Always

Well, hello everyone. Welcome to Cornerstone Apostolic Church. It is the month of June, first Sunday of June, 2025, and I am very pleasantly glad and hopeful for a beautiful day in the Lord. I'm so glad that you have joined with us today here at CAC. Um we are not live streaming as you can tell the service today. Our church at Cornerstone, we are in the midst of transition. So I'm pre-recording the message for today for online. Uh there is still service going on live at the facility in 6314 East Brainard Road.

So uh you're welcome to come by any time and visit with us. would love to have you. But today though, I am going to bring to you the word of the Lord and with the help of God, we will understand and draw closer to him and we'll grow together and learn. I am thankful that you're with me. Uh let's spend a little time together here. We're going to open with prayer. If you have needs or whatever, of course, feel free to go to cacchanooga.org on the website. You can post those prayer request um testimonies.

things of that nature and we would love to hear from you. Let's pray together. Lord, today is a beautiful day you've given us. Any day, Lord, above ground is a wonderful day. Thank you for the opportunity to know you and to serve you and to be able just to speak your name. Thank you for that. I pray today, Lord, for our time together that you would lead us in the word. Let us draw closer to you. Bless each one today, God. Let us hear from heaven. Let our minds be focused on you, Lord.

give us the wisdom, the knowledge and understanding that we need for this day. Jesus will love you for it. Pray God for those that are online watching, God, that you would bless them. Any needs they have, requests that they want to make known, Lord, I know they can just bring them straight to you in Jesus name. I believe you're the healer, the savior, the way maker for that. Lord, we are indebted to you. We love you. Bless our time together and be with us today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Um, every day including this day, uh, we have information that's that's thrown at us from all angles. I I talk about this quite often uh, just because I think all of us understand that we are inundated with information. Uh we are overcome many times with uh data, blogs, Facebook po uh posts, text messages, emails, the news, the media, any kind of outlet you can imagine. We even sit around the table at lunch many times and we talk about current events that shape our lives.

We talk about politics maybe or economics, relationships, um, religion, uh, the occasional, uh, issue down the road or the accident we passed coming in to the office or to the plant to work. Every topic that we discuss means something to us. Now, you may not care that the price of eggs in West Indies is $16 a dozen. may not affect you, but it's information. Uh the cost of fuel in in China, the cost of of flour in Australia, those things may not be close or near and dear to your heart, but again, it's information.

Uh the graduation class of 2025 from the Cayman Islands, that may not mean anything to you, but it is information and we have to process that. We have to look at that and and put it someplace in our minds. Um to the average to the common person let's say the situation that we are in in our daily lives that's where we live. That's the data the information the emails the texts the blogs that's what we are processing.

Now many things of course we don't give a lot of attention to but then those things that we process for ourselves it is part of the development of our lives our connections our relationships with with other people for the things and the topics that you like to learn about that's like you like to study about then you give yourself to them. An example, you want to be an auto mechanic. So, you're going to spend time trying to discover what a carburetor is or what a cam shaft is or how a spark plug works, whatever. You give yourself to that.

You study the the meanings of those things. You don't want to be ignorant to it because in your mind, you want to know more about it. You read the books about cars or mechanics. You you watch videos. You study historical accounts. You give yourselves because it's something you're interested in. It's something that you want to become part of your life. It grows. That that passion that that desire begins to evolve.

And the more you understand, then the more you're going to want to study it because as you encounter the details and the minute things that have unfolded as you learn, you're grasping those things and you're trying to understand that Henry Ford really did have a great idea. Now, I I would submit to you today that we need to want to learn that. That's what us as parents, we as parents, we teach our children. You need to study. You need to learn. You need to read. You need to put information in your mind. Why?

Because when you learn, you hold yourself then accountable for what you are learning. Teachers call it this. Next Wednesday, there's a test on the information that we've been covering. Why? They want to know that you are understanding it and that it means something to you. Make sense? Now, we we know that none of us knows everything. We also know that we stretch and we grow. As you get older, you discover that uh you have you have a greater challenge for an example of remembering things or or memorizing things.

