#LifeAndDebt -A New Direction- (1-14-12/ @Pastahkelly)

On January 14, 2012, Pastor Kelly preached Part II of the series Life and Debt Part II. This one was entitled: A New Direction

Text: Luke 16: 1-8 (New American Standard Version)

Review:

• A lot of us are lost financially.
• Three ways: you get bad directions; some of us have made a wrong turn; some of us are distracted.
• Get to the highlighted route before you can take directions. The highlighted route is understanding that EVERYTHING belongs to God. We don’t own anything, we are simple stewards.
• We discussed the parable of the talents. One of them decides to keep the talent safe. The master comes back and calls him wicked. In the last days, God is going to hold us accountable for what we have done with everything he has entrusted to us! He will ask “what did you do with the kids I gave you?”
• We need to track how we are spending our money. If you didn’t last week, shame on you because you are not being accountable on how you are spending God’s money. Pastor Kelly said he found out that God spent a lot of time at Panera bread this week (hahaha). In one day, he spent about $30 at Panera. Eating out this week was $100+. He stated that he found a lot of things about himself. He kept rushing out, and for that reason he didn’t have time to sit and eat. So much so that he is KNOWN at Panera and is greeted with “Hey Pastor…. The usual?!” –Mediterranean veggie, mango smoothie, and cinnamon crunch bagel- (hahah). Due to the way he was spending, he found out that he has to be better with his time.
• Matthew 6:19-21 “where your treasure is, there your heart is….” We can see where we are spiritually, by how we are spending.

TODAY:

• We read Luke 16. In a nutshell, this man is about to get fired because he has been unfaithful with his money; the master’s money. He knows he is about to get kicked out in the street so he is trying to find the people he has done good for, so they can welcome him back when he is kicked out. He starts cutting their debt in half (trifling!). They are saving money while the master is loosing. Some scholars suggest that he was cutting the illegal interest the master put on it, others suggest he was cutting his particular portion. He was basically saying “I have to find a way that when I loose my job, the folks I have connected with and helped, will then help me.’ So he goes and does all this and the master finds out about it. Jesus is telling this parable….The master praises the unrighteous manager as in to say “I have to give you props on that one. Jesus sums it up by saying “the children of this world are more shrewd than the children of God.”

Three lessons/ Three things that Jesus points out attention to

1. Verse 9: Jesus wants us to know that our possessions are tools to be used for the kingdom of God. Not the 10% or 15% but Jesus wants us to get stuff, so the stuff can be used for a righteous purpose. That’s why he has no problem with folks having things. The issue is when we have things and don’t use them to bring people to the kingdom of God! You can have a HUGE house, but how are you using it to further the kingdom? (ex: holding bible study for the youth, etc).

   Question this week: How can you leverage your stuff, for the kingdom of God?!

   Example #1: One story of a couple at the church that bought into this parable. They looked into their stuff. Everything that they couldn’t use for the kingdom of God, they sold it so they could. They sold a painting, bought a truck and allowed the church to use the truck for the kingdom of God.

   Example #2: Some folks here not only give their money but they donate their things! He gave the example of someone donating their truck here so we can get hay for the Rubi’s Rodeo Roundup.

2. Verse 10: if you are not good with this unrighteous stuff, why would I trust you with the streets of Gold? Our possessions are also a test to see what we will do with what we have been entrusted with. Jesus says “If I don’t see you doing right with what I have entrusted you now, how can I trust you with anything later?!
3. Verse 13: No servant can serve two masters. He will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. What we do with our wealth is a sign or a brand of who we belong to. What is your trade mark?! What is branded on you?!

REVIEW from prayer meeting:

Five things you can do with money

1. Spend it
2. Pay Debt
3. Pay taxes
4. Save it
5. Give it

Two things govern what percentage goes to each category above

1. Priorities
2. Self-Control

Steve Jobs: They asked him “don’t you wait to see what the consumers ask before you build it?!” He said no, I tell the consumer what they want! You didn’t THINK you needed an Iphone, but you saw it and it made you want it. Some of us didn’t have that self control. We just consume! We don’t have our priorities right or in order.

Our order SHOULD be:

1. Give it
2. Save it
3. Pay Taxes
4. Repay Debt
5. Spend it.

Challenge: When you get paid, the first thing you should do is GIVE. You are telling God “YOU are first; You are my #1 priority!” He should get the best, for He always gives us the best FIRST!

Pastor stated that we are failing the test! In our church, only 100 people contributed to conference giving last year, and not all of them were members!

We can put all of these together in three words that we need to live by the rest of this month/life:

• Give
• Save
• Live

God gave, we were saved, and now we can live! The plan of salvation, right there for your finances

Challenge: Try you finances God’s way. Use the stuff you have to leverage it for the kingdom of God! The money he has entrusted you with is a test. How can you pass it? Switch your priorities: Give, Save, Live! Make sure everything that when folks look at the things you own, they know that you are a child of God.

Prayer: Father, it’s all yours, the building is yours, ALL of it is yours, we are yours and we belong to you. We want to take a new direction in our finances. We are going to try it these next two weeks, we will commit it to you! It’s about us being in your will and doing the right thing with your stuff and using your stuff to bring other people into the kingdom of God. Some of us don’t have thousands to give, but we have cars that we can drive and help others with. We want to do better, not just for better’s sake but because we are stewards of what you are entrusted us with. We want to be a different church. We will start here, please help us to take this seriously so we can be the church you want us to be.

Be blessed and a blessing!

Views From The Pews

You can go to www.rubitv.tv to watch this sermon, or to www.mtrudiboux.org. If you need any other directions, please fee free to ask J

#LifeAndDebt Prayer meeting 1-11-12 (@Pastahkelly) NOTES

Pastor Kelly continued the series on Life and Debt. These notes are from our prayer meeting held on Wednesday, January 11, 2012. We encourage everyone to come to prayer meeting, as it is a more intimate setting with an opportunity for questions and direct answers. Hope you find the following notes helpful. Please feel free to visit out website at www.rubitv.tv to watch this sermon for yourself, as these are my notes and I may have missed something that could have been extremely relevant to you and your current situation! Bible in hand?! Let’s go! J

Text: We read from Malachi 1: 11-14

Quick Recap:

• When we put God first, other things just fall into place!
• If the priorities are out of whack, the finances may be out of whack too.

Five things you can do with money (in no particular order)

1. Spend it
2. Pay Debt
3. Pay taxes
4. Save it
5. Give it

Two things govern what percentage goes to each category (mentioned above)

1. Priorities
2. Self-Control

• For those with no self control, their #1 priority is to SPEND! Folks market things today as “If you don’t have it, you are going to die!!!” (a bit dramatic but true!) Therefore you need to have self-control! The sale doesn’t work for you if you don’t need what you are buying which is on sale. Think about it, Is it really a “deal” if you don’t need it?! Self control has to do with (and affects) a lot of these areas (listed above).
• If you don’t have self control, you WILL get into debt. Everyone wants to give you a credit card, which is really money you don’t have to spend.
• You must get your priorities and self control, straight!!!

Let the bible put these into order. Let’s get to the word:

• Malachi 1: 11-14 (English Standard Version). The people were given God leftovers, in essence. They were saying “we are going to bring you something but we are keeping the best for ourselves!” God is saying “let’s flip that, bring me not only the best; bring me the stuff FIRST! I need to be first, not only in your life, but if I am first in your life I will also be first in your finances.
• How do you make sure God is first in our finances?!
  We GIVE IT! (#5 on our list above, has now moved up to the #1 position). We ought to give it, not to taxes or credit card collectors, but to GOD, who is NOT going to get my leftovers. There is something about giving God what is His, FIRST!
• God always ends up getting cheated when we don’t pay our tithe first. Something ALWAYS happens. There is something about doing it first! Some people like to give to God by saving up everything and doing it at the end of the year, but what happens if you fall ill, you will use the money!! Some of us will try to use that as a blessing “the Lord had me save all this money so I could use it for this emergency!” (lol). No He did not! Don’t cheat God!
• What did God do before he did anything? HE GAVE (“For God so loved the world that he GAVE….”) When we give, it gets us to understand that we need to be other focused. Christ is “other-focused” (gave to others-to us!) and we know that because He gave! If our first priority is to spend, the focus is on ourselves! Get your priorities straight.
• The second thing we ought to do is with our money is SAVE! We spend a lot of time paying everyone except ourselves. (We will break down Luke 16 this Sabbath). After you give to God, you need to give to yourself. We pay everyone else but ourselves. We don’t pay ourselves enough!
• The third thing is PAY TAXES. Make sure you are prepared for taxes. Jesus talks about “rending unto Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God’s.” Start preparing for that ahead of time! Give, save and make sure you pay your taxes. That’s self control, since we have an option to either take it out now, or later (on our paychecks) Some of us do it later but if you sow now, you can reap later.
• The next thing is PAY DEBT. If you keep your debt and only pay the minimum on your credit cards, you will be paying off more than what you owe. People don’t really thing about monthly fees, interest, etc. Some of us think debt is a joke until you try to get a house. Some of us try to get out of it (debt) so bad that we stop giving and saving. The more debt we are in, the more handcuffed we are.
• The last thing we ought to do is SPEND IT. Doesn’t it feel good once you’ve done everything above, and now you get to spend it?! When you prioritize, you will actually have MORE!

