Sunday Service

This this this year we've been we've been going through the tabernacle. It's a type and a shadow. It's so interesting to look at it as that. and and uh we've if you've got your journals with you today, I'm going to I'm going to reference some things and you can be seated. But we're going to we looked at this year. We've looked at the tabernacle at the I don't I don't know if you remember the the description of the the fence around the tabernacle, the linen, the white, the work that went into it, the offering of how they gave so much that Moses had to say, "Okay, that's enough." What a problem. The altar of sacrifice, the the the the stench, the smell, the the sacrifice. I heard a there's there's a uh there's a group of guys that will read like youth camp fails or youth pastor fails. And there was this guy that was preaching a week-long youth camp and he brought a baby lamb to the camp. All week they named it and they played with it and then at the end of the end of the camp he killed it right on stage. Pretty disgusting. I think they had to send all the kids home after that. It was pretty bad. But but that's what they did. I understand he was maybe a little literal with it, you know. I'm glad he did it so I didn't accidentally do it later, right? Uh the altar of sacrifice, the the things that would turn your stomach, the sacrifice, the labor, the washing of those things, the door, the table of showbread, the sustenance of God. And this month we've been talking about the candlestick.

Now, Hebrews Hebrews says, "They serve as a copy and a shadow of heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, seeing seeing that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." This is a pattern. He I've shown you some things. I don't I don't know exactly what Moses saw, but Moses had the incredible responsibility of taking the spiritual things and interpreting them and making them earthly things.

So, if if you will, Exodus 25:31-40. Now, if you were in my class Wednesday night, you probably heard this like four times, but we're going to read this this this passage of scripture here because it's talking about the candlestick or the lampstand. Says, "You shall make a lampstand of pure gold." This is Exodus 25 and 31. You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of of a hammered work. Its base, its stem, its cups, its kaixes, and its flowers shall be of one piece. There shall be six branches going out of each side. Three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches out of the lampstand of the other side of it. So six and then there's one in the middle. It's uh it's almost like a manora but it's I think that's what they called it later but it's not exactly that. Three cups made like almond blossoms, each with the kaix and flour on one side, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with kaix and flour on the other branch. So for the six branches going out of the lampstand, and on the lampstand itself, there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms with kaixes and flowers, and a kaix of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. Verse 36. Their kaixes and their branches shall be one piece with it. The whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. This was not melted. It was a hammered work. It was well it was I don't even know how you would do that, but it was done that way. It was hammered out. It was carved out. Then you shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up to give light on the space in front of it. and its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. And it shall be made with all these utensils out of a talent of pure gold. That was about like 75 to 90 pounds of gold. That's a lot of gold. That's like $2 million worth. That's that's that's a lot. And then verse 40, and you shall and and see that you make them after the pattern for them which is being shown you on the mountain.

So God's giving him this instruction. He's saying, you got to make it after this. Does anybody know how to build this now based on these instructions? It was hard. We did that with Play-Doh Wednesday night. We built it. It was And I was like, "Please don't look up a picture of it yet." It was hard. Okay. It it I don't know. Just imagine. Have you Have you guys ever seen in the crime shows where they're like, "Here's the sketch artist." You know, could you imagine being the sketch artist? That's what Moses was. He's like coming down. He's talking to the grandson of her and he's like, "Hey, I need you to make this." He's like, "All right, you got a picture?" He's like, "No, I'll describe it to you." That's what he did. Well, it came out. It was a big old a big old thing. I mean, 75 pounds of gold, heavy, beautiful, intricate. But he said, "Which is being shown you on the mountain."

Do you know the absurdity of trying to translate this? The how hard is it to translate the spiritual into the earthly? For example, se ceila, what we just experienced here, how would you explain that to your co-workers tomorrow? Paul Paul kind of he he saw this in the early church. He said, you know, there there is infilling of the spirit when you that's the initial when you when you speak in tongues for the first time, that's a sign of receiving the Holy Ghost. He said, but then there's tongues and interpretation that edifies the body. So if there's going to be tongues, there's there needs to be interpretation. And then two or three at most. He gives him order to this. He said, "But and and then there's private prayer of tongues. It's indivi that is edifying the individual because if we just walked around everywhere talking in tongues all the time, we wouldn't do anybody any good." I mean, that's as simple as Paul was just being he was like, "This is a spiritual thing. You're you're encountering the divine, but you've got to translate some things. You've got to you've got to put and and so uh for Moses, I imagine this was incredibly hard. I my my dad used to say he said we have to win people not weird them. You have to you have to be you just can't I mean you know we've all been there. Maybe we've done it and then we're like I don't want to think about that. Maybe we've seen it being done. That's better. That's easier, right? We've seen someone else doing that. So, but it happens. But it's not bad. It's just us trying to interpret the divine into the earthly. It's it's just a process.