It's just part of the process of life. But then what happens as you're learning and growing in something is then you begin to demonstrate it, explain it, express it to other people. Look what I learned today. Notice how I know how to take apart a transmission. Again, back to the auto mechanic. All of those things add to your life wisdom. They add to your life the desire to know more and to grow.

Every email you read about, every video you've watched on information about it, every text, every article, all those things about that begin to become part of your fabric. They have a place to develop you as you begin to grow. That has a place. That information does. Now my question for this day on this first Sunday in June, I'll ask it this way. What about the overwhelming amount of stuff that comes in the information that quite literally overshadows us, overwhelms us?

Uh all the details that we talked about earlier, how do how do you process that? How do you get rid of what's not necessary? And how do you uh handle what you really want to remember? I I I I bring all of this to us today simply for this reason. We have since the first of 2025. We have been traveling the road the journey of the tabernacle here at CAC. It's an Old Testament uh idea. It's an Old Testament plan and and process, but we have learned so much over the last several months. There's been a lot of data that's come at us, if you will.

the smallest of details that God had for for Moses to to the largest discoveries like how someone really knows how to work with fine fabrics or with gold. All of the specific information that we are unfolding, what do we do with that important discovery? What do we write it off? Do we simply close it out, minimize the screen in our minds? Do we do we set it aside? Uh has it made you a better person? Has it made you a better prayer warrior?

Uh I I know that the more you understand about the word of God, the closer your relationship is to that God. I I know that if I understand God's plan for my life and I delve into it and I look at it as a mechanic would the information that would better his future. If I do that then I know the details the specifics the materials the information all the things that we are uncovering on this journey as the ecclesia the called out ones.

What we are doing in the tabernacle study is we are putting it all together so we can better understand what God wants for us in 20125. Now it's it recently uh occurred to me for an example through this study that the men of God the priesthood the Levites uh they were carrying the greatest amount of weight or pressure for the people of God. All the needed requirements were established for one reason for the priesthood. Sinful man can know a sinless God. Okay. There's a way that God of glory, the perfect one, can come close to humanity.

Listen to how powerful this is. Regardless of the system or the culture that you may be from, God has you in his plan. Therefore, he established a way that humanity could come into his presence. So, the information over the last several weeks and months that we have shared has been with an intent of painting the God picture in our lives. in each one of us. The details matter. Now, for those that are in journals that we we uh issued, if you will, at the first of the year, in your journal, I I want you to write this down.

Write a brief update in your journal of how God has been working in your life because you better understand his plan. And then give a few examples of how you are better, how you're closer to God. If you don't have a journal, write it down on a piece of paper. Go on your iPad, type it out. God, this is what I'm discovering as I study your word. Now, just this last month, of course, you all know who are attached to CAC that every month we are developing, we are growing, we are taking steps of the tabernacle in the wilderness.

And we are trying to better understand that. We just finished an incredible study. Brother Dan Gibson, uh the uh administrative pastor just finished on on the the the veil of the the wall, the curtain of separation from the outer court to the holy place. Uh if you did not or have not logged in to watch that, I challenge you to do so. It's great great information. Well done.

I I bring that to your point to the point today because we understand that from the beginning of the tabernacle when somebody came to God with the offering to give to him that all began before they ever got to the outer court curtain. Okay? Man had to separate an offering that go into Exodus, you'll find the the details of it. He would have to take the lamb or the goat or the the the calf. He would have to take the whatever the animal was pertinent to the kind of sacrifice that he was bringing or the reason for the transgression.

And he would have to do all of his due diligence to separate that animal so that it was clean without brokenness, without uh parts of the skin that had problems. He had to be healthy and 100% to the best of his ability. That man would have to say, "I've got to go to the tabernacle because of this situation in our home. I have to take a sacrifice. I know that for sin offering, for transgress offerings, for wave offering, for heal, I know what is required of me because the law has been taught to me. I've studied it. I found the information.

