The Table of Showbread—God’s Daily Provision
Do you know what you need? God does!
Jesus offers bread—He instructs His disciples to pray for daily bread (Matthew 6:11) and teaches that He is the bread of life, from which, if they eat, they will never hunger again (John 6:35). But, how many of us are satisfied with just bread? We want what the world is telling us we can have—a four-course dinner! We want to feast upon all the desires of our eyes and our appetites. However, God has been calling us to a more disciplined diet for a reason.
Within the Tabernacle there was an article of furniture called the Table of Showbread. This was a table made of acacia wood and covered with gold upon which 12 loaves of unleavened bread were placed before God. This bread was kept continually in place, even when Israel traveled, as a way of remembering God as their provider, and was replaced with fresh loaves each Sabbath. Rabbinic teaching claims that the priests ate the old bread while frankincense was burned as a way of expressing worship and gratitude to God for His provision. The table and the bread upon it was a continual reminder that God was Israel’s source of PROVISION! It is to Him they must place their trust!
Are you concerned about whether God will take care of you? It is interesting to consider the discipline God consistently calls people to develop when He asks them to walk with Him. Abraham was challenged to leave everything he would normally use to provide for himself—country, relatives, and father’s house— in order to travel to a land God would show him. He was to leave his inheritance and the support he would receive from those who knew him best (physically speaking). What God wanted him to learn was to trust in the provision of his true Father!
When Israel left Egypt, God instructed them to plunder them, which they did. They walked out of Egypt with an incredible amount of riches (consider the materials used to make the Tabernacle—and the fact that a group of slaves possessed all of this). However, God did not want them to depend upon their own means and led them to the wilderness where they were forced to trust in His daily provision to survive. He is the source of PROVISION we are meant to trust.
The same thing happened when Jesus started calling disciples to Himself. The first disciples were fishermen who, upon being told to follow Him, left their nets and their families (Matthew 4:18-22). The very same thing Abraham did (leaving family and means of support), Peter, Andrew, James and John did to follow Jesus. They each realized God is their PROVIDER of daily bread.
Do you know what you need? God does!
Click to listen to sermon.
-Scott
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
A Study of the Tabernacle—Part 10
The Golden Lamp Stand (Part Two)
Are you having trouble “seeing” God? How do we help someone open their eyes to the truth of God and see His love and activity all around them? Interestingly, with all the miracles that take place in the Old Testament, healing someone who was blind is a rare occurrence. The only situation relatively close is when Elisha prays for the eyes of his servant to be opened so he can see the armies of God surrounding the armies of the Arameans (II Kings 6:17). He then prays for the eyes of the Arameans to be blind and leads them to Samaria, where he prays for their eyes to be opened again (V. 18, 20). That’s it! There are no other accounts of the blind receiving sight!
It is not as if people weren’t blind during the Old Testament times. Isaiah taught over and over again that when the Messiah came, He would open the eyes of the blind! (29:18; 32:3; 35:5; 42:7) As far as the Israelites understood, there was no remedy for those who were blind. This is why the man born blind in John 9 speaks with such boldness before the Pharisees and Sadducees when they question his healing, even though he knows it will wind up with his being excommunicated from worship at the synagogue. He says, “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing” (V. 32-33).
Is it any wonder that the giving of light to the eyes and the restoring of life are easily the most common miraculous works that Jesus performed? (Remember the article last week which showed the connection of the Golden Lamp Stand to the Tree of Life. Life and Light are brought together in One place—Jesus!) Jesus came to explain the ways of God (See John 1:18)—to shed light on the mysteries of God and His ways. He is the light of the world and He wants to remove the scales from our eyes like He did with Saul in order to help us direct our passions and energy in the right direction.
So, let me ask you again, “Are you having trouble seeing God?” Does it feel like you are fumbling around in the darkness, trying to figure out how to live in a way that pleases God? What is the problem? Could it be the choices you are making? You see, the Golden Lamp Stand (an image of Jesus and His ministry) was to be lit continually in the Tabernacle, which means you could not come into the presence of God and remain in darkness! Consider John’s statement in I John 1:6 in this context: “If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” YOU CANNOT BE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND BE IN DARKNESS!!! Yet, how many of us are trying to walk with one foot in light and one foot in darkness?