Moses, honestly, he did it in the least weird way possible because if you read Revelations 4, you got Yeah. Yeah. Go you got to go to this with me. Revelation 4:es 1-8. You got to read this because it gets weird real quick. All right. John John is having a revelation of Jesus Christ. He said, "After this, I looked up and behold, this is verse one, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up and I will show you what must take place after this." He says, "At once I was in the spirit." All right? So he's in the spirit. And behold, a throne stood in heaven, which with one seated on the throne. And he sat there in the appearance of Jasper and Carnelon. And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. And around the throne was 24 thrones. And seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. Verse five. From the thrones came flashes of lightning and rumbling and pearls of thunder. And before all the throne were burning, seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. That's pretty normal. All right, we're we're tracking. Verse six. And before the throne, there there was as it were a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne are four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. Okay, it's getting a little weirder. The first living of the creature is like a lion. The second the second living creatures like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with their six wings are full of eyes all around and within. And day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." There is a reason why every time an angel appeared said, "Do not be afraid. pretty weird. I mean, the spiritual doesn't always make sense in the earthly. It can get a little strange. We've all seen those guys. I get it. My cousin, he was he was like he was like, man, he was like, "You ever been around a prophet?" And they all just kind of seem a little odd. I was like, "That's fair. I'm not making fun of them, but if you could see what people were fighting in the spirit, wouldn't you be a little weird, too?" Okay, you you see what I'm saying here? There's there is a difference in the spiritual and the earthly. But Moses had the the most incredible job. I believe that that God was showing Moses and John, it sounds like the same thing. It sounds like he's revealing unto them. And Moses had to translate it and he was like, "All right, I need to make this where they can hear this and this." And John's like, "Yeah, who cares? Good luck figuring it out." So, and and so Moses was like, "All right, we're going to build the temple this way. God's prescribed it this way. It's a shadow of the heavenly things."

You ever you ever study through something? And and and you may not be like this, but when I get to studying something, I start I start searching for it. God God kind of hangs. It's like I get hung up on something. Now, some might call that ADHD. I don't know. But I get hung up. I'm like, what's what's there's something here. What am I missing? I honestly y'all, when I was in April, I was teaching on the labor and I I was like, man, I know there's something here. It's here. I I there's something right here. And and I probably even told y'all that in some of the classes and I couldn't figure it out and finally God revealed it to me and I was like, "Thank God." Cuz y'all were getting tired of it.

First Kings chapter 20 verse 48. This is the the temple. This is Solomon's temple. This was built in as a not even just a replica but but as a replica of the tabernacle in the wilderness. So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the Lord. The golding altar, the golden table of bread for the of the presence, the lampstands of pure gold, five on the south, five on the north. Everybody say 10. Before the inner sanctuary, the flowers, the lamps, the tongs of gold, the cups, the snuffers, the basins, dishes for incense, fire pans of pure gold, the sockets of gold for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the most holy place for the doors of of the nave of the temple. Everybody say 10. He made 10. He said, and now I don't know if he had it to go by. I don't know what he had to go by here, okay? But but chances were he still had that golden that that golden lampstand, the original to go by. Chances were. And he said, "Well, you know what? If if one was good enough, let's just make 10. If $2 million was good enough, let's make $20 million worth. If seven lights will do, 70 are better. If if if if this much will do, let's just make it bigger and better and better. And that's all well and good. You see, here is something that Solomon was doing that I don't know that he fully understand what he was doing. I say that wisest man to have ever walked, so I need to be careful here, right? But he was working on a copy of a copy. He was working on a second generational product. He was working on something that that he didn't maybe fully understand because the the seven candlesticks were the seven spirits of God. This was this was the spirit leading and guiding you. And so he starts to multiply and he starts to say, "Well, more light is better." But he's forgetting the whole point of it being the representation of the spirit.

