Bulletins - Brookdale Baptist Church

All Creatures Of Our God And King
Creation Sings
Children Of The Heavenly Father
I Am Not My Own
Exodus 19-24
Have you watched a nature documentary with towering, aerial footage of majestic mountain ranges accompanied by dramatic, soaring orchestral music intended to emulate what it must be like to soar above the clouds like an eagle?
Or perhaps you recall the breathtaking moment in the “Test Drive” scene at the middle of How to Train Your Dragon, when Hiccup soars fly in perfect harmony, higher and higher into the clouds and evening sunset beyond the horizon. As wind rushes past them, the famous, rhythmic music of this scene grows and pulses majestically. The world looks small below them and above them stretches an endless blue sky.
This moment marks the beginning of a new relationship that will change the shape and purpose of their lives not only as individuals but together. In this fictional world, these two characters – once at odds – are about to embark on a series of many great adventures together that will require of them an all-new way of life and will deeply affect the people of the world around them.
God formed a special relationship with his people.
This is what happened when God rescued his people from four hundred years in Egypt, which had culminated in a long period of slavery and oppression. As we learned last week from Exodus 1-18, God saw the slavery of his people and he saved them.
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. (Exo 19:4)
As God swooped down to save his people from slavery, he carried or led them to a mountain between Egypt and the Promised Land, called Sinai. The traditional site of this mountain is approx. 8,000 ft. tall known as Jebel Musa, about the height of four Freedom Towers stacked on top of each other.
This is the site where God formally established a special relationship with his people, the nation of Israel. By doing this, he was fulfilling a centuries-long promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he did so by forming a covenant with them.
Ancient covenants at that time in history were called “suzerainty treaties,” official agreements between a conquering king and the people he conquered. They explained how the conquering king would care for and protect his new people and explained how this new relationship would function in daily life. In other words, it explained the new cultural, social, and sometimes religious expectations of this new relationship.
In Scripture, a covenant is a formal, solemn expression of God’s relationship to his people and their special relationship to him. Douglas Steward explains, “The first half of Exodus is all about rescue from forced service to a pagan nation, and the second half is all about proper service for the one true God by keeping his covenant.” God had rescued rather than conquered the Hebrew people so that he could form a special, caring, protecting relationship with them forever.
Ancient suzerainty treaties followed a standard pattern which consisted of six parts:
Opening: identified the giver and the receivers of the covenant
Prologue: explained the nature of the relationship between both parties
Stipulations: explained various responsibilities the people would have to their new king
Witnesses: listed important persons who could vouch for the authenticity of the treaty
Documentation: an instruction to write down the covenant as a permanent record
Sanctions: a set of blessings and curses tied to good and bad responses by the people
All six of these parts of such a treaty are present in God’s covenant with Israel and would have been recognized by them as such. The details of this covenant begin in Exo 20:1 but are continued and completed with the book of Leviticus, all of which was given at Mount Sinai over a period of nearly eleven months.
The book of Numbers gives additional guidance to the people during their 40 years of traveling in the wilderness, based on what God revealed in Exodus and Leviticus. Deuteronomy (which literally means “second law”) repeats and reapplies what God revealed at Sinai to the next generation of his people as they prepared to enter the land he had promised them. And God did all this to form a special, committed relationship with them, beginning at Sinai.
As he says in Exo 19:4, “I brought you to myself,” and in 19:5, “You shall be a special treasure to me above all people.” This is what God does when he saves people – he brings them into a close relationship with himself and they become a special, valued treasure to him, more than an ordinary, unsaved person.
God showed himself in a special way to his people.
As we read the beginning of this covenant relationship between God and Israel at Sinai, we see something very obvious. Though God was forming a close, committed relationship with them, coming close to God was both a captivating and terrifying experience.
God came to them in a “thick cloud” (19:9) His presence was marked by “thunderings, lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain” and “the sound of a trumpet” which “was very loud” (19:16). When the people saw and heard these things, they trembled.
The mountain was “completely covered in smoke,” and was on “fire,” and “it’s smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly” (19:18). “The blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder (19:19).
Because of this terrifying experience, the people remained at the base of the mountain and sent further up the mount only Moses in some cases and Moses and some other key, leading men on other occasions.
