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