You guys, you guys ready? You got your straws ready, Sister Bethany? You can stab them if you need to. You got these guys are going to help me with something here because I want to show you a gen. It's It's a generational effect. Just y'all get a line. Form a line right there. You got it right there. All right. Who's first? All right. We need that piece. All right. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. He's got a straw. All right. He's got a straw. He's cut to this length. All right, y'all. Go ahead. You got You got a whole project to do here. This is like a science project. Sister Sister Gibson, are they going to get graded on this? Because speed matters. You stay. Yeah. Someone stick your finger in there to make this more interesting. I need you to stay. All right. So, so they're they each got a straw and she's cutting a copy off a copy off a copy off a copy. All right. Now, we practiced this earlier. So, if they mess it up, it was Jordan's fault. Can I say it this way? Between the temple and the building of the or between the tabernacle and the building of the temple, there were some 400 plus years. There were some 400 plus years of them of them worshiping in this way, of them doing this way, of having tradition, of of doing what they thought was the right thing to do as God instructed them to. All right. Where's the last one at? All right. Let's see it. Hold it up. Hold it up. How'd we do that? I'm glad they're not the same color. How did you do that? How'd we do that? Y'all just witnessed it. Thank you guys. Y'all just witnessed it.

This was our original. This is where we started. This was our ending. Can I just a minute? This one's bigger. It's better. You can actually drink more out of this. You You don't have to like put your nose in the pond to drink out of this one. This one's You see Solomon as he's going through this, he says, "Well, guys, we're just going to make it bigger. We're just going to make it better. We're just going to we're going to out of here. We're going to do our best." And that's great, but can I can I can I just say he did not have the divine revelation that Moses had. God had not taken him to a place and said, "Let me show you some things." This is called generational loss. If you work in data, if you make a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, it loses something. It loses integrity. It it things are rounded off when they shouldn't be or or added to when they shouldn't be. There's generational loss. Oh, but it's bigger and it's better. I copied the traditions of those that went before me. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not I'm not I'm not hating on elders. I'm not I'm not anything like that. Please don't take don't throw the the baby out with the bathwater on this one today. But if we do not find a place to get with God, if we do not have our own divine revelation of who God is, if we do not find a place to worship him and allow the spirit to lead and guide us, we will take what was meant for good and we will twist it all around and we will lose the whole point. And when the time comes to prove it out, will come up empty-handed.

You see, today I'm not preaching about straws because I feel like there is a spirit that's got a hold of maybe it's the maybe it's just this the age, maybe it's just the the culture, but maybe it's the spirit that is tempting the church. Maybe it's the spirit that's getting a hold of the church. It's a psychological term, but I think it's gone beyond that. I think it is become a spiritual joy issue that we are struggling with. It is the spirit of inferiority. It leads us. This is where there is something that is almost right but it's just a little off. It's I know. I know inferiority it's a it's a it's a psychological term like depression or happiness or joy but but it's a in the psych the psychological term a basic feeling of inadequacy insecurity deriving from actual or imagined physical or psychological deficiency at its core it is a feeling used to denote a strong sense of being less than of less than

Because when we have not derived our purpose, our identity, our gospel, our our relationship if when we have not derived it through the spirit, we will start to feel less than. We will start to we will come up against a giant that we have no idea how to fight. We we'll come up against some things and we'll start to feel hollow inside. Not because we're we're completely wrong, but because we're copying something that we do not fully understand. Come on. The spirit of inferiority says somebody should change something. The spirit of inferiority says somebody should do something about that or I wish they would. It it it looks and it sounds like they just don't know what I'm going through or they just don't understand what's holding me back or they or everyone is out to get me or or even it it can it can it can melt and form and and twist into immobilization. Excuses that feel real but become crutches. I just don't feel like it. I'm scared. I'm afraid. I don't feel up. Look what they're doing. But I can't. Well, I would if somebody would give me a chance. I would if spirit of inferiority will grab a hold of us. It would affect us as a body. It would affect us as an individual. It affects our life. We'll be like someone sitting by the river and watching the boats go by. Look at them go. Look what they're doing. Look what's happening there. I'm just waiting on my boat to come in. It starts internally, but then it grows and it starts to affect a body. it starts to affect a whole because then it comes out well you know that church is having revival but you know if only God would or or if if only this then we could but oh I don't feel like that's right are you planting the church or is God the spirit of inferiority will leave us to to to to grappling with with change and things that we we just don't well I don't know I don't know we'll just get in the spirit and find out because that's the truth true measure. The spirit of inferiority will take us to a place to where we can't move or we can't progress or we can't see what's next. If they someone everyone I just can't can I my wife she shared this tidbit with me. What if the whole pronoun war of they them whatever trying to remove responsibility? It's not my fault. It's someone else's. It's not my fault. It's someone else's. The spirit of inferiority will leave us anxious, afraid, fearstricken can even. I'm not I'm not even going to can leave us the opposite, too. Braggadocious. Yeah, spelling correct. Had to help me with that one. Hotty or proud. we compensate or overcompensate.