Come completely to the Light of Life and enjoy sweet fellowship with God!
Click to listen to sermon.
-Scott
Are you having trouble “seeing” God? How do we help someone open their eyes to the truth of God and see His love and activity all around them? Interestingly, with all the miracles that take place in the Old Testament, healing someone who was blind is a rare occurrence. The only situation relatively close is when Elisha prays for the eyes of his servant to be opened so he can see the armies of God surrounding the armies of the Arameans (II Kings 6:17). He then prays for the eyes of the Arameans to be blind and leads them to Samaria, where he prays for their eyes to be opened again (V. 18, 20). That’s it! There are no other accounts of the blind receiving sight!
It is not as if people weren’t blind during the Old Testament times. Isaiah taught over and over again that when the Messiah came, He would open the eyes of the blind! (29:18; 32:3; 35:5; 42:7) As far as the Israelites understood, there was no remedy for those who were blind. This is why the man born blind in John 9 speaks with such boldness before the Pharisees and Sadducees when they question his healing, even though he knows it will wind up with his being excommunicated from worship at the synagogue. He says, “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing” (V. 32-33).
Is it any wonder that the giving of light to the eyes and the restoring of life are easily the most common miraculous works that Jesus performed? (Remember the article last week which showed the connection of the Golden Lamp Stand to the Tree of Life. Life and Light are brought together in One place—Jesus!) Jesus came to explain the ways of God (See John 1:18)—to shed light on the mysteries of God and His ways. He is the light of the world and He wants to remove the scales from our eyes like He did with Saul in order to help us direct our passions and energy in the right direction.
So, let me ask you again, “Are you having trouble seeing God?” Does it feel like you are fumbling around in the darkness, trying to figure out how to live in a way that pleases God? What is the problem? Could it be the choices you are making? You see, the Golden Lamp Stand (an image of Jesus and His ministry) was to be lit continually in the Tabernacle, which means you could not come into the presence of God and remain in darkness! Consider John’s statement in I John 1:6 in this context: “If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” YOU CANNOT BE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND BE IN DARKNESS!!! Yet, how many of us are trying to walk with one foot in light and one foot in darkness?
Come completely to the Light of Life and enjoy sweet fellowship with God!
Click to listen to sermon.
-Scott
Sunday, January 11, 2009
A Study of the Tabernacle—Part 9
The Golden Lamp Stand
So, you walk into the Tabernacle and what do you see? The truth is, you would not see anything if the Golden Lamp Stand was not lit (as it was prescribed to be whenever the Tabernacle was set up—Lev. 24:2). There would only be darkness! However, darkness has never hindered God. In the beginning, when the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep, God overwhelmed the darkness by speaking light into its presence. Later, when John wrote about Jesus coming into the world as flesh, he proclaimed, “And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overpower it” (John 1:5). Darkness will never overpower light and this is one of the object lessons God provided when He had the Israelites build the Golden Lamp Stand and place it in the Tabernacle.
However, God was teaching far more than this with the Golden Lamp Stand! This light was to be revelatory and Life-giving. Just as God provided a pillar of fire to light the way for the Israelites as He led them through the wilderness to Mt. Sinai where they entered into a covenant bond with Him, and then on to the Promised Land; He intended for the light of the Golden Lamp Stand to lead His people. But where would the light of this Golden Lamp Stand lead them? To the very source of Life, of course—back to the relationship God designed mankind to have prior to the fall. The Golden Lamp Stand provided a symbol of hope as it revealed the overall plan of God to call His people back to Life and intimacy with Him.
