the incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so that incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering; do not pour a drink offering on it. Once a year, Aaron will make atonement on its horns."

I want to stop here. This altar of incense—we're given more and more details about it all through these chapters. The incense is being burned is to be burned how often? All the time, right?

When he gets there in the morning, the candles on the lampstand have been burning all night, so he trims those candles; he takes care of that. But part of what he's supposed to do is offer and get this incense burning too.

And then at night, when they come back in to light the lamps again as darkness begins to come, what are they supposed to do again? Get the incense going and make sure the incense is continuing to be burned.

The incense represents the prayers of the people of God being lifted up to the Father as we're getting ready to enter into His presence. You're coming into His light, His perfect holiness, clothed with Christ, and you combine that with prayers being offered to God.

How do we serve as priests today? I want to give you two words. This is what it's all about: it's about presence and prayer.

He's called us to be priests of God through presence and prayer. There are always these things that compete for our prayerfulness, aren't there?

I mean, think about your daily schedule. The Bible says to pray without what? Without ceasing. Don't you get interrupted all the time? I do. I'm a pastor; I'm working in the church. I do church work almost all the time. I'm regularly working and serving as a pastor, and still, when I'm trying to pray, what happens? Satan makes sure it happens, by the way. I get interrupted, right?

I've talked about this before. I pray a lot when I'm driving—pray a lot when I'm driving, especially when somebody cuts me off. But that need to be an interruption that took away my prayer, or it could be something that spurs me to pray more, right?

So as priests of God, here's what He's saying: in order for you to be the powerful and effective priest you are called to be, you have to practice two things: the presence of God and your prayer life has to be strong.

Otherwise, you're not going to be a good priest. You're not going to be able to do this role well. You need both of those things: the presence of God and the prayers where you stay connected to God.

And these things are going to compete with that, right? Here's one of the things that competes with the presence of God, and that is we limit our understanding of the presence of God to coming to a church service like you're at right now. We talk about coming into the what? Presence of God. Guess what? You never left it. You were in the presence of God before you got here.

You see, when they got into the holy place where the lampstand was, what was already there? Light. That's what? The presence of God. His light is there. His light is there in the dark places. That's the whole point of lighting the light when it's twilight and keeping it burning all night long.

It's there in the dark places too. When we leave this service today and we go out into the parking lot, maybe somebody—I hope and pray it doesn't happen—vandalized your car. I pray that doesn't happen. We've got people watching trying to keep things like that from happening.

But it's a dark place out there, isn't it? Dark things happen. But out there, even where that happens, what is there still, even then? The presence of God, the light of God.

You see, wherever we go, what do we take with us? The light of the presence of God. That's the whole point of the lampstand. That's the whole point of living as priests of God. We take the presence of God everywhere we go.

He's in us; we dwell in His presence all the time. We don't go in and out. Yeah, I hear people say this all the time: "Oh, God was really in the service today." Well, He was yesterday. He was last Sunday. You may not have been tuned into it, but His presence was here.

And you can say, "I feel the presence of God." Yeah, there'll be times when maybe you feel it more emotionally or physically, where you feel more of the presence of God. But even when you don't feel it, what's still there? The presence of God.

He's still there. He's still there. He's still there. That's the whole point of the lampstand and burning the lights all the time. Every time it's dark, you have that light going. Why? Because they needed to remember that the presence of God is always with His priests.

Always. And you are a priest of God in Christ. The presence of God is with you always. We need to learn to practice the presence of God all the time.

If you want a little help with that, a little more study with that, Henry Blackaby wrote a great book, a great Bible study, in fact, that you could do. He talks about in his book practicing the presence of God. It's a great concept to think about that you're always in the presence of God, wherever you're going or whatever you're doing.

You're in the presence of God. Why? Because He's in you. He goes with you everywhere. Remember, the tabernacle was moved everywhere they went. What went with the tabernacle? The presence of God. It was with them all the time, no matter where they were.

It was a foreshadowing of the Spirit of God in us going with us. The light of God is in us; we take it everywhere we go.

So we combine that learning to live in the presence of God with prayer. These are when we're in prayer like we need to be. You have to understand there are times where we've got to be like Jesus did. He went off by Himself, and He prayed earnestly. We have record of that happening regularly when He was here in the flesh.