But can I tell you, can I tell you the reason for the spirit of inferiority and the antidote to it is to just find a place in the spirit. Because when you get in the spirit, you start to see things as God sees them. When you get in the spirit, now it may not make sense to those around you. It may not make sense to your circumstances. It may not make sense to to what's going on and how you feel, but you start seeing you the way God sees you. If you could spend a moment in the spirit and see what God wants you to do, what he would do with you, what he would do through you. If you could spend a moment in the spirit and see what God wants to do with your home, with your life, oh, with your city, oh, if you could just spend a moment in the spirit and see yourself the way God does, you wouldn't be worried about identifying with with the things around you. You wouldn't be worried about identifying with the things that you've went through. You wouldn't worry about you would all those things don't define me because I am made in his image and I am made in his likeness. But it's through the spirit. Come on. It's calling you out of where you are into something greater and mightier than you can imagine. The spirit is calling you out of where you are.

I look around and see some of you. You hold the keys to revival in your hands, but you're looking to someone else and you've got the key. I look around as some of you been raised in church and something feels hollow. Something feels empty. And you're I'm doing what my dad did. I'm doing what my mom did. I'm praying the way they prayed. Is I'm living the way they lived. Something's off. Or the original may have been a little country church in the middle of nowhere. The original may have been, and that's fine. Somewhere along the line, something got there was a little added, a little taken away. that was a little added, a little taken away, and we lost something in the current of our lives. And and all of a sudden, we're trying to copy the generation before us, but something's a little hollow. And when the lame need to walk again. When the blind eyes need to be opened. When our kids are backslid and need need Jesus. God, I'm just not up for the task. if you would stand with me.

Generational loss may not be generational loss. It may be adding to it may be taken away. I don't it's just a copy of a copy of a copy. You see, we have more but we understand less. We have grander, but something rings hollow. We have reasons, but we lack experience. We have knowledge, but we lack understanding. We're anxious, afraid, fearstricken, hotty, or proud. We may even walk with a constant state of imposture syndrome, copying the generations before us, but we're missing the point. We're following the traditions, but lacking the experience. You see that is then led to his false dream the spirit of inferior heart. The only antidote I know is the spirit of God.

As I was coming to the stage, my heart was gripped with intercessory for someone in here today. I don't know who it is and I don't know why but but maybe you found your experience to be a little hollow or not exactly what everyone else is saying. Maybe you feel like all of church is fake. Maybe you feel like all the things around you are wrong. But can I ask for you today to find a place to pray? Can I ask for you today? If you've never if you don't understand the spirit, that's okay. But the spirit's here to give you understanding. Could we all right now could we just find a place to pray for just a moment? Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. But I can't be the man in my house without an experience with you. I can't be the man I need to be without knowing you, God. God, I can't be the woman I need to be without knowing you, God. I can't build a church in Chattanooga without knowing you, God. I can't I need you, God, to direct me. Oh, come on, somebody. If you're if you're wondering why this preacher's sweating and hollowing and and and not angry, but looks maybe a little angry, I'm pleading for your soul today because you've come and you've gone from the presence of God, but you haven't stayed in the tent of meeting. You haven't stayed in and in and in and being able to see what God is trying to show you for your life. You feel less than. But you are more than able. You can do it. God has an awesome challenge for you. God has an awesome an awesome responsibility for you. God has an awesome plan for your life. God has an awesome, oh, inspiring. But I can't find it for you. Your mom and dad can't find it for you. You got to find it for yourself.