Read 2025. I went to Google and YouTube and I found videos on it and I'm looked at it." and that's what's required of me. Therefore, the man would then have to take all the steps necessary to make sure that after the 14 days of separation that there was nothing wrong, that that animal was indeed spotless. Now, that was part of the ritual that God established with Moses. This is what you will do. This is how you will do it. This is the steps you will go through. That man then would bring that sacrifice to the tabernacle. This is outer court.

This is before you get into any of the 150 by75 structure, the tent. And as he came into the priest would meet him and the priest would talk and discuss with him what is the transgression? What is the reason for this sacrifice? And so they would communicate and then as we've discovered the man was responsible for taking the life of that animal. From that point the priest then would take possession of the animal and began the burnt offering began.

All the flaying all the pulling the instrils out, pulling the things out and and doing what was necessary for that animal to become the sacrifice for that man and his family. Now, this is the most in interesting to me as brother Gibson this last month has has brought to our attention that separation curtain then from from the altar to the labor of water and now there's this curtain. Something is about to change.

Something is going to come from the blood and guts, the screaming, the bleeding, the the mooing, the whatever the animals out here are doing. All it's not a pretty sight. It is not at all a a wonderful experience for those who are around, but it is simply part of the plan of God. Everything at the bronze altar and the labor of water was done because man desired to fulfill the requirement God had given him.

That altar and that labor of water, they were dirty, they were bloody, they were smelly, they had constant flames and ash and all the wood and all the sparks, all the things that happen in that environment. The animals are screaming, the the flesh, the blood, the smoke, all of those things are going on in that the priest is standing there step by step going through each of these processes until he reaches, as brother Gibson established, that curtain of separation. Now, follow me for just a moment.

My task today in the month of June, beginning today, is to take us into that holy place to the first piece of furniture. This is where I'm coming from today. All of the noise, the screeching, the screaming, the bleeding, all those things happening outside. When the priest touched the veil and pushed the curtain back to enter into the holy place, imagine with me, if you will, the reprieve the quiet. He's under five layers of materials of various types.

He's behind a curtain that's been woven and and put together so that there's a separation, a distinct line put there. He now closes that curtain. He's standing now in the holy place. Follow me for just a moment. In my mind, the smell, the noise, the ashes, all the stuff that went on outside was what man had brought to give to God. Okay. But now the priest steps into the holy place and there are three things that he sees. First of all, what I will discuss over the next several weeks is the table of shoebre.

But also in there, the light that was produced did not come from that table. It came from a golden candlestick that burned with seven different flames. Also, right before the Holy of Holies, the next veil, there was an altar of incense that had smoke constantly coming as it burned what was produced as the incense before the Lord. I I'm not sure that we truly understand that because uh God had a plan for humanity and and and Moses was so overwhelmed with the details that he had to make sure that he did everything right.

Let's let's look at the book of Exodus 25 23. And thou and thou shalt also make a table of shidum wood. Two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold. Make thereto a crown of gold roundabout. Thou shalt make unto a border of an hand breath roundabout. Thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof roundabout. Verse 26, thou shalt make for it four rings of gold. Put the rings on the four corners that are the four feet thereof.

Over against the border shall the rings be for places for staves to bear the table. Thou shalt make verse 28 says the staves of shidam wood and overlay them with gold that the table may be born with them. Verse 29 listen. Thou shalt make the dishes thereof, the spoons thereof, the covers thereof, the bowls thereof to cover with all. Of pure gold shalt thou make them. Verse 30. This is where we are today. and thou shalt set them upon the table of shoebre before me always. God gave instructions to Moses about this table.

Every it had to be a place for God's provision. Now, the the table was not going to sit out in the noise. It was not going to sit out in in in the weather, if you will. Was not going to sit out in in all the other hubbhub going on outside. The man had brought his sacrifice. The he had killed it. The priest took it. The priest flayed it, separated it, did what he had to do with the different parts. You can read about that in Exodus. And then he washed in the labor to make sure he was clean. And now he steps into the holy place.