At the end of this awe-inspiring experience, “a cloud covered the mountain” (24:16), and “the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.” “The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain” (24:17).
As God established this new, close relationship with his special people, he wanted them to realize how awesome, majestic, and terrifying he truly was. He did not want them to have a lesser, lower view of him, but to understand his greatness and glory. And this is important for us today. As Hebrews 12:28-29 tells us from the New Testament (NT) today:
Let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
This has not changed from the Old Testament (OT) to the New. Our God was a consuming fire then and he is a consuming fire today. The Christian author, C.S. Lewis, tries to explain this awesome glory of God by how he describes the lion Aslan in his stories called The Chronicles of Narnia. The little girl, Lucy, asks Mr. Beaver, about the Aslan the great Lion, “Is he—quite safe?” To this, Mr. Beaver replies, “Safe? … ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
And so is our God. He is not little. He is not weak. He is not convenient. He is not easy to approach or understand. But he is great, and he is terrible, and he is good in every way, and he wants to be your God in a close and personal way – to be your guide and your protector, your true, forever King, as he did with the people of Israel.
Not only did God form a special, covenant relationship with his people and show himself to them in a special, terrifying way…
God gave a special purpose to his people.
He said to them, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exo 19:6). From this, we see that God was not forming this close, special relationship with them only to be enjoyed by themselves. He did not intend for this to be an exclusive, isolated, reclusive relationship. He intended this special relationship to be the way that he would show the rest of the world his greatness and goodness through them and that, through them, he would draw the rest of the world into a close relationship, as well.
Priests are people who stand between God and other people so that through their experience with God and service for God can help bring other people also into a closer relationship with God. And while the nation of Israel would eventually benefit from the service of special, assigned priests at the tabernacle and temple, they were all considered by God to be priests to the rest of the world.
Today, the church no longer practices a formal priesthood. As the NT book of Hebrews clearly teaches, there are no longer priests in the church as there were priests in Israel, performing special, assigned services of sacrifice and worship. But we are all priests before God because of the salvation that Christ has provided.
You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light... (1 Pet 2:9-10)
God has given us – as he gave the people of Israel – a special task, to represent God to the people around us. For Israel, this was why God gave them the law. Through the law…
God revealed a special lifestyle for his people.
When we speak about the law in Scripture (or about God’s law), our minds typically zoom in on what we call the “Ten Commandments,” and for good reason. After God brought his people to Mount Sinai and revealed his terrifying, captivating glory to them, he spoke to them from the mountain.
Exo 20:1 says, “And God spoke all these words, saying …,” and when he spoke, it was the Ten Commandments that he gave to them. And after he gave these words to them, the people were afraid.
All the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” So, the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. (Exo 20:18-21)
From this we see that contrary to prevailing perspective, God didn’t give the Ten Commandments to Moses privately at the top of Mount Sinai, he gave them directly to the people from the mountain in booming, terrifying voice that they could hear for themselves. And after this terrifying experience, they asked Moses to communicate to God for them alone so that they would not have to go through that experience again.
From this we see the Ten Commandments are an important feature in God’s covenant with Israel. But it is important to understand how they are important, for they are not important in the way that many people assume them to be.
Many people believe that the Ten Commandments give us ten rules to live by, and that how well we live by them will somehow determine the closeness of our relationship with God, the genuineness, quality, or degree of salvation from sin, and odds of entering heaven after death. But this is not the case. God did not give Israel the Ten Commandments as a method, means, or way to have a relationship with him. He gave them to Israel as a result of and because they now hada relationship with him.
Remember – God had already saved them. God had already redeemed them. God had already declared his relationship with them. All any of them needed to do was believe on him alone as their God and Savior.
Think of it this way. At the Overmiller house, we have certain expectations and rules for behavior, ways that we expect those in our family to treat one another and people around us. We do not hold our neighbors to these expectations because they are not in our family. And if our neighbors choose to follow these expectations and rules, they will not become members of our family as a result.
So, people who attempt to follow the Ten Commandments do not become God’s special people. But God’s special people who have already been saved by him and given the special purpose of representing him to the world and bring other people to faith in him were to follow these commands in love.