We can put all of these together in three words that we need to live by the rest of this month:

• Give
• Save
• Live

In Closing:

• If you give and save first, the quality of the “life” will be much better. There is a promise attached to Malachi which is why God was so frustrated. ‘Do you not know that when you give me the best, I open up windows that you don’t have room enough to receive?’
• Israel was giving up to 50% of what they had! If we challenge God in a way, and we say “God, I am going to give, save, and live” God can’t help BUT to continue GIVING to you! God gave, we were saved, and now we can live! The plan of salvation, right there for your finances.

Pastor stated that if doing what it says above does not work, let him know. He will then have to change what he teaches!!!

Things to do:

1. Come back Sabbath (Saturday, January 14, 2012) and bring your ledger sheets with you (you were to track your spending this week).
2. Read Luke 16 so you can get some context before his next sermon.
3. Join us LIVE at church, or online at www.rubitv.tv (you can also view from your Iphones if you are not near a computer!).

Closing Prayer: We thank you for the opportunity to give, save and to live. We can do that with our finances because you did that with your son Jesus Christ. You gave him, he saved us, and now we can live. Help us with our finances. Help us to do what you’ve asked, right now it’s 10% tithe and however you move on us for offering. If we put this in order, we are challenging you to do something incredible in our lives and when you do may we trust you more with what you have given.

Hope you guys were as blessed by this message as I was! JOIN US, even if you’ve missed the first sessions, it will be very easy to follow along! J Tell a friend, or five!

Be blessed, and a blessing,

Xoxo,

View from the Pews

#LifeAndDebt Part I: LOST! (1-7-12, by @Pastahkelly) LIFE CHANGING INFO!

On Sabbath, January 7, 2012, Pastor Kelly began a series entitled “Life And Debt.” The Genesis sermon of this series was entitled “LOST!” Below you will find some notes. Please have your bible ready! J Visit our website at www.rubitv.tv in order to view this sermon! Be blessed and a blessing…. Here we go! J

We began reading from Matthew:

Text: Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Confession and Story

Pastor began by stating his confession. There has been a stigma when it comes to a man being a REAL MAN. There is something about a man who knows how to take good directions and doesn’t get lost easily. Pastor Kelly told us about a story which occurred some years ago. There were two couples in the car. Pastor Kelly and his friend were in the front (his friend was driving), the two young ladies were in the back seat. Five minutes into their drive, they found themselves extremely lost. Needless to day, the driver finally got them back to the proper place… of course the driver’s girlfriend looked at him differently the rest of the night. Pastor Kelly shared that he always got a DIFFERENT look from his girlfriend since he never knew where he was going. His complex has always been “getting lost easily!”

Many of us loose wallets, car keys, and if you are anything like our pastor, you sometimes loose your car! Pastor Kelly shared that every time he goes to the mall he swears someone steals his car because he can never remember where he parked. He shared that his new thing is popping the trunk and waiting for someone to scream believing that someone is getting out of the trunk and about to hurt them. That’s how he finds his car sometimes! (hahahah).

Being Lost Vs. Getting Lost

• Being lost is different than getting lost. Generally, we don’t know when we are getting lost, we only find out we are lost after we find out we are lost. On the way, you think you are heading in the right direction.
• It always begins with two things: Strong assurance that we know where we are going and confidence that we will get there.

The following things contribute to being lost:

1. Bad direction
2. Some of us make the wrong turn
3. Being on the phone or texting
4. Being distracted by the accident on the other side of the freeway (pet peeve!)

• We have ALL been lost at one point in time. A lot of us are lost morally. We approached the concept of sex confidently but somewhere a long the line you followed bad directions from friends and you are in something you never intended on being in…. your morals are now out of whack.
• Some of us are lost professionally, relationally, academically, spiritually. We can be lost in all different areas of life; we can also be lost financially.

Can you answer yes to any of these questions? If so, you are financially lost!

1. Spend more than you make in a year?
2. If you don’t know whether you are spending more than you are making; you are financially lost.
3. If you are constantly owing more on your car than what its worth… or don’t know how much you owe or don’t care… you are financially lost.
4. Paying the minimum on your credit card is a way of life? If you think paying the minimum is good financial planning…. You are financially lost.
5. If you aren’t sure if you are saving enough…. You are financially lost.
6. If you don’t know exactly how much you owe…. You are financially lost.
7. Have no method of tracking where your money goes… You are financially lost!
8. If you make over $75,000 a year and feel financial pressure… Financially lost!
9. If you are making financial decisions you hope your spouse never discovers, you may be lost financially.
10. If you have made decisions you hope the IRS never discovers….. you are definitely financially lost!

Why are we lost?

• Some of us are lost financially because we’ve had wrong directions. Grew up in a home where credit card and debt were a way of life. Grew up in a home where money grew on trees but for some reason the trees stopped growing. This concept carries over into your teenage years, college life and now into your married life…. Now you find yourself giving the same directions to your children.
• Some of us make bad turns: You can make ONE bad decision and that can affect you for the rest of your life. PK told the story of still having to pay a mortgage in Colorado even when him and his family moved to California. It was one financial decision that followed him. Sometimes folks have ideas and it’s a one time thing, but sometimes that ONE decision can affect your life. Just because someone in the church offers you a good financial idea don’t just jump at it.
• Some of us are distracted from keeping the main thing the main thing. We try to keep up with a lot of things, and phones, etc. The tv will always be bigger, the car will always go faster…. These things are not the main thing.

• Pastor made a point by stating that whenever he is lost, he has no problem asking anyone for directions. If we are lost in our marriage, we will ask for directions by marital counseling. If we are lost spiritually we get bible study. However, when we are lost financially we try to figure things out on our own? Why are we afraid to seek directions when it comes to our finances.

• Your finances are one of the spiritual things you can ever involve yourself in. the reason we can talk about it in church is because Jesus talked about finances more than he did Heaven or Hell. He understood that when we are out of whack financially we are also out of whack spiritually. If you are having trouble financially you are probably also having trouble spiritually. It doesn’t mean you are not making enough; it’s what you are doing with what you have! Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time asking for money, people did that. His biggest issue was “how do you MANAGE what I’ve given you?!” He understood that ‘when you are mismanaging that, I can start pointing to other areas of your life that are the same way.’

• GPS:
  Pastor shared that one of the things that helps him out is that he has a GPS. If he is trying to impress Tia he puts a mute on it, and simply looks at the directions when she isn’t looking (hahahaha). He explained that his GPS says “please proceed to the highlighted route” and when he gets on it, then it starts giving very specific directions. It’s like stating “Before I can tell you what street to turn on, I need you to get on the highlighted route. Once you get there, NOW you have a base on which I can give you some direction.’ Let’s get on the highlighted route now.

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.

Highlighted route has two principles.

1. Psalm 24: 1-2 “The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.” (NASB)
   - Everything on this earth belongs to God. Our bodies are not even our own. God has given us this earth but we are stewards of it but not owners of it. We are not owners of anything! We don’t even own our own children. Your job is “Take care of what doesn’t belong to you.” Nothing on this earth belongs to us, it all belongs to God, God needs us to watch out for the things He’s given us, even our bodies. One day God will ask what I did with his stuff!

   Matthew 25: 14-15, 27-30 “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.” (Read Verses 27-30)
   We will have to give an account of what we did with the things God entrusted us with. “Our time, abilities and money aren’t ours in the first place… we are caretakers, not owners.” Are you honoring my name in your spending?!

   PRINCIPLE #1: nothing that you have belongs to you, everything belongs to God. Life, body, mind, house… it all belongs to God and one day he will ask how his name was glorified by what He gave you.

2. Keep track of how you spend money. Matthew 6:19 (NASB) “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…. “In order to get to your heart, I have to get to your treasure.” We can tell where our heart is, by looking where our money is going. If we look at it, we can tell we don’t have a heart for God, if we did, our finances would reflect that. Our savings, our management, our ability to get out of debt would reflect that.

Closing:
Pastor passed out LOST LEDGER sheets for everyone. For the next week, we ought to Track every dollar that’s spent and see where it is going. There will be more accountability in your home this way. He specified that we should NOT try to become righteous this week, just be yourself and continue business as usual in order to figure out where you are! He made a joke that many of the husbands will end up discovering how much hair products really are (hahah), almost like having “a hair ministry!” (LOL).

All in all, be responsible with what God has blessed you with. The fact that you have SOMETHING, says that God trusts you. You may not have more because you don’t even track the little that you now have. He wants us to understand that God does not have a problem with us having things, he just wants to make sure your stuff doesn’t have you!”

Prayer:
Thank you for letting us borrow this life, money, time, because everything that we have belongs to you. We will be good stewards of what is yours. We will learn how to be good stewards of your finances, we want to spend, plan, and save well because we want to glorify your name.

We pray that you were blessed by part 1 of this series! Join us on this coming Wednesday, January 11, 2011, at 7:15pm PST at www.rubitv.tv (you can also tune in on your phones!!!). If you are local, visit us at 5320 Victoria Ave., Riverside, CA (Victoria and Central Ave.)

Let’s get it together NOW and break the cycle of bad financial directions we were given! Your life depends on it.

Be blessed, and a blessing,

Xoxo

S.S with Views from the Pews

#LifeandDebt the PREquel “Money, Eyes, Camels & Needles” (@Pastahkelly 1-4-12)

On Saturday, January 7, 2012, Pastor Kelly will be beginning a series entitled “Life and Debt.” On Wednesday, January 4, 2011, he preached the Prequel to this series, in order to prepare us. The Preque was entitled: Money, Eyes, Camels and Needles” We hope it is a blessing to you. Please have your bible handy, as you will need it.