There are times for that. But here's the thing: if we really are supposed to listen to God tell us to pray without ceasing, and those are the only times we're praying, are we being obedient? No.

We can't just make our prayers only when we can get off by ourselves somewhere in a quiet place and pray. Our prayers need to be more consistent than that. We need to be living in prayer all the time.

How can you do that? I do it all the time, right? You don't have to close your eyes to pray. You can, and it's a good thing when you have a time to pray. And you can't just be praying all the time. You can't just be praying all the time.

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1. "Our greatest need is not these felt needs that we have that we keep trying to fill with everything the world has to offer and then we still aren't satisfied. That's not really our greatest need. Our greatest need is to be in the presence of God. To dwell in the presence of our Creator. You see that's what we're made for. That's what we're designed for. That's why we exist. Is to be in that relationship with Him. In His presence dwelling with Him." [29:12] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "When we get that, when we understand that, and we know that God's prepared a way for that to happen, then that begins to solve a lot of the deep-rooted problems in us spiritually and emotionally. When we start realizing what the greatest need really is, we stop chasing all the other things thinking that they're going to satisfy that need that we have, that we feel deep down. Sometimes we don't even know what it is and we're filling it with the wrong things." [30:12] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "We are sinful. So how do sinful people get into the presence of a holy God and be made welcome there and be allowed to stay there? There has to be an answer to that problem. And the tabernacle, remember, is a foreshadowing of God's plan to make it possible for His sinful people to be restored again in that relationship, to be back in His presence again." [35:23] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "We are able to be in the presence of this perfect light, of the holiness of God. He wants us to be able. See, the priests are able to go in there. They're supposed to be. Here's the instruction: Keep the lights burning all the time. From dusk until the light of the sun comes up again, you keep this light burning the whole time. Never let it go out. It's symbolic of the fact that in the darkness of the world, in the darkness of our sin, God is the presence of that light, of that holiness." [36:55] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "We do have a responsibility as parents to protect our children as best we can. But friends, if we keep pulling the light out of the darkness and running from the darkness, there's nothing but darkness left. And God's plan is to redeem the darkness and take his light into those dark places. He's called the church to be that light. He's called us to be the priest of God in our culture today who bring that light to the dark places of our world." [39:01] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




6. "If we're going to be in the presence of God, we have to be clothed in the right way to be in his presence. Notice something else about the garments. The ideal high priest is a man of heaven who walks in all the beauty and the glory of the presence of God. But he also represents and he's responsible for the people of God. Remember, he's wearing the names of all the children of Israel, the different tribes. He's wearing that on his shoulders and on the breastplate. He's representing all of the people of God as he goes into the presence of God." [48:44] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




7. "We have to be clothed in the right way to represent well the people of God when we come into the presence of God. And then he says he carried with him this idea of being responsible for people that are entering into the presence of God. We have a responsibility as priests of God to help others find their way into his presence too. We're not entering in just for us. And the sacrifice, the clothing that we have to wear, the sacrifice we make, it's not just for us. It's not even just for our spouse or our children or our family. It's for everyone who needs to find their way back into the presence of God." [49:48] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




8. "In order for us to enter into the presence of God and serve him as his priest, we've got to be washed clean. Baptism is a beautiful picture of that washing. When we come in faith and repentance, we're buried with Christ in the water to a brand new life in Christ. There's a cleansing, there's a washing. Is it ceremonial? Yes. But is it important and essential for us to be cleansed? Yes, it is both of those things." [54:31] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




9. "If you want to see the power of God in your life and we want to see the power of God in the life of our church, and we're seeing it, we must be a people marked by the presence of God and serious prayerfulness in our lives every day. That's when the power of God will be manifested in greater ways than we've ever seen it before. You combine those two things, living in the presence of God while seriously staying connected to him in prayer all the time." [01:08:56] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




10. "We talk about coming into the what? Presence of God. Guess what? You never left it. You were in the presence of God before you got here. You see, when they got into the holy place where the lampstand was, what was already there? Light. That's what? The presence of God. His light is there. His light is there in the dark places. That's the whole point of lighting the light when it's twilight and keeping it burning all night long. It's there in the dark places too." [01:03:32] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)