To understand these commands even better, we should also acknowledge that they are not called commands. They are only called “words” (Exo 20:1). For this reason, many rightly call these “the ten words.” And this helps us better understand the purpose of these instructions. In ancient times, people did not view laws as tedious, technical commands and rules with many loopholes, limited only to what was stated. They were viewed, instead, as general, guiding, universal principles with many appropriate applications.
No Israelite could say: “The law says I must make restitution for stolen oxen or sheep [Exod 22:1], but I stole your goat. I don’t have to pay you back,” or “The law says that anyone who attacks his father or mother must be put to death [Exod 21:15], but I attacked my grandmother, so I shouldn’t be punished,” or “The law says that certain penalties apply for hitting someone with a fist or a stone [Exod 21:18], but I kicked my neighbor with my foot and hit him with a piece of wood, so I shouldn’t be punished.” (Douglas Stewart)
From this summary of ten key general statements by God about how his people should behave as priests and representatives of God to the world, God would go on to reveal a total of 613 more specific commands. These more specific commands are helpful because they helped the people of Israel apply the principles of these “ten words” in a wide range of specific ways appropriate for their situation, but those commands all tie back in one way or another to these ten original statements of the covenant.
Perhaps even more interesting is how God tucked away in later statements of the law two specific commands which Christ himself later said were the two greatest commands of all (Mt 22:37-39).
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The first command, to love God, is given in Dt 6:5 and the second, to love others, is given in Lev 19:18. You might ask, “Why didn’t God just give these two most basic, overarching commands at the beginning of his relationship with Israel at Mount Sinai? Why did he wait until later?
The best answer seems to be that God, in his wisdom, knew that doing so would not cause his people to understand the breadth and gravity of their calling as priests of God. By giving the ten commandments first, then all 613 commands afterwards, he caused generation so people to first think carefully and realize fully how wide-reaching his expectations for his people truly were. Only then are we able to recognize the breadth and wide-ranging extent of the two overarching commands to love God and love others.
As we read the Ten Commands, though, and the more detailed instructions that follow, we see clearly that the people God has saved must live a different, special kind of life – one that cherishes, pursues, and values what is in the best interest of God and others over self. And this makes sense, because we have been redeemed by a God who has loved us this way and are called to reveal such a loving God to others.
As the king of this new people, God had saved his people from slavery so that they would show his love to the world. Since he had loved them and promised to care for and protect them as his people, he wanted them to pass that love, care, and protection along to the world around them, so that they, too, would come into a saving relationship with God.
The Secret Garden, written by Mary Sebag-Montefiore in 1911, tells a fascinating story. When Mary Lennox first arrived at Misselthwaite Manor, an imposing but largely abandoned estate, she was a lonely, bitter, and misunderstood orphan. She thought the world and the people around her were cold and harsh. But everything began to change when she discovered a neglected garden hidden behind an overgrown gate.
As Mary nurtured the garden back to life, she also helped a boy named Colin, a sad and sickly boy who lived at the Manor gain freedom from his feelings of fear and discouragement. By bringing him to the garden, Mary formed a close and special relationship with Colin and together, they embraced a new purpose – restoring the secret garden so that it would bringing joy, health, and healing to others, too.
When God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, he brought them to Mount Sinai so that he could form a special, close relationship with them. And with this special relationship, he gave his people a special purpose – to represent and share his love, salvation, and goodness to the world around them. Like The Secret Garden, this relationship was meant not only to be carefully tended but shared. For Israel, this would happen as they lived out the special live that the “Ten Words” and resulting instructions explained, revealing what love for God and love for others looked like. And this was all because God had shown such indescribable love to them.
In closing, let me remind us of Paul’s words in Gal 3:24:
The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
The commands at Sinai were meant to reveal God’s holiness and our need for a Savior, whether we learned these things from people of God who lived out those words or whether we learned them by reading and hearing Scripture for ourselves.
Today, through faith in Christ, we receive salvation from the slavery of sin and enter into a special relationship with God for ourselves. He rescues us, forgives us, and makes us his people. And as his people, we must live out the purpose of our new covenant relationship with him: to love God and love others, to reflect his holiness in the world throughout our lives.