Have you ever noticed how the Lamp Stand was designed? It was to be one piece of gold hammered into the shape of a shaft with three branches extending from each side of the shaft. Each of these branches, along with the center shaft, was designed with cups shaped like almond blossoms, bulbs and flowers in intervals along them (Exodus 25:31-35). In other words, the finished product looked like a flowering tree! Many scholars have taken this to represent the Tree of Life! The plan of calling mankind back to the intimacy of being in His presence where they could eat of the Tree of Life and live forever was portrayed in the Tabernacle by God’s own design! (READ Revelation 22:1-5 in this context)
God’s Tabernacle is an amazing picture of His plan to dwell among us and give us Life through His Son. The Apostle John says this about Jesus, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Isn’t this the very picture we see with the flowering Tree of Life producing Light in the Tabernacle? Jesus, our source of Life is also the Light of the World! He came to reveal God and His ways so we could draw near to Him, and He came to give us Life! God has known what we need and has revealed His plan to provide for us since the time His relationship with the nation of Israel began. Will we trust in His provision and walk in the light as he is in the light? (This would be something good to talk about next week!)
Click to listen to sermon.
-Scott
So, you walk into the Tabernacle and what do you see? The truth is, you would not see anything if the Golden Lamp Stand was not lit (as it was prescribed to be whenever the Tabernacle was set up—Lev. 24:2). There would only be darkness! However, darkness has never hindered God. In the beginning, when the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep, God overwhelmed the darkness by speaking light into its presence. Later, when John wrote about Jesus coming into the world as flesh, he proclaimed, “And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overpower it” (John 1:5). Darkness will never overpower light and this is one of the object lessons God provided when He had the Israelites build the Golden Lamp Stand and place it in the Tabernacle.
However, God was teaching far more than this with the Golden Lamp Stand! This light was to be revelatory and Life-giving. Just as God provided a pillar of fire to light the way for the Israelites as He led them through the wilderness to Mt. Sinai where they entered into a covenant bond with Him, and then on to the Promised Land; He intended for the light of the Golden Lamp Stand to lead His people. But where would the light of this Golden Lamp Stand lead them? To the very source of Life, of course—back to the relationship God designed mankind to have prior to the fall. The Golden Lamp Stand provided a symbol of hope as it revealed the overall plan of God to call His people back to Life and intimacy with Him.
Have you ever noticed how the Lamp Stand was designed? It was to be one piece of gold hammered into the shape of a shaft with three branches extending from each side of the shaft. Each of these branches, along with the center shaft, was designed with cups shaped like almond blossoms, bulbs and flowers in intervals along them (Exodus 25:31-35). In other words, the finished product looked like a flowering tree! Many scholars have taken this to represent the Tree of Life! The plan of calling mankind back to the intimacy of being in His presence where they could eat of the Tree of Life and live forever was portrayed in the Tabernacle by God’s own design! (READ Revelation 22:1-5 in this context)
God’s Tabernacle is an amazing picture of His plan to dwell among us and give us Life through His Son. The Apostle John says this about Jesus, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Isn’t this the very picture we see with the flowering Tree of Life producing Light in the Tabernacle? Jesus, our source of Life is also the Light of the World! He came to reveal God and His ways so we could draw near to Him, and He came to give us Life! God has known what we need and has revealed His plan to provide for us since the time His relationship with the nation of Israel began. Will we trust in His provision and walk in the light as he is in the light? (This would be something good to talk about next week!)
Click to listen to sermon.
-Scott
Sunday, January 4, 2009
I Have A Dream . . . (What Shall We Be & Do In 2009?)
Imagine what 500+ people could accomplish if they were to get real serious about following Jesus and lose their inhibitions. Imagine what the LORD could do with a community of believers who were convinced they were given the gift of each day because the LORD has something important for them to do in service to His kingdom. Imagine if creativity, passion and discipline collided in the hearts and souls of each member and they felt unleashed and empowered to use their gifts and services as an offering of thanks and dedication to GOD. What might “church” look like if living for God became our quest rather than our hobby?
I have a dream . . . (I know this phrase was already made famous but, hey, it’s a good one!) of a church environment where everyone feels welcome, valuable and wanted, no matter what is going on in his or her life because the image of God is seen in everyone. I dream of our church community being a safe place to share even the most heinous thoughts and actions so that healing and accountability can be realized; where people can recognize the value their Father in heaven places upon them and the type of intimate relationship He is actively seeking to develop; where citizens of our surrounding communities realize they really can receive help that makes a difference, and is personal!