Texts: (Please read the following verses before proceeding).

• Proverbs 10:22
• Ecclesiastes 5:19 (NLT)
• Mark 10: 17-31

-God blesses you, and when He blesses you, you become ‘rich’ but yet, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. So is God blessing you so you WONT make it into the kingdom?! We will find out…..

Through the story in Mark 10, we can hear God saying “Give all you have NOW, you will have more LATER, but your immediate return will be a CROSS, however, the CROSS seems to be a down payment for something else!

LET’S BREAK IT DOWN

Who is it that comes running to Christ?!

-The Rich “Young” Ruler. Not only does he come to Jesus, he RUNS and he KNEELS. Back in the day, anyone who was rich did not take it to have public interactions with Jesus. They would have been talked about. Like Niccodemus, (Jesus met with him on the sly). The rich young ruler runs to Jesus and kneels in front of him. From that, we can see that he has somewhat of a heart for God! You also know he has a heart for God because he called Jesus “GOOD Master.” Jesus is trying to see where He is theologically, so he asks the young man a question…. “Why are you calling me good……?” In Jesus’ mind, “if you are calling me Good, you must think that I am God…. Plus you are kneeling infront of me.” That has to be very important to Jesus at this moment because EVERYONE else is questioning whether He is God!

- We then see that Jesus goes on to share the commandments since this man knew of him and the commandments…. However, Jesus mentions “Defraud Not”…. Is that a commandment?! No.

• If you notice, every commandment that God mentions (in verse 19) has to do with human relationships. Many individuals feel as though if they have their connection with God all is good, but what they fail to realize is that your connection with God should be manifested in the way you treat people.
• Scholars say that Jesus threw “Defraud Not” in there because the rich young ruler knew all the commandments that had to do with GOD but not with people. WOW! Isn’t it baffling that some of us can have a GREAT relationship with God but not with people?! Pastor suggested that sometimes we may have a great relationship with God because we can’t see Him. If you saw Him like you saw people, you would probably have the same issues with God (MERCY!!!).

What did the young man lack?!

-The congregation brainstormed and gave their suggestions, which was “Relationship, faith, compassion, love, surrender, lack to give, hatred for worldly things. Pastor suggested that the answer was clear. The rich young ruler lacked PRIORITIES! Pastor Kelly stated that he used to think that this young man had a problem with his wealth; however, upon examination we see that Jesus had just promised him MORE! Jesus didn’t say “you will be broke” but He basically said “Give it up now, and you will get more later (a hundred fold)”

What should have been his priority?!

• Being with God at whatever the cost. That should be our main priority. Whatever it costs for us to be together, I am willing to let that thing go, because YOU are the main priority in my life!
• He shouldn’t have needed to know about the treasures in heaven, all he needed to know is that he would have Jesus and that’s it!
• God gives us stuff to help other people get with Him. He said “Give all you have to the poor and come and follow me” that screams PRIORITIES!
• Unfortunately our priorities are “Family first, then God.” Sometimes it is our “Career, then God.” Some are very good priorities but Jesus later on (in Mark 10) makes it clear that you MIGHT have to end up leaving your family for me. I HAVE to be your #1 priority. “Seek ye first the KINGDOM of God….”
• God says “if I am your #1 priority, you don’t have to worry about anything else! Everything else takes care of itself. When we have a lot of stuff, the stuff becomes our priority, then it is hard to let go of what your priority is. In other words, if you let go of everything you have and give to the poor, your priorities are straight because you still have GOD!
• God cannot trust you with stuff, if He’s not the #1 priority. God has no problem with you being rich, but if we were rich, for some, God would no longer be our #1 priority. For some of us, God becomes our #1 priority so we can get things and as soon as we get those things, He isn’t the priority anymore until we loose those things again and we feel we need to get them back. God says I need to be the #1 priority.
• Whatever you have that’s more of a priority than God makes it more difficult for you to get into the kingdom.
• One of the major things that takes God from being #1 in our lives, is money, that’s why he talks about it. Folks stop talking to others because of money. They stop going to church because of money! That means, not only do you have money but the money has you, and God is no longer your #1 priority, making it hard to get into the kingdom of heaven.
• God can get rid of the money for you, or you can do it yourself. When you get rid of the money, God’s way, He always brings it back. J
• Matthew 19:27 (We’ve given up everything to follow you, so what do we get?!) Can you see Jesus looking saying “You have ME!” Peter was expecting to get more when he already had everything in Jesus.
• When we recognize Jesus is enough, that’s when he is comfortable adding to us.
• (Paraphrased) Happiness is when you have that ONE thing and no matter what else is added to it, you are not happier! THAT is what God is waiting for us to get to. When we have Him and is our ultimate happiness he knows He can add whatever else to your life because he knows that’s NOT what will make you happy, because your ultimate happiness is just you and God. Everything else is an accessory that we can live without.
• Get your priorities straight. Your #1 priority should be God and when we get there, he will slowly but surely start to trust us with more.
• God had no problem with you having money, but he does have a problem with money having you!

During this month’s series, we will teach you principles on how to get out of debt. If your life is financially unstable, your spiritual life will be too. You cannot be spiritually stable and financially unstable at the same time. We want to emphasize that financial stability does not mean you are making more money! So many people get around with a lot less than most of us do. Join us, as we explore this topic. One question before we go……

Can others look at your bank account and tell you are a Christian?

Join us during the month of January, on Saturday mornings at 11:00 PST at www.rubitv.tv (From your Iphones), or on www.mtrubidoux.com; and on Wednesday evenings at 7:15pm. Please check our websites for more information.

Be blessed, and a blessing. J

-Views From The Pews-

#SanctuarySeries -Alone in the Dark- 10-24-11, by @Pastahkelly

On Monday, October 24, 2011, Pastor Kelly continued with our “Sanctuary Series.” The title of this sermon is “Alone in the dark” Our text is found in Exodus 25: 31-40 (Amplified version). Please read that passage before continuing on, in order for everything else to make sense. May this sermon be a blessing to someone.

One thing we all had in common growing up, is the fact that we were afraid of the dark. There is something about the dark!!! Doesn’t your mind play crazy tricks on you, as a kid, in the dark?! Pastor Kelly shared that he got a life-size Winnie the Pooh as a gift, as a kid. When the lights were on, it was fine, but at night, he couldn’t stand Winnie being in his room… he looked like something from another movie and not a Disney character, pastor shared. The night made Pooh something else. No matter how old we are, if we are lost, we don’t want to be lost at night. If we are lost at noon, it’s a different story. There are some alleys that at night you won’t walk down, but during the day, you may.

• Darkness has some unknown characteristics to it. The dark represents something you can’t get a hold of or comprehend. Darkness can only be defined by its counterpart, light.

The Holy Place: Candlestick/Menorah

• It wasn’t just to be made of pure gold, but pure gold that was beaten. The oil that was used to keep the candlestick lit was not only made from olive oil but God gave instructions that it was to be beaten from the tree, not just extracted.
• Pastor stated that throughout the Sanctuary, he noticed that everything that had “pure” attached to it also had something to do with being beaten. Seems as if on the road to purity (through the laver, and being cleansed) when we go through things in our lives, it not only strengthens our character but it gets rid of the imperfections that are in us. The world uses things to tear us down but God uses it to tear down our imperfections. How we deal with the things of life will determine how we come out of the things of life.
• E. G White in speaking about failure stated: “some of us at times, God uses failure to drive us closer to him… therefore, sometimes we ought to pray to fail” not fail in areas of sin, or righteousness, but just jack up in certain areas of our lives and fall face down, since that may be the only way we can get to where God wants us to go. I wonder if we should pray for more tribulations?!
• Everyone who is going to be in the kingdom of God will have gone through SOMETHING! We complain when we go through stuff. We try to avoid the trials and tribulations… Those things are working out the imperfections, which is what may be happening in the idea of the Most Holy Place.
• The candlestick served as the only source of light in the Holy Place. The light along with the incense was to be continually burning. Perpetual burning; perpetual light.
• Out of all of the gospels, the gospel of John mimics the sanctuary the most. John 1: 14 says: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The Greek says “the word became flesh and pitched its tent among us.” It makes it clear that God wants to be able to identify with His children, so you can have a high priest who is not out of touch with your infirmities. At first God was living above us but in Exodus he wants to dwell among us, but then in John, he is Emmanuel “God WITH us”… and the now, God through the Holy Spirit wants to live in us!
• Each article in the sanctuary connected very specifically to Jesus Christ. John’s gospel does something similar. He announces Jesus as “something” then you see Jesus become that “something.” For example “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, then you see Jesus forgiving someone of their sin. Another example is Jesus saying “I am the bread of life” then he turns around and feeds 5000 people, then declare that “the word I have will actually give you eternal life.” Another example is Jesus sitting at the well, saying I have some water that if you drink from, you will never ever thirst again! So, throughout John Jesus says ‘THIS is what I am like, and I will show you in real action what I am like.’ John’s gospel mimics the sanctuary!
• We looked at John 8: 12, which says: “Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the Light which is Life.”