Philip Ryken and R. Keny Hughes put it this way:
Like the Israelites, we are a kingdom of priests. Theologians call this the priesthood of all believers. God has made us his treasure, bringing us from slavery to royalty and setting us apart for his holy service. Since we are saved for God’s glory, our service is to worship God, to glorify him by declaring his praises. But we also have a mission to the world—not to rule it, but to serve it. The way we serve is by leading holy lives. What distinguishes us from the rest of the world is our personal godliness. Or at least it ought to, because the way we live is part of God’s plan for saving the world.
God is faithful to his people, he is faithful to his covenant. Will you be faithful to the new and special purpose he has given you in Christ? This is the purpose of our new relationship with God. This relationship is not for ourselves alone but for the people around us who need to know him and who need God’s salvation.
When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder
Exodus 25-40
There are acquaintances and friends, but there are friends you will invite into your home. Nothing says, “I want to be your friend,” “I want to get to know you,” or “our relationship is going to the next level,” like inviting someone into your home, and this is certainly true when you’re married, when you actually agree to share a home for the rest of your life.
Genesis 18 describes a moment when God visited Abraham, and Abraham invited him into his tent for a conversation and meal. Centuries later, millions of people descended from Abraham were traveling back to that same area to live permanently, as God had promised to Abraham. This time, they would do so with a covenant relationship with God. As proof that God would be faithful to them forever, he chose to invite them into his home.
God chose to live with his people.
By doing this, he did more than visit his people, as he visited Abraham centuries before. He built his own tent in the middle of their encampment so they would be able to come and visit him easily and often. Building this tent would require involvement from his people. The way he built this house is fascinating because he didn’t just build it by himself.
He called for an offering from them. (25:1-7; 35:4-9, 20-29; 36:6-7)
Another way of looking at this is to view it as a house-warming party or a divine, new home gift registry.
The offering called for people to donate all sorts of construction materials, including some expensive, valuable items: metals like gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and red fabric of different kinds; animal furs; wood; oil and spices; and valuable gemstones. These would’ve been costly gifts, not ones they were easily able to afford – esp. since they had no significant way of generating income in the wilderness and were somewhat uncertain about the economic conditions in the land to which they were traveling.
Most importantly, God insisted the only donations he wanted were those given from a willing heart. “From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shalt take my offering” (25:2). This was so important to him that he repeated these instructions later: “Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart…” (35:5).
Moses later records that “the children of Israel brought a freewill offering to the Lord, all the men and women whose hearts were willing to bring material for all kinds of work…” (35:29). Do you think this emphasis on willingness resulted in a small or large offering? Moses answers this question in Exo 36:6:
Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, “Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.” And the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done—indeed too much.
As followers of Christ, we can learn much from this example. When we give our time, talents, and resources to the work of the Lord, we should do so willingly – but doing so should result in generous not minimal giving.
He gave them a blueprint. (Exo 25:9)
Not only did God involve his people in the building of his house by inviting them to contribute materials, he involved his people by giving them his blueprints and design. In fact, the vast majority of Exo 25-40 consists of detailed building instructions from God. These instructions gave detailed architecture and engineering guidance describing everything from measurements and dimensions to furniture and décor.
According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it. (25:9)
We see that God had very specific preferences for his home. But these preferences were not only for personal gratification and comfort but were intended for personal expression.
As a teen decorates his or her bedroom to express his or her interests and style, and as a wife decorates her home to express her tastes, so God decorated and furnished his home for a purpose. Every detail, design, and piece of furniture served to teach something special and important about God so that the more a person visited and spent time there, the more they would learn about God.
He assigned special tasks to them. (Exo 35:30 – 36:1)
Not only did God involve his people in the building of his house by inviting them to contribute materials and giving them a specific blueprint, but he also involved them by inviting them to participate in the actual construction of his house. He involved a wide range of people with a diverse range of abilities and skills.