I have a dream . . . where the ministry of reconciliation becomes the central focus for those who already know the sweet gift of life a second time through Jesus; I dream of reconciliation resulting in walls being torn down between denominations and even sister congregations so we present God in His fullness to a world that doesn’t understand why those who profess the love of Jesus can’t get along with one another. I dream of a spirit of reconciliation that allows those who don’t see doctrinal issues eye to eye to appreciate being stretched by those with differing views instead of fearing what their difference might lead the church into (after all, isn’t God in control, no matter what we think?)
I have a dream . . . of a community of believers who have the confidence to believe THEY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE; who are so filled with appreciation because of what their Father has done to bless them that they cannot keep silent about Him; who hunger and thirst for deeper intimacy with God, but who want to bring along as many others as they can to experience the joy and fullness of life they are enjoying. I dream of a congregation of believers who will shut off their TV sets one night a week, skip sports activities or other extra-curricular activities and use this time to serve others and share the Bible and their lives with people who would not normally have this time given to them.
I have a dream . . . of a church that emphasizes training up ministers and servants who realize they have responsibilities towards the souls of everyone they come in contact with and, consequently, are motivated to be equipped so they make the most of each opportunity. I dream of never needing to plead for teachers or other service roles to be filled because each member knows they have something special and unique to offer and can’t wait to share with others what their God has created them to fulfill during their lifetime.
Can you see God writing this? This dream is His! He wants us to bear His image (paragraph 2). He calls us to be ministers of reconciliation (paragraph 3). He created us to be disciples (paragraph 4) and ministers & servants (paragraph 5). May we lovingly challenge and stretch one another throughout 2009 to be what He has created us and called us to be—and fulfill the dream of our Father!
Click to listen to sermon.
-Scott
I have a dream . . . (I know this phrase was already made famous but, hey, it’s a good one!) of a church environment where everyone feels welcome, valuable and wanted, no matter what is going on in his or her life because the image of God is seen in everyone. I dream of our church community being a safe place to share even the most heinous thoughts and actions so that healing and accountability can be realized; where people can recognize the value their Father in heaven places upon them and the type of intimate relationship He is actively seeking to develop; where citizens of our surrounding communities realize they really can receive help that makes a difference, and is personal!
I have a dream . . . where the ministry of reconciliation becomes the central focus for those who already know the sweet gift of life a second time through Jesus; I dream of reconciliation resulting in walls being torn down between denominations and even sister congregations so we present God in His fullness to a world that doesn’t understand why those who profess the love of Jesus can’t get along with one another. I dream of a spirit of reconciliation that allows those who don’t see doctrinal issues eye to eye to appreciate being stretched by those with differing views instead of fearing what their difference might lead the church into (after all, isn’t God in control, no matter what we think?)
I have a dream . . . of a community of believers who have the confidence to believe THEY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE; who are so filled with appreciation because of what their Father has done to bless them that they cannot keep silent about Him; who hunger and thirst for deeper intimacy with God, but who want to bring along as many others as they can to experience the joy and fullness of life they are enjoying. I dream of a congregation of believers who will shut off their TV sets one night a week, skip sports activities or other extra-curricular activities and use this time to serve others and share the Bible and their lives with people who would not normally have this time given to them.
I have a dream . . . of a church that emphasizes training up ministers and servants who realize they have responsibilities towards the souls of everyone they come in contact with and, consequently, are motivated to be equipped so they make the most of each opportunity. I dream of never needing to plead for teachers or other service roles to be filled because each member knows they have something special and unique to offer and can’t wait to share with others what their God has created them to fulfill during their lifetime.
Can you see God writing this? This dream is His! He wants us to bear His image (paragraph 2). He calls us to be ministers of reconciliation (paragraph 3). He created us to be disciples (paragraph 4) and ministers & servants (paragraph 5). May we lovingly challenge and stretch one another throughout 2009 to be what He has created us and called us to be—and fulfill the dream of our Father!
Click to listen to sermon.
-Scott
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