Light connecting with God and how it plays in our everyday life:

• Genesis 1: 1-3 Here is the earth without form and void, the bible is so specific that it said that darkness was there. So before God can perform one act on the earth he first must bring LIGHT into the picture. The light is there created, but there wasn’t a sun, moon or stars just yet. The light that refers to sun, moon and start is always connected to an inadiment object that doesn’t move or breath. Therefore, in that verse He is talking about a different kind of light. There is a Greek word that connect with the Hebrew word that ONLY applies to God… it doesn’t just have the purpose of illuminating like any light does… so there in that verse he isn’t’ turning on a light switch but introducing himself to this particular section of the universe. Before God can create and breathe something new into the picture there must also be light, but not just any light, but the PRESENCE of God! Before something new could be created, God MUST be a part of that thing… It is God’s way of saying “I am here and now I can begin to do the world.”
  There are NEW things that need to happen in us day by day, and we try to make it happen outside of the presence of the God who can make it happen, so before God says “I can create something new” we must first be in his presence and allow him to unleash himself in our life in a very specific and intentional way. He needs time for us to be still and for him to unleash himself on us. But some of us are just too busy.
• Sometimes we just need to sit still and just not move and let God’s presence come. He will start to recreate something new in us. When God recreated the world he used the spoken word… when he recreates us, what does He use? The word, but sometimes we are not still enough.
• When you look at the sanctuary, the high priest wasn’t the only one allowed in the holy place (just in the MOST Holy place), so other priests were allowed to come in and do what they needed to do. Take note that the bible describes us a “a royal priesthood; a peculiar people; a chosen generation.” When you look at what takes place in the holy place, each of these items had a constant movement and presence as they were. The bible describes us a “royal priesthood, a peculiar people… a chosen generation.” God is trying to get us to know that we are his priesthood (not the HIGH priest, for He is the only High priest), so it lets us know that the type of work that was done in the Holy place shows us the type of work we should bring to the people of the world. Hence, they had to be purified for their own salvation but had to be pure so they can work for God. One of the reasons we have to step to the laver before the holy place, is because before we need to start God’s work he wants us to be pure.
• John 1: 4-5 God says in me there is life, and life is the light of men, one of the jobs of the priest was to make sure that the light was consistently burning. God cannot move on people’s lives until they are first introduced to some light. The light was through the priests who were already introduced to the light. Our problem is that our candles go out easily so it’s ‘dark and dark getting together.’ That’s why the folks in our lives change, because they have never been exposed to the light. Light has to do with you having the character of the one who IS light… when you have His character and you are in the presence of others, that light just shines on them in a way that no one can explain it. They want to share so much of themselves (verbally) with you…. because the light is with you!!! When light comes into darkness, darkness is gone. It doesn’t happen gradually, it is instant (just like when you turn on the light, it is instant!). Whatever is there, is completely exposed. God says “I need us to take THIS light into a dying world.”

CHALLENGE: Before you have light, you must first be exposed to the light… we don’t need to be like roaches, who, when the light comes on, they break for cover (lol). Some of us don’t have light, we have flashlights but flashlights focus on one little thing, whereas LIGHT focuses on everything. When the light comes on, God not only shows where we are weak or small.

• Jesus had a way of not letting people feel comfortable in their sin but letting them feel comfortable with Him. When we bring ourselves in other’s lives and we bring the light… let them know ‘yes, we all have issues…I know you are struggling but the light that I am bringing to you…. I want to connect you to that direct source, a source that isn’t judgmental; a source that wants to be able to save you and make you more like Him just like he did to me.’ There are folks in our lives who are in darkness because we haven’t’ brought them light. The challenge is GET IN THE LIGHT… just be perpetually burning for Jesus Christ… when you do that, Jesus will speed up His coming. He is waiting for more darkness to be exposed. We need to go out into the world and share with the dark world, a Savior.

PRAYER: you are the light and the light is life and if we have the light which is you, we have life, because we have Christ! And if we can bring the same life and light to someone else, they will have it, and they will do the same thing and it will be like it was supposed to be, your royal priesthood carrying the light into the world!!! Help us to keep the main thing, the main thing! We will relax in your presence, allow you to come to us and we will do the same with someone else. In Jesus Name!

Be blessed, and a blessing… let your light so shine,

Xoxo,

Views From The Pews

#SanctuarySeries “A Sweet Fragrance” (10-22-11, @pastahkelly)… How is your Prayer Life?!

On Saturday evening Pastor Kelly continued with our “Sanctuary Series” and preached a sermon entitled “A Sweet Fragrance.” A blessing to all of us! Want to find out WHY God may not answer your prayers, the way YOU want him to?! take a look

Exodus 30:1-10

Pastor Kelly began by sharing a story about his childhood, growing up in Los Angeles. He stated that back then, the thing was to go to the Fox Hills mall! There was always a check list prior to going. They first needed a ride, then make sure their cross colors were right! The cell phones were the size of your head so they didn’t have one. You needed a pad and a pen when you went to the Fox Hills mall. The guys were there to see someone, ladies were there to be seen. One passes, and you look back. The ladies are giggling, etc and they would stop walking. You would reach in your pocket, walk over to the group and say “yo, my boy thinks you are cute, can he get your #?” (hahahahha) He explained that he got his wife, in a similar fashion. One of his friends was good friends with his wife, Tia. So one day, him and the same friend went to dinner and Tia was at the same restaurant having dinner with her family. Pastor Kelly asked his guy friend to get Tia’s number for him, if that was ok. Needless to say, he got Tia’s number J Pastor Kelly explained that he had an intercessor on that day… somebody who could say for him what he couldn’t say… do what he couldn’t do. Someone who could present his case better than he could…. We have all had someone talk for us at some point. They go representing us but know how to say it better.

The Sanctuary

• Now Christ is entering to the Holy Place and this is important because Jesus had a goal; He had something he must do… intercede on our behalf. Hebrews 7:25-26 says “Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them. 26[Here is] the High Priest [perfectly adapted] to our needs, as was fitting–holy, blameless, unstained by sin, separated from sinners, and exalted higher than the heavens.” THAT’S the person who stands before us. Christ is the person who is constantly pleading your case before God. It seems simple but know that even when you are not worried about your case, Jesus is worried about your case. We have an intercessor who knows how to say it better than we do.
• ‘The Sanctuary’ message becomes important. The Israelites know that when everyone else kicks me to the curve, I’ve got somebody who is talking to the Father about me. We have an inside track because Jesus and God are related. If I am related to Jesus, then Jesus has some extra incentive to present our case, doesn’t He? For He doesn’t want to loose any of us.
• The most holy place: the act of sanctification takes place there. Menorah, table of show-bread. The altar of incense had practical and symbolic purpose.

Altar of Incense Purposes:

• First purpose: (practical) When you have dead animals around, it doesn’t smell too nice!!! On the Day of Atonement they would sacrifice all day long. Sometimes they would take the fat off the animals and it would be burned up. The incense had to be going at night, in the morning, etc… so things would smell nice!
• Second Purpose: (symbolic): Revelation 5:8 says: “And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] prostrated themselves before the Lamb. Each was holding a harp (lute or guitar), and they had golden bowls full of incense (fragrant spices and gums for burning), which are the prayers of God’s people (the saints).”
  -The incense is representing the prayers of God’s people. One of the best ways that we communicate with God is through prayer. It is no accident that the altar is the closest article in the most holy place to the arc of the covenant. The closest that we can get to God is when we are on our knees and talking to him in prayer. There is something about prayer. E.G White says that “Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as one to a friend.” A lot of us don’t spend enough time in it. There is a shield around you when you spend time in prayer… lock yourself up with Him. God loves it when His people pray. God is so serious about prayer that He wants to make sure that each one of our prayers gets through. Even at our best, our prayers still stink of heaven. Revelations 8:3-4. He looks at the disciples and say “ it is expedient that I go…the one way that you will be able to connect with me and the Father is through prayer. But you guys don’t have a clue what to pray for.’ He first has to take our prayers and allow them to make sense. Even with the best vocabulary, the Holy Spirit gets it the right way first! The Holy Spirit says ‘I have to mix some of myself with your prayer, outside of me, your prayers don’t deserve to reach heaven.’ Now the prayers are mixed with Jesus Christ and He can definitely hear those.

Pastor Kelly talked about the fact that we get frustrated when prayers aren’t answered, especially the ones we REALLY pray for. Unfortunately, sometimes when our prayers are not answered, we stop praying. And the devil is saying “YES!”