This community-involved home-building approach resembles the Amish tradition of barn-raising, in which dozens of families gather from the community to build an entire barn together in a single day, each person contributing according to their skills and strength. Though the work is physically demanding, it is marked by cooperation, shared meals, and a joyful sense of purpose and participation. This tradition highlights the Amish belief that community support is essential; each family gives generously, confident that others will do the same for them when their time of need comes.
How special it is that God didn’t just build his own house by himself, something he was certainly capable of doing. But he chose to involve many of his own people, instead. The God who created the universe by himself involved his people to build his house.
He lived with them continually. (Exo 40:34-38)
Once the tabernacle was built, God moved into his house, then the Book of Leviticus describes how fellowship meals, gatherings, and celebrations would go when his people would worship him there.
Before the Book of Leviticus begins, Moses described how “the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (40:35). He goes on to describe how God revealed his presence as a cloud resting above the tent and how his presence (appearing as a cloud) would come and go with them wherever they went. That’s why so many parts of this tent were designed with loops to run poles through, so that his people could disassemble, carry, and reassemble the tabernacle wherever they went.
From this we see God did not intend this to be a temporary residency or a brief camping trip. He intended it to be a long-lasting, permanent relationship in which he lived with his people continually. This conveys the sort of intentionality, commitment, and permanence that home ownership conveys when compared to renting. If a neighbor moves in next door, but they are renting, that doesn’t give you as much confidence to build a relationship or friendship with them as if they were buying the home, instead.
By moving in to live with his people, God was showing his ongoing commitment to them, not just a temporary test of the relationship to see how things would go. But this approach to continues into our lives today as followers of Christ.
Today he lives in his people. (Jn 14:17)
How does this special situation in distant history affect our lives today? After all, we’re not the nation of Israel and we’re not wandering around the Middle East wilderness living in tents. Jesus himself made a very important observation about the presence of God with his people in the days before his crucifixion.
The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (Jn 14:17)
Here Jesus teaches that up until the time of Christ’s earthly ministry, God had lived and dwelled “with” his people. But after Christ’s death and resurrection, this would change, for then God would dwell not just with his people but in them. He would no longer be a close neighbor nearby but a resident within.
By saying this, Christ was telling us ahead of time that after his resurrection, all who believe on him for salvation would receive not only forgiveness from sin and a close relationship with God (results of the “new covenant” or “New Testament”), but the permanent indwelling of God. In other words, God would no longer place his permanent presence in a building, like the tabernacle or Temple, but he would place his permanent presence and “live” literally WITHIN his people. Isn’t this amazing?
Since this is the case, the NT teaches at least four important ways God’s presence and dwelling WITHIN his people should affect the way we live and view our lives.
We must offer our bodies to him. (Rom 12:1)
Just as God invited his people to give of their resources to build his house, so he invites his people to offer their bodies willingly to him:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Rom 12:1)
This means we should think twice about the popular mantra “my body my choice.” We should offer our bodies to God rather than do with it whatever we want. Though we should certainly give generously and willingly to God from our time, talent, and resources, we should first – and most importantly – give our own selves, our own bodies to God. I should do with my body, dress my body, and care for my body in a way that first and foremost asks, “What does the Bible say about my body and the things that I do with it?”
This should always be my highest priority in decisions which affect my body and what I do with it. After all, the homeowner and primary resident – not the renter – should have the topmost priority in making decisions about a house, right?
We must glorify him with our bodies. (1 Cor 6:19-20)
Just as God gave his people a specific blueprint for the décor and design of his house which his people were to follow carefully, so he gives followers of Christ today a call to reflect his goodness and design through the way we care for and use our bodies.
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Cor 6:19-20)
From this we see that we should not do things to or with our bodies which God himself would not desire, and we should do with our bodies only those things which God intends for us to be and designed us to do.
In particular, this statement applies most directly to forbidding sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:18), something which Paul says to “flee.” God feels so strongly about this that he tells us to “avoid, escape, and disappear quickly” from temptations to sexual sin and from opportunities to make immoral decisions.