He He's there because God requires for him to come in and make petition. Notice this. The table of shoebre was put there on purpose. Imagine all the noises and the atmosphere of the outer court. And then the priest pushes in and the first thing he lays his eyes on when his eyes finally settled into this place is the beautiful glow of the golden candlestick as those flames flickered in this beautiful room that was built. The the the cool thing about this is because in the quiet, in the separation is where God begins to work on the priest.

Now, this has been resting heavy on me for the last several weeks only because sometimes you and I in our current culture, we can get wrapped up and we can get tangled up in all the details of life and we forget the quiet. We forget some sometimes we're in a driveby trying to wait for the microphone to come on, the speaker to come on so that somebody can take our order from the heavenlies. Uh yeah, I need today a a uh a healing. I need a little peace of mind and uh make go ahead and and go large on that.

And then we want to ease up in our hurry because we're checking our phone or we're checking our emails and text messages, waiting in line, and all of a sudden the window opens and we fully expect to receive that blessing, put it in the seat beside us, drop the cup of anointing in the cup holder, and pull away, knowing full well that we trusted everything that just went on in that kitchen. Listen to me carefully.

What I fear that's happening in our culture is we are so quickly going from noise to noise that we are forgetting the quiet in the sheer presence of God. Now the outer court, the furniture was put there so that man could bring a blood sacrifice. But in the holy place, it was all about what man did for God. The table of Schubert had to be built by the hands of those who God gave the wisdom to. He gave the plan to Moses.

The water that happened out in the labor was sufficient enough to clean the priest, but it could not finish the deal until he got into the presence of God. In your journal, on your list, would you make a list of the times that God has failed you? And then why does that look list look like it does? Think hard. Think long. Take time. God failed me in this place or in this spot or in this.

And then consider the length of the list and the details of every one of those because listen to me friend in the holy place all of the pieces were there to bring glor glory and honor to the king of glory. God gave the recipe to Moses for the bread that would be sitting on the table. It was always always a Bible say we read that in Exodus. Always to be there before the presence of God. Now please please understand it couldn't be bought. The bread could not be sold at the market.

It was unto God for the priest to be sustained because the priests needed God's presence. Listen. Because the people were waiting on God's provision. The steps that God gave each one of them were to bring them to ultimately the day of atonement in the Holy of Holies. I I am one more time I am convinced that God had an exact plan and a purpose for every single one of the steps that was done. I I'm convinced today it still matters. Now you and I, we we get it. We understand the law of God has been fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

But if that's the case, then all of the law that we studied is in Jesus. Don't think that he erased it. He fulfilled it. Meaning, you've got to get him constantly working, moving, having freedom and liberty in your life. You got to know that the name of Jesus is so important. You got to know that the blood of Jesus is so important. You got to know that heaven depends on the quiet time that you spend with God. You can't drive through that. You've got to stop and shut the door and get out and go in.

And you've got to bring it to him the way that he requests it. The tabernacle is so cool. I I know you guys realize that as pastor, I'm so overwhelmed with this just because of the the incredible details that God gives us and the blessings that come with it. The bread that was on the table of shoebread, listen to this. I want to explain something to you. It was not for God. God could not physically come down and dine with the priest. You follow this? It was just for the priest. But it was constant. It had to be changed every Sabbath.

The bread that was left had to be pulled. The new bread had to be put there. All 12 loaves with the cups of frankincense. Leviticus 24. For those interested, again, this is part of your study because you're interested in growing. Leviticus 24:5. And thou shalt take fine flour and bake 12 cakes thereof. Two tenth deals shall be in one cake, and thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord.

Verse seven, thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place, for it is most holy unto him, the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute, a constant law. The bread was made by the sacrifice of men. Okay?

The wheat was brought in, the water, the oil, whatever ingredients were required for that shoebre. Man had to grow that. Man had to process that. Man had to take the fine flour. It couldn't be the coarse. So, it had to run through many processes. Aaron and the priesthood then would partake of that bread. And the most interesting thing about it and some of the history maybe maybe you're a history person as well and some of the things is stated is in according to the Talmud that the bread never molded. The bread didn't have leaven in it.