Reasons why our prayers are not answered:

1. Unbelief: Unbelief handcuffs God. God has a hard time answering, not because he can’t… but he has a hard time when someone who doesn’t believe what he/she is praying. We come to God in prayer because it is the right thing to do, not because deep down we KNOW that God will be able to handle it. Something about when you come to God in prayer understanding that what you are bringing to God, He can handle. If He doesn’t do it, it could be that He thinks its best not to do it. Praise God for who He is, first and foremost. Once you praise Him for who He is, you begin to build confidence in what God can do. When you have that kind of confidence, then unbelief doesn’t find way in your prayer.
2. Selfishness: Exodus 30:36-37 when was the last time you spent time praying for someone else more than yourself. Most of our prayers are just about us! We even say “God help them, so they can help me.” Our prayers are selfish. The prayer that gets the attention of God is the prayer that has nothing to do with you. If you found Christ praying for himself, it was it was to get the strength to help His children. If we can take selfishness out of our prayers…. spend time praying for someone else and God will answer prayers you never even asked about.
3. Willful disobedience: It hinders our prayer. The key word is willful! We have all been disobedient. We sometimes just mess up and fall short but some of us are bold with it and are disobedient willfully. We still think God will answer the prayer. We can hear God saying “If I were to answer the prayer of that person, you may think that you can live how ever you want to live and I will be able to do the same things in your life.” Can you imagine being married to a person that way? Who does whatever they want to you, except cheat (because that’s the only way your spouse can leave you). We must not be willfully disobedient. There is a difference between the person who is struggling and seeking God, vs. the person who isn’t seeking God.
4. Evil Heart: Fall on the rock Christ Jesus and allow him to remove iniquity out of our hearts.
5. Unforgiving Spirit: One of the things he likes about prayer… prayer not only bring us closer to God but brings us together with one another. The early church prayed separately but also prayed collectively, not just at prayer meeting, but they would go to each other’s homes. A lot of us have issues with one another that we still haven’t gotten resolved, that’s why we don’t do it (pray with one another). God states that if you have an unresolved issue with someone else how can you expect to come to me?! God cannot answer the prayer of someone who doesn’t have the spirit of forgiveness with their brother. Your prayers didn’t get through, not because you weren’t praying the right way, but there may be family members or a church members you haven’t gotten it right with. We still have some ill feelings for someone else and you have to let it go because God is waiting to do something in your life through your prayers!!! But it’s like He is saying “I won’t because you have an unforgiving spirit.” We have to have that spirit because our God is the most forgiving!!!! That is one of the things that tears churches apart the most… our inability to be able to forgive one another and move on in the name of Jesus.
6. Submission to Gods will: too many of our prayers are mixed with our will, desires, wants and needs.

Jesus stands before the father in the garden of Gethsemane and has a heart to heart with God: “this is starting to get a little rough and tough… not the sins on my shoulder, I can deal with that, but because of the sins I am not feeling you like I used to, since I don’t know what it is to ever be apart from you. So God, is there any way that this cup can pass from me?!” He is being real with God, isn’t He?! He said “not my will, but YOUR will.” He is feeling separation from the Father because for the FIRST time, he is being separated. And he is saying “I am so into your will that even if your will means me experiencing something I have never experienced in my life, I am down with it. If your will is us not being together it is all good because it’s your will. Let this cup pass from me, but if it’s in your will that we have to be separated, the most important thing for me is not that you answer the prayer but that I am in your will.” When you and I can pray like that, every prayer will get answered… “not my will, but yours.” When God says “Wait,” or “Yes,” that’s what I wanted anyway because it is not my will. At the end of the day it is all about being in His will. No matter what happens to my prayer, I know everything will be ok as long as I am in the will of God.

Our prayers are a sweet fragrance before God, because there is someone who takes those prayers, brings them up to heaven and gives us the strength to pray. Jesus Christ, constantly taking our prayers and pleading on our behalf.

Challenge: Spend more time, than you ever had before, talking to God in prayer beginning this week!

Prayer: We pray that today’s message was practical. We want to be in your mix, in your presence. We pray that we apply the things we learned to our prayer life. We want the sweet perfume to fill heaven in a wonderful way. Thank you for Jesus Christ and the Holy Sprit in that altar, that does something to our feeble prayers. Thanks for being a prayer answering God!

We pray this sermon was a blessing to you and shed some more light as to who God is… how merciful and loving He is! Please take time to participate in the challenge by spending more time in prayer, and praying for others!

Be blessed and a blessing

xoxo,

VIews from the pews

To view this sermon:

1. Go to www.mtrubidoux.com

2. Click on “Featured Sermond” (top/right corner)

3. Scroll down to the date and hit play

#TheSanctuary “Won’t He Make you Clean?!” (10-22-11/ Pastor Kelly)

On Sabbath morning, Pastor Kelly preached the fourth sermon of the “Sanctuary Series.” This sermon was entitled “Won’t He make You clean?!” We read form Exodus 30-17-21.

Exodus 30: 17- 21 And the Lord said to Moses, 18You shall also make a laver or large basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it [outside in the court] between the Tent of Meeting and the altar [of burnt offering], and you shall put water in it; 19There Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet.20When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, 21So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die; it shall be a perpetual statute for [Aaron] and his descendants throughout their generations.” (Amplied version)

Recap:

• God created us to be relational beings. No matter how much we say that we want to be alone, we all want to connect with someone at sometime. We like to have people in our lives that we can talk to and communicate with.
• God’s make-up is relationship… 3 in 1 all related perfectly with one another, so it makes sense that His children are relational as well
• He created us for two purposes: relationship and fellowship. You are not obedient unless you are in a relationship. Everything flows from two main principles: relationship and fellowship.
• Anything that God has for us, the devil wants to break. The devil’s goal is to break relationship and fellowship, for this reason he brought sin into the picture, to do just that. The main victory of sin is that relationship and fellowship between God and man was broken.
• Sin’s big issue is not just the consequences we see here on earth… but the fact that it breaks the two things you were made for.
• Genesis 3: 8 says: “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” God comes looking for fellowship but they are hiding…. We see here that fellowship and relationship were both broken.
• God is absolutely crazy about you!!!! He just loves to be with you, and now because of sin, if we were to be in His presence we couldn’t handle it.
• Moses was asked to build a sanctuary so that Christ could dwell among His People. The entire purpose of the sanctuary was to fulfill two things: God finding a way to be with us (Yes, the creator of the universe desires to be with us); it outlined the plan by which God will make sure that we will be with him for ever.
• Every detail of the sanctuary is not a detail used to teach a doctrine by itself, it’s about God showing his children “this is the way we will be together forever.”
• Be assured that your God is so in love with you that he has a plan that is detailed!!! That’s how much He is in love with us. The entire sanctuary is about God getting back a relationship with His children.

Today:

• Sanctuary is broken down into three parts: The first part is the outer court. The next is the Holy Place, (in where you have the menorah-candlestick-, altar of incense and table of showbread. The third is called the Most Holy Place. The purple veil is between the two (Holy Place and the most Holy Place) and behind the veil is the arc of the covenant. The outer-court represented Christ’s ministry here on earth.
• The holy place he no longer worked on earth but is doing something in heaven.

• God is constantly working on a way to get me into the Kingdom. Even when I am not thinking about getting there, God is still thinking about it for me. He is finding away to figure out how to get our hard headed selves into His presence.
• There was only one way to get into the sanctuary. Just one door….The gate! It represents Christ. John 10:9 says: “I am the Door; anyone who enters in through Me will be saved (will live). He will come in and he will go out [freely], and will find pasture.” Jesus made it clear!!!!
• Three colors: blue, purple, scarlet. Purple means royalty. Scarlet: sacrifice. Blue: Obedience.
• You can’t get royalty without sacrifice and obedience. When you walk through the gate, there are those things represented in the colors that the author wants you to see. When you give your life to Jesus you are Royalty but also, sacrifice and suffering comes with that. Some times we think that when we go through stuff we are doing something wrong, however, perhaps it is because you are a bit too close to Jesus for the devil’s comfort!!!
• You don’t have obedience before you have relationship. We think obedience is just following a bunch of rules, but it isn’t. Additionally, some of us are just obedient because we know that “obedience” gets us.

Pastor Kelly gave the example of him and Pastor Walsh, regarding “Forks over Knives.” Watch the clip to hear the joke J

• God’s biggest thing is not about us but its about when he asks us to do something, will be do it?! When God asks us to do something, we ought to just do it, without asking questions. That kind of obedience only comes from relationship. He doesn’t need to explain to us the benefits, etc. if he explained the results of being obedient to us, we honestly wouldn’t be obedient. Your obedience today may kick in three years from now.
• When God is calling you to something, don’t always look for what the results will be, sometimes God just wants to see if you are willing to be obedient.
• Check your relationship, not your behaviors… out of relationship comes obedience. You cannot have relationship and not be obedient.
• Back to the Sanctuary: You then walk through the gate and you see the altar of sacrifice. Before they moved any further their sins had to be paid, through a lamb/offering that represented Jesus Christ. The only way you get to Jesus is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Don’t take that lightly. It is not what we have done, but it is what Christ has done that gives us the ability to one day be in the presence of God. So when you first walk in the door you see sacrifice. Our Christian faith is built on sacrifice.

Muslim and a Christian were having a conversation. The Muslim’s complaint was: “when one person messed up, somebody else took the blame. You guys don’t take ownership and responsibility.” Pastor Kelly explained that THAT’S the essence of Christianity, the idea that when we jacked up, someone else took our place. If you take sacrifice out of the equation, everything crumbles. It’s all about sacrifice.