Though many good reasons for this prohibition can be given, the one Paul emphasizes here is because “God lives there.” There are things that other people tolerate and do of which you do not approve, and for that reason, those things do NOT happen in your home. In our home, for instance, we don’t smoke cigarettes or marijuana, etc.
Knowing this, it would be in appropriate for a guest or resident who moves in to do those things in our home. It would even be inappropriate for the previous owner to return and do those things. That’s the logic Paul is using here. Why should we abstain (or rather “flee”) from immoral behavior? Because God bought us, owns us, and lives within us.
We must offer up spiritual sacrifices. (1 Pet 2:5)
Just as God gave assigned special tasks to his people about building his house, so he calls followers of Christ today to offer up spiritual sacrifices to him. No longer do we offer animal or grain sacrifices, but we offer spiritual sacrifices, instead.
You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 2:5)
Here, we are reminded that we are a “spiritual house” for God, which stands in contrast to the physical house of God in the OT. Instead of the tabernacle and Temple, God has chosen to live within us, instead. This means, then, that rather than offering up animal and grain sacrifices in a physical temple, we should offer up spiritual sacrifices instead. What are these spiritual sacrifices?
We should not limit the sacrifices here to any one item, for everything that is pleasing to God is probably included. Peter spoke generally and comprehensively of all that believers do by the power of the Holy Spirit.
These spiritual sacrifices, then, are anything we do in reliance upon Christ to worship God, to help people gain a positive view of God, and to help bring people into a close relationship with God.
We can be sure of his permanent presence. (Mt 28:20)
Finally, just as God lived continually with his people in the OT through the tabernacle and temple, so he lives with us today forever as followers of Christ. His indwelling and residence within us by his Spirit is permanent and forever.
I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Mt 28:20)
This means that if you’re a follower of Christ, then God not only dwells in you, but he is with you all the time, everywhere, in every place. What an encouraging reality – to know that God is always at home – in you.
There’s something deeply comforting and heartwarming about knowing your parents are always home. From the moment they soothed your first cries and rocked you to sleep in the baby room, their presence in the home has been a steady source of peace and care. As time passes, that same comforting constancy remains: there when you come home to from a day of play outside, to welcome you home when you get off the school bus, when you come home late at night after a long day of work, when you come home for break between semesters at college, when you bring your date over for dinner, when you bring your wife and young children over for the holidays, when you come to get investment advice, and when you visit to provide assistance in their old age or take them to visit the doctor – there until they breath their last breath. There until they’re not.
The “for sale sign” gets pounded into the front yard, the lights go out in the front room at night, and all sorts of strangers in strange car start touring the home, until someone buys it, renovates and remodels it, and begins making new memories of their own. The home that guaranteed your parents’ welcome, love, and presence is no longer open – your parents are no longer there.
As reflective and sad as this reality of life may be, how encouraging it is to know that once God moves into your life he will never move out. He will be there for the remainder of your life and he will be there with you for eternity.
From the Old Testament to the New, Scripture tells one great story: God desires not just to visit his people but to dwell with them. In the wilderness, he called Israel to bring willing offerings, to follow His blueprint, and to join Him in the work of building His house. He filled that house with his glory and stayed with them continually.
But in Christ, he has come even closer. No longer does he dwell in a tent or a temple, but in the hearts of those who trust completely in him. Because his Spirit lives within us, we offer our bodies to him, we glorify him with our lives, we offer spiritual sacrifices that honor his name, and we rest secure in his unbreakable promise, “I am with you always.”
The God who once pitched his tent among his people now makes his home in you. So let us live as people who remember, every day, in every decision, in every temptation, and every trial that God is not only near, he is here. And because he has moved in, he will stay with you forever
May our bodies and our lives, then, be a dwelling where he is honored, a home in which his presence is unmistakable because his presence with us is unbreakable.

God formed a special relationship with his people.

God showed himself in a special way to his people.

God gave a special purpose to his people.

God revealed a special lifestyle for his people.

God chose to live with his people.

He called for an offering from them. (25:1-7; 35:4-9, 20-29; 36:6-7)

He gave them a blueprint. (Exo 25:9)

He assigned special tasks to them. (Exo 35:30 – 36:1)

He lived with them continually. (Exo 40:34-38)

Today he lives in his people. (Jn 14:17)

We must offer our bodies to him. (Rom 12:1)

We must glorify him with our bodies. (1 Cor 6:19-20)

We must offer up spiritual sacrifices. (1 Pet 2:5)

We can be sure of his permanent presence. (Mt 28:20)