It wasn't permitted. The bread never molded. It never got stale. It never got hard and crusty. It never got impossible to eat. It never went bad the entire week that it sat on the table of shoebre. It was there. What was the reason then that God wanted a table spread in the holy place away from the altar and the labor, away from the noise and the blood and the guts and the smoke and all of that? Why was it that God required that man have bread in his presence? The reminder for us is simple. God sustains. God is perfectly in control.

I present to you today that the table of shoebread is a memorial of sacrifice and provision of God. He sustains us. God must be worshiped with purpose. He must be worshiped intently. Get past the animals, the washing of your hands and that. And I admonish you today, church. Go into the presence of God. Stand in the glow of his glory. Expect the daily and the weekly of lifet lifelong blessings of God to prevail and to work in your life. Things change. Times move on, of course, but God is unchanging.

In your journal, I want you to list a few things. Make a list of things that God has proven to you in the past 30 days. Just make a list. What has God proven to you in the last 30 days? I take us then to to the New Testament before I close. James 1:1 17. Listen to this. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Cometh down from the Father of light. Listen to this. With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. that we should be a kind of first fruits as creatures.

James wrote it like this. There is no variableness in God. He is not hot today, cold tomorrow. He's not in today, out tomorrow. There's no turning. There's no shadow of his of his response to you as he walks away from you, but he's constant light. Today, I admonish you. I I I I plead with you, get past the drive-thru God syndrome. Get past the blessings of God in an instant syndrome. Get into the holy place, the place where the glory of God is shining.

Please understand, there's a reason that the the material was laid over that holy place, the Holy of Holies. That material had a glow to it because of the gold that was woven into it. When the lights from the co golden candlestick were flickering, it would reflect off of that. When when the altar of incense, the smoke was ascending up as as the as the the incense was burning as the table of Schuber sat there. All of this would be a a glow with God's glory. God did not live in that. He was in the Holy of Holies. We know that.

But in this, you are a step away from your sacrifice, your washing, and now you're right at the edge of God. If you don't know God today, you got to understand something. He is always God is always. If you've not repented of your sins, ask God to forgive you and wash and cleanse you. If you've not taken time to bow your knee before him and and ask for forgiveness, Lord, I I I know that I'm a sinner and I'm wrong and I want you to come in and change me.

If you've not experienced the waters of baptism in the name of Jesus as those sins are remitted and washed away. If you've not experienced that that understanding of God's plan for your life, if you have yet to receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, there's your evidence that the glory of God is residing. He's always there. Then I I I I want you to know that he loves you. The name of Jesus is the only name. The power of the blood of Jesus is what it takes.

And the spirit of God is what is going to draw you from this earth. I want to pray with you today. I thank you so much for for for joining with me. But we got to pray together. Can we do it? Lord, today your your will and your power and your plan still works, still functions, still moves in and out of us, Lord. It moves around us. It's for every nation. It's for every culture. It's for every language. I thank you today, Lord, for those who have gathered online with me.

For those who have joined with me, Lord, in your word, as we have looked at closer at the table of shoebread, as we have looked at your provision, to the memorial, God, that you're always there, that you never fade. You never walk away, but you're always always God. Today, Lord, somebody needs you. Someone's hurting. Someone's hungry. Somebody's thirsty, Lord. Somebody needs a drink from the fountain that doesn't run dry. Somebody needs food, Lord, that would sustain them. I right now, God, I plead your blood over each one that's listening.

Go into their homes, into their hearts, Lord. Go into their workplaces, into their vehicles. Go into every step they take, God. Let conviction and power of the word, Lord, go to them and draw them to you. This is the day of the Lord. I thank you for our time together. Let the word of God ever rest within us. We'll love you for it. will trust you and believe you for great things. In the wonderful, powerful, matchless name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much. Until next time, God bless you. I love you and I believe in you.

Have a wonderful week in the Lord.