THE LAVER

• The laver: it was the place to be cleansed. Exodus 38:8 “He made the laver and its base of bronze from the mirrors of the women who ministered at the door of the Tent of Meeting.”
  -In Egypt, before the women would go into the temple, they carried with them a mirror to constantly check their beauty while in the temple. They were so focused on their beauty, because in their time, how you looked would affect the way you would worship. As they leave Egypt, the Israelite women adopted certain principles. They wouldn’t just walk into the temple but they would carry with them some mirrors, making sure they looked ok. God called them to take the object and use them now ‘for the object of my sanctuary.’ They made a conscious decision to say ‘we no longer are concerned about what we look like, we are concerned about our characters.’ Once they got rid of the mirrors they had no way of checking what they looked like. Some of us walk around the world with the mirrors of vanity. We LOOK like we have it together, but on the inside we are dying. The main thing that we should be worried about is character, for character is the one thing that will get us into the kingdom.
• Soon as the priest was done with his sacrifice, he had to go up and wash. You cannot step into the presence of God, dirty, even when its dirt from the work you’ve been doing for Him.
• They could look at the laver, and it would show them who they were and how and where they needed to be clean. It represented a portion of our Savior. There are more of us who need to spend more time at the laver and say “show me where I need to be cleaned!” The stuff we have is not one of the quick showers we do when we are late for work where the soap barely touches out skin. God does a DEEP cleansing. If you are 40years old, you have 40 years of stuff!!! Some of the areas we thought we were the cleanest are where we are the dirtiest. The laver doesn’t lie, it would show you exactly where the dirt was.
• The priest had to make sure they were clean before they stepped into the Holy Place. Symbolically, as a church we need to make sure we are clean. God asks us to be clean!! We are all dressed up and still DIRTY! You come to Jesus as you are, but you come to the father CLEAN! The priests didn’t have time to see how dirty the next priest was or worry about other things, they had to make THEY were clean! We need to be intentional about being pure and holy
• Titus 3:1- 5 “Remind People to be submissive to [their] magistrates and authorities, to be obedient, to be prepared and willing to do any upright and honorable work, 2To slander or abuse or speak evil of no one, to avoid being contentious, to be forbearing (yielding, gentle, and conciliatory), and to show unqualified courtesy toward everybody. 3For we also were once thoughtless and senseless, obstinate and disobedient, deluded and misled; [we too were once] slaves to all sorts of cravings and pleasures, wasting our days in malice and jealousy and envy, hateful (hated, detestable) and hating one another.4But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior to man [as man] appeared, 5He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy, by [the] cleansing [bath] of the new birth (regeneration) and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
• The verse about is saying that ‘at one time you were trifling but something happened to you. We are re-generational. The word for that is Palagenesia, which means: coming back from death to life, regeneration: A return to existence. –As if in that state, you weren’t really existing, God couldn’t even count that as existence. In his eyes, we keep living away from me, we have no existence! That’s why the bible doesn’t teach “going to hell.” Christ makes it as if you never existed.
• God wants to go and not only cleanse but wants to recreate who you are and if you look at how he created in Genesis, wasn’t He detailed? He didn’t leave out one thing. Let me make a Genesis in your life… let me come inside and let me recreate and make you into a person that looks like me, so that when we step in the presence of my Father, He wont be able to tell the difference because you will be covered and clean!

Don’t be satisfied just being forgiven, go to the laver. Ask God to show you how you can live more like Him!

CONCLUSION: Pastor Kelly talked about the story where the couple was married for 74 years. They got into a car accident. They were taken to the ICU and knowing the story, the nurses saw the closeness so they put them in the same room together. Their beds were close. The couple was just holding hands. At 3:38pm after all the work, the husband died, flat lined. However, they saw something that was throwing them off. The heart monitor was still registering a heartbeat. They were trying to figure out what was going on. It was concluded that the monitor wasn’t picking up his monitor but hers who was still alive, holding his hand. So, we saw that someone’s heart was still beating for Him. As we lay in the bed called sin and the devil said we have flat lined but there is still a registered heartbeat. They see that it is because my hand is in the hand of someone else.

Your heart doesn’t beat without your hand being in God. Place your hand in the hand of Jesus.

To view this sermon
1. www.mtrubidoux.com
2. Go to “Featured Sermons” (top/right corner)
3. Scroll down to the date, and hit play

Be blessed, and a blessing,
xoxo,
Views From the Pews

#TheSanctuary, Day 3 “Consumed at the Altar” (10-19-11/ Pastor Kelly)

Sanctuary notes from Day 3 of our “Sanctuary Series,” dated 10-19-11. The title of this sermon is “Consumed at the Altar.” We encourage everyone to check out this sermon on our website, as I am sure there are things that I might have missed or misunderstood! Study for yourself J Here it is! J

Exodus 27: 1-8 (English standard) says “1“You shall make thealtar of acacia wood, five cubitslong and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. 2And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, andyou shall overlay it with bronze. 3You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. 4You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. 5And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar.6And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 7And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. 8You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.”

• Pastor Kelly began by stating that anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows you didn’t just wake up one day and decided you would marry someone the same day you saw them. Before you get hooked up, you are usually drawn to a person. Some of us are drawn by a certain type of physical attribute. We are drawn to different things, perhaps due to our upbringing; our experience; what we have seen. Some are drawn to those like their father, or mother, or close friend. We are drawn to someone by something. Relationships may fall apart because the “Drawing” stops. As humans, we constantly need to be drawn/pulled. We constantly need to be drawn to one another.

• What is it that draws us to Jesus?! According to Isaiah 53: ‘we esteemed him not.’ They were looking for him to be more majestic, more godly, but when they looked at Him, He looked just like us! What is it that makes us say “I want to give that a shot” to God. Some say it is love… but someone can’t just walk up to you and say “I love you” and you are drawn to them. We don’t COME to Christ, we are drawn to Christ… there is nobody seeking God, no one has understanding, we have all, like sheep, turned ashtray. One thing that draws us to Jesus is His sacrifice. In the sacrifice it doesn’t make a lot of sense how somebody would give up everything before people even asked to have him give it up. It speaks to a God who says “I will take everything you deserved and you will take everything I deserve.” While we were yet sinners, Christ gave himself to die for us.
• When people come face to face with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they have a hard time resisting. That’s why the first thing you see when you walk into the sanctuary, in the outer court is the altar of sacrifice. Everything that revolves around the Christian community and what we stand for is the idea of sacrifice, someone giving up something for someone else. Our religion is founded on “Sacrifice”

• You are surrounded by sacrifice because when you walked in to the sanctuary, it didn’t smell the best since dead animals were there, as well as their blood. When you first walked in, you knew that it was something about ‘sacrifice.’ There was no room for the attention to be on anything else but sacrifice in the outer court. All they were doing was pointing to an act that Jesus Christ one day would do. It wasn’t a time to play games once stepping into the outer court, it was all about sacrifice. “One of the strongest and greatest virtues we can have as Christians is the ability to sacrifice… not of our lives, but how much on a daily basis do we sacrifice for others.

Three Sections of the Sanctuary:

1. Outer Court: everything that takes place here symbolizes Christ’s ministry on planet earth. As you move, you see ‘that’s the work that Christ will continue.’ It is expedient that I go, because I am already going to complete the work on earth, but my work isn’t done, I still have work to do… the work has to do with YOU. I can know that right now God is working JUST for me! While I am up there, my goal is to figure out how to get Sasha Sterling up here. He has different ways, what gives us joy is that God is always working out my salvation. He is trying to figure out how to save me! He never sleeps nor slumbers but night and day he is trying to figure out how to get us down there, up there!
2. Holy Place
3. Most Holy Place

Dr. Roy Gain talked about “rituals” and stated “the sanctuary was a controlled environment that made interaction possible in-spite of the separation between God and human beings…. in the Israelite sanctuary, God came as close to His people as possible. First a ritual is a system of activity, such a system could involve slaughtering an animal, putting its blood on the side of the altar and burning its flesh…. A ritual is a special kind of activities systems in which the activities included and the order in which they are performed are fixed. They must be done in the way God has specified for example Leviticus 1 makes it clear that it had to be a certain kind of animal, etc.” Anyone who tells you God is not particular does not know God!

• God says we have to connect and I need you to see some things… you will see it if you perform a ritual in this particular way and manner. The reason it has power is because of the meaning attached to the ritual…you remove the meaning, the ritual means nothing.

• The devil gets us caught up in a lot of rituals in the church and in our lives, and some of us are so concerned with the ritual than the God of the ritual. For some, coming to church is a ritual we do every Saturday morning. We get so caught up with going through the motions….
• Hebrews is about the author trying to get people off the ritual and back on Christ. There are a lot of us, who go through all the rituals that at one time were good and had powerful meaning, but we are so caught up in them, that it has lost its meaning. It’s about the God of the worship and not just the worship.

The Altar: It’s Make-up

1. Exodus 27:1 says “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubitslong and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits.”

   ACACIA WOOD: Acacia was an extremely bridle, easily broken piece of wood. While the altar was made of acacia wood, it represented humanity (the acacia wood did) so as big and bad as you think you are, God may want us to understand that we are easily broken (some folks even know which ones of our buttons to push). The devil gets us with the idea that he has convinced us that we are not easily broken. We think we can handle it, we think we can be ok. We think youwe can be in a particular situation and not fall…. Sometimes the devil builds up our false sense of security and then eventually we come tumbling down because we are easily broken. As a result of sin, we are like acacia wood, hollow, easily cracked…. We must admit that about ourselves!!!

2. Altar, while it was made with acacia wood, God told them to overlay it with something that wasn’t easily broken. While what is on the inside may be easily broken, the outside is not…. If you can cover yourself with something that isn’t easily broken, you wont be broken. If you want to crack the acacia wood you must first get through the bronze. On our own, we can be broken but when we are covered with the Blood of Jesus, we are tough to crack! Not because of us but because of who is covering us… therefore, that’s why every morning we have to ask God to cover us…because If I am not covered, I will break. I will crack under the pressures of this world.
3. ‘This alter which represents me, will be made of acacia, not only representing your humanity, but mine.. when I was walking on this earth, I could have been easily broken too.’
4. Exodus 27:1 shows Sacrifice, as well as justice and mercy. Notice that it is the same height as the mercy seat… showing us that God, in sacrifice, executed justice. We were also saved not just due to justice, but also from mercy. How can you have justice AND mercy? In the act of justice, it was an act of mercy because it wasn’t YOUR throat that was being cut!

Things God Required when they came to the altar

1. That they were there (they were giving all of themselves to God)
2. That what they brought was their best. (the priest had to bring a more expensive offering).

God wants all of you, even the bad parts. He excels at taking care of the bad. He covers and cleanses it! Amen!

Prayer: Thanks for the alter of sacrifice, where we can go and find justice and mercy, all in one… a place where our mess is taken care of by you. We get the credit for living the perfect life although we, ourselves are not perfect. It’s an amazing exchange that takes place… and all of that, all reflecting you dying on the cross, crying out “it is finished; “the penalty for sin has been paid… I have taken care of it all and you all will be ok. We need to start living what took place at the altar. We must first present every part of ourselves. We like to hold on to things because we think we can work it better. Not even an angel can do it, that’s why you had to come yourself. We are presenting ourselves to you tonight, thanks for taking us, covering us and making us more like you.

To View this sermon:

1. Go to www.mtrubidoux.com

2. Go to “Featured Sermons” (top/right corner)

3. Scroll down to the date of this sermon and hit Play!

Be blessed, and a blessing

Xoxo,

Views from the Pews

#TheSanctuary “Jesus, the ONLY way” (10-17-11)

These are notes from day 2 of our Sanctuary series. This sermon is entitled “Jesus, the only way,” and was preached on October 17, 2011. We pray it is a blessing to you!

Exodus 27: 16-17 ““For the entrance to the courtyard, make a curtain that is 30 feet long.[e] Make it from finely woven linen, and decorate it with beautiful embroidery in blue, purple, and scarlet thread. Support it with four posts, each securely set in its own base. 17 All the posts around the courtyard must have silver rings and hooks and bronze bases.

Example #1: He began by stating that one of his favorite show is aired on Animal Planet. The name of the show is “I shouldn’t be alive.” Pastor Kelly feels that most of the things the people on the show get into, they can avoid. (*smile*). He shared that a couple decided to go hiking in the Amazon. Prior, an apartment complex was build in the Amazon where tourists and hikers could say for weeks at a time. While hiking there, there are some signs that point you toward the path you are supposed to take. However, the guy on this show, wanted to go a different route. Things were going fine however, it began to get dark. The couple began heading back. They were walking and walking, and walking. Instead of getting closer, they were getting further and further away. They discovered that they were lost and they spend 8 days out there lost in the Amazon. They were eventually rescued and said “what was most frustrating and difficult was not that we were heading in the wrong direction, it was heading in the wrong direction thinking it was actually the right one.” Pastor explained that if they had known they were going to be lost, they would have drank their water differently, would have preserved their energy a while longer. So many things would have been done differently.

• Ever since Sin came into the picture, man has been on a journey away from the presence of God. The real success of the devil is to get us going in the wrong direction but somehow convince us we are actually going the right way. When you THINK you are going the right way, don’t you act a bit different? You are not open to some things, you think differently. Well, the devil’s trick is to be going the wrong way but to think it’s the right way.

• God wants to get us back on a path where we will be in the presence of God until eternity.
• The first thing is: Before God can fix any character trait, or habit, what he must first do is to get you heading in the right direction. The thing with us is that we try to change folks directions immediately.
• Pastor Kelly talked about the parable of the loss coin and the fact that it was lost in the place where it was to be the safest.
• God outlines what the journey to God looks like, through the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary is broken down into three categories:

1. Outer Court: The altar, the laver are located here. Everyday people could step into the outer court.
2. The Holy Place: (Located inside the tent, which we saw on the screen). In there, there are three articles: the menorah, the altar of incense, and the table of showbread. There was also a veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
3. The Most Holy Place: inside the most holy place is the arc of covenant. The priest was allowed to go into the Most Holy place but only once a year.

We focused on the gate this evening:

• The Gate: It is made up of three colors…Blue, scarlet and purple. Pastor suggested a book by one of his professors called “Altar call” (a book on the sanctuary). The author says: “The Bible simply does not assign, distinct spiritual meaning to all the details needed by practical necessity to make the portable tabernacle stand up. If the bible doesn’t give these meanings, what right do I have to give them.” Therefore, don’t assign meaning to places in the sanctuary that the bible doesn’t assign meaning to. Just because a hammer was needed, doesn’t mean the hammer has meaning. Also, ‘being focused on that, distracts us from what is important.’ (paraphrased from Dr. Gaines’ book).

Type VS. Anti-type:

Type is something that points to something else. So whenever we use the word type, it means that this type is pointing to something else. It is never going to be a sign to a person, necessarily. The sanctuary rituals are types, pointing to the anti-type that is the real thing that the type was trying to show us about. We can look at the story of Isaac, he was a type of Christ, but Isaac was pointing to someone else, which was Jesus Christ. When we look at the sanctuary service, we see a lot of types that are pointing towards the anti types that are soon to come. Becomes important because when we look at different sayings from Paul, he is not trying to get us to say that it doesn’t matter what you eat or drink but what he is saying is “all those things you are judging people by are the types, and why are you judging folks when the anti-type has already gone?! When you don’t understand the Sanctuary you allow the type to take the place of the anti-type. All of these things we are going through, it pointing to something that is to come… however, once it has already come, what is the purpose? Reason why the veil just rips when Christ dies… there wasn’t a need for it anymore. Christ had already done it.

Ok… Back to the Gate:

• The Gate: There was only one way that you could get into the tabernacle. There wasn’t a back door or anything, there was ONE way and it was through the gate. I wonder why it is that God sets up that imagery? Let’s look at John 10: 7-9 “so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before mewere thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved.They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.”
• Therefore, there is only one way that you will be able to see me again, and it’s through my son Jesus. Everything we do ought to flow through Christ… there is no other way we can get in or out, except through Jesus Christ. Every decision ought to be centered around Christ. Why do we spend so much time lifting up everything else but Jesus?! If you could get inside the grave, it was considered a place of refuge. If you have a problem and you are running from someone, you could go up to the city, and ask them to let you in, it was up to the gatekeeper to listen and determine if you can go inside. If they let you in, whatever issue you had, it now becomes their issue. Christ makes it clear that once we enter into relationship with Him, all of our problems and issues are His. He is now under obligation to take care of for us. That’s why he says “Come as you are!” don’t fix up your stuff before you come to me…. Come in! whatever issues you bring with you, I will handle! We have people going to Christ-less graves and we have to focus on silly things!!! Keep the main thing, the main thing. If we can’t see how something can draw us closer to Christ, it probably has no need in your life. Ask yourself “how will me doing this, changing this, rearranging this, how does it connect me in lifting up your savior?!

Four Pillars around the gate: (Why were they there to remind Israel of?)

• The pillars: Exodus 24: 1-4 “Then the Lord instructed Moses: “Come up here to me, and bring along Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders. All of you must worship from a distance. 2 Only Moses is allowed to come near to the Lord. The others must not come near, and none of the other people are allowed to climb up the mountain with him.” 3 Then Moses went down to the people and repeated all the instructions and regulations the Lord had given him. All the people answered with one voice, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded.” 4 Then Moses carefully wrote down all the Lord’s instructions. Early the next morning Moses got up and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He also set up twelve pillars, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
• The pillars were a reminder of the covenant that God had made with Israel. As they walk in, through the gate which represent Jesus Christ, into a place of safety, as they look at the pillars they are reminded of the covenant which says if God says he will take care of you, he will… just stay in covenant. Regardless of what you do, God always wants to be in covenant with you. God NEVER breaks the covenant, we do! It is not broken because of action, but because of the mentality that comes form a series of actions that affect our hearts. When you break it you say I no longer want the benefits of what’s happening inside the gates.
• Exodus 27:16 says: For the entrance to the courtyard, make a curtain that is 30 feet long. Make it from finely woven linen, and decorate it with beautiful embroidery in blue, purple, and scarlet thread. Support it with four posts, each securely set in its own base.
• Scarlet represents suffering and sacrifice (Rev 18:19).
• Purple represents Royalty. We went to Number 15:37 to see what blue represents. Blue represents obedience. When you step into the gates, there are three things that will happen in your life. Royalty only comes through obedience and suffering. When you enter into a relationship with Christ, there will be some things you will have to go through, because the devil hates Him. For the Christians, suffering is a part of being inside of Christ. Sometimes when we suffer the most is because we are closer to God.
• Blue speaks to obedience: when you step through the gate, you ought to be completely obedient. When He asks us to do something, would we do it? You step into the gate as a result of relationship. God will call us to things and you won’t always see the result of what He called you to do. Sometimes we are obedient because of the result obedience brings. Every now and then, God just wants to know ‘will you do it just because I asked you to do it?!’ If He ever told us why we were doing what we are doing, we probably wouldn’t end up doing it. Sometimes what he is calling us to, is so deep, you wouldn’t understand it, even if He told you. The more you are connected, the easier it is to be obedient.
• Have you been so in love with someone that it becomes easy to love them? It becomes second nature how to love them and meet their needs. They can ask you to do anything because they know you are so in love and connected that you will do whatever is asked of you, without asking/hesitating.

  When you enter into the gates, you are walking into a relationship where you will experience suffering. As a result of this relationship, he does expect obedience. When you are in that with Him, and you experience suffering for His sake, then we will be able to experience Royalty. Royalty only comes through obedience and suffering through Jesus Christ. How do we know? Well, tt was only when Christ was obedient unto death and suffered that He got this robe of righteousness and was able to rightfully once again call us His children and to be our King! So our first step on the way to being in the presence of God, is walking through the gate, which is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There will be obedience and suffering waiting for you but God will have a special way to deal with that.

CLOSING Prayer Some of us have been in the gate, but went out because what was inside was a bit more difficult. Some say ‘I thought I could get to the crown without the cross’ You’ve been doing your own thing, going your own direction, but today you want to change directions through Jesus, make that decision in your heart!

To view this sermon:

1. Go to www.mtrubidoux.com
2. Go to “Featured Sermons” at the top/right corner
3. Scroll down to the date and hit Play J

Be blessed, and a blessing,

Xoxo,

Views From the Pews

Sanctuary Series: “Dwelling among His people” (Day One- @pastahkelly)

On Saturday, October 15, 2011, Pastor Kelly began a series entitled “The Sanctuary.” This sermon is entitled “Dwelling Among His People.” We pray it is a blessing to you! Feel free to watch it online at www.mtrubidoux.com (Click on “featured sermons” and hit play once you scroll down to the correct date). J

Exodus 25: 1-8 “The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to bring me their sacred offerings. Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them. 3 Here is a list of sacred offerings you may accept from them: gold, silver, and bronze; 4 blue, purple, and scarlet thread; fine linen and goat hair for cloth; 5 tanned ram skins and fine goatskin leather; acacia wood; 6 olive oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; 7 onyx stones, and other gemstones to be set in the ephod and the priest’s chestpiece. 8 “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.”

Pastor began by explaining the reason why we are doing a series on “The Sanctuary.” It can help you live your day to day life with our Savior. Our Goal is take what we talk about every night, and apply it to your every day life. His goal is to make something deep, simple!

He stated that some have questioned the validity of this story, about an experiment that was conducted in Russia. They took several infants and every infant was to receive the proper nutrition, right amount of food/medical attention/clothing. All of their needs were to be met except the caregiver was not allowed to speak to the infant, or touch outside of what is necessary. They were just to take care of their basic needs. Half of the babies died half way through the experiment, so the study had to stop. The babies didn’t die because of malnutrition, they missed nurture. You can have everything in life that you want but what costs them their life is that they weren’t in relationship with somebody from the time of their birth. As humans, even more than food, we need crave/desire/ more than anything genuine/authentic relationships.

• We now have text message disorder. Pastor explained that he read that one teenager sent over 14,000 text messages in one month, the bill was over 444 pages long.
• Facebook: One lady spends over 20 hours on facebook a week. It’s like a second job to some folks. They can dive into that world because it’s an escape from their real world.
• Social media and our need to be connecting does not speak to the fact that we shy away from relationship but that we as human beings crave relationships. We don’t want to be out of touch with anyone at any time throughout the day. We as human being crave/need authentic relationships. We need to be connected to somebody.
• Genesis tells us that we were made in the image of God. God presents himself through His word as a relational God. God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost, connecting, communing, having relationships with one another, so much so that He can be all by himself, yet never alone. He is a relational God. His make-up is relationship! Therefore it makes sense why we crave relationships.
• God created us for two main reasons: for relationships, and for fellowship. That’s what heaven is all about. You are not obedient without a relationship. Therefore, the Bible boils down to two things, relationships and fellowship. No one can serve God adequately without a relationship.

• Anything that God wants for us, the devil tries to get in the way of it.
• It’s almost as if Satan is saying “What is the one thing I can introduce that can break up relationship and fellowship?” He thought of “sin.” The biggest issue with sin is not the consequences we see on earth…the fact that sin comes in and it breaks up relationships and fellowship, and THAT’S God’s issue with sin.
• When the devil introduced sin, he broke relationship and fellowship, because once sin came into the picture our relationship and fellowship had to change. At one time we were face to face with God and there was no need for a veil between us. Genesis 3:8 (“When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees”) shows us that God was walking around the garden looking for some fellowship but because sin came into the picture fellowship was broken and they (Adam and Eve) were hiding.
• Pastor Kelly read a quote from the book called “The Tabernacle” which stated that “Humanity ever since sin, has begun a journey away from the presence of God. The order of creation was broken, relationships were also broken, things are not the way they are supposed to be. God no longer strolls alongside of us.” That’s why we see in Genesis He is with us, but in Revelation he is knocking on the door trying to get back in, ever since sin, we have been on a journey away from the presence of God.
• We see Jesus communing with us in indirect ways. He is not communicating with us the way He wants to, we would be destroyed due to his awesome presence! In Exodus 24:1-4 the context is clear; the people are affirming their covenant with God. They are saying, ‘the relationship that you want, we are willing to take and want to be a part of.’ God made it clear that THIS is what a relationship with me looks like….” (Commercial break: This teaches us too, that we ought to let people know upfront, what a relationship with us will look like-don’t you hate surprises?! Some of us are still surprised in our relationships unfortunately).
• So we see that God and Moses go up to the mountain for 40 days. In Exodus 25 God gave Moses specific instructions … in verse 8 we see Him say “I need you to build me a sanctuary so I can dwell among them (the people).” God says ‘I’ve been dealing with you in indirect ways for too long, I need to find a way that I can be with you right now. If you can build me a little box, and I will stand and put my presence on top of that box…. The whole importance of the sanctuary is God’s way of saying ‘I want to hang out with you all!’
• When God is begging for time with us through prayer, worship, bible study, why is it such a pain for us to be with a God who wants to be in fellowship and relationship with us?! The sanctuary is a love story. A story about God wanting to be with His children. If we really knew that, we would spend more time and would open up ourselves to be a part of this awesome God who just wants to dwells among His people. That is His deepest joy, being with trifling people like us, and we act, sometimes, like we are doing him a FAVOR when we pray.
• If you miss anything about the sanctuary, know that everything represents God wanting to be with you.

Three words for this idea of tabernacle/sanctuary. In the Hebrew these words are:

1. Mishcan: a Dwelling place.
2. Meekdosh: means Holy. Although there is a God who wants to dwell with you, He is also a Holy God and needs to be approached the right way. There are some things that need to happen before we are in His presence.
3. Tent: A tent was portable (Its like God was saying “It should easy be able to take the tent with you… I want it to be easy for you to just take me with you. I want you to be able to just pack me up so I can be wherever you go.” You can stop and set up and we can do whatever we need to do). If you notice, all of the Israelites lived in tents, so while God says ‘build me this tent,’ He says ‘I want to be in the same type of experience that my children are…so if they are in tents, I will be in a tent, because I want to know what it is like to be in a tent.’ He was foreshadowing. God said ‘If you are human flesh then I will be in human flesh. If you go through pain, I go through pain…” that’s why Hebrews can tell us that we have a HIGH priest who is not out of touch with our infirmities. Therefore, being in a tent was his way of saying “I Identify with you.” Don’t think for one moment he doesn’t understand the pain, the agony, the distress, the mess you are going through. He understands where we’ve been. It was God’s way of saying I want to be just like my people.

• He is not interested in temporary relationships and fellowships. He wants us to be together forever.
• He laid out in perfect detail the way He planned for us to be together for ever. So every time you walk into this tent, yes you will be part of a ceremony but every time you see that, it will remind you that one day this is what I will be doing for you, and I will be able to take you home and we will be together for ever. Every time they walked into the sanctuary, they had confidence that their God had a plan to save them… a detailed plan. God says “when it comes to salvation I am not playing with you all, because I am not going to miss out on you. So, if you ever questioned if I am coming, if I am going to save you, if I will take care of you, all you have to do is show up in the tent…when you walk up to the gate you will remind yourself that I am the gate, the only way to salvation… the pillars represent obedience as you step through in Jesus Christ. Every corner you turn, ever activity, every smell, every drop of blood will point you to the fact that I have a plan to save you. We sometimes forget that our God has a plan. God cannot stand to be without you. The plan would have been put in place if it was just me.

The devil works so hard to get us NOT to understand the Sanctuary, and for us not to spend time with Jesus because the devil doesn’t want you to see very clearly how much your God loves you. God said ‘build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them….’ Hebrew has a different translation, it says build me a sanctuary that I may dwell IN them… God’s goal from the beginning was not just be among you but it was to live IN you! That’s why he stands at the door knocking trying to get in….

CLOSING: The invitation is to come see the love story unfold, through the Sanctuary Series. To see God’s way of pulling you back to him and as you are being pulled back to him see the changes that happen in your life as a result of being pulled back into the arms of God. We are on a spiral to be away from the presence of God. Let this series of the Sanctuary change the direction of your life. You will fall in love with your God all over again. For those of you who don’t know this God, come out, you will see Jesus in a way that you have NEVER seen Him before.

PRAYER: We thank you for just wanting to be with us and wanting to live in us. We understand who we are in relation to you, is a mess, but as we see throughout this series, that’s what it was about, you being able to fix the mess but we have to present ourselves to you. We are praying that we will present ourselves to you for the next few weeks and see what you will have for us. You didn’t make things symbolic so we would loose focus but so we can connect with the awesome plan of salvation. Nothing matters if at the end of the day we are not with you. Help us, may be study ourselves, pray, and bring someone so that someone else can fall in love with you.

On Monday, October 17th, we will be speaking on some items on the outer court. Throughout this series, we are walking into the court yard and will be making our way to the Most Holy Place!

Join us in person at 5320 Victoria Ave., Riverside, CA.
Or online at www.mtrubidoux.com at 7:15pm PST

Be blessed and a blessing,

~Views from the Pews~