Preparing a Place for His Presence | Exodus 35:1–40:33

Exodus tells the story of a God who isn't distant, but moves toward His people in power and mercy. God reveals Himself as I Am, leading Israel out of slavery and into the life-changing reality of His presence. This is our next to last week in the book of Exodus.

Next week will be the week we wrap things up. And so make sure you have your Bible there in front of you. Let's get under the weight of the Word.

Find the book of Exodus, would you? Have a finger in Exodus 35, and as you do, consider this truth that often we don't want to admit, and yet we know it's true. It can be a very good source of encouragement. It can be revealing sometimes, bring us to conviction.

But here's the truth that I think you'll see in this text, and we know this is just a fact about life, that we don't have to manufacture a response when we genuinely value someone or something. Wouldn't you agree with that? When there's genuine value in someone or something, no one's got to manufacture that response. It is natural.

It flows out of you. We respond to what we value. That's just true.

In this moment, you may be thinking, wow, that's convicting, but it can be an encouragement as well, because you've seen this happen in big and small ways. You've seen it after a derecho or a tornado tears through a community, and suddenly the whole neighborhood or community, or in most of Iowa, sometimes a whole small town will just emerge, and they're on the scene, and every man's a chainsaw expert. You've got retired ladies hauling debris.

You've got families who are converging and meeting and sharing food they haven't met in years. I mean, everyone jumps to help because they know there's something valuable at stake. You've seen it in small ways, and again, small here could be a relative term, but many of you, and I think we do this on a regular basis across the board.

We adjust our schedules, sometimes within hours or minutes or just on the spot because we value a relationship. Your wife or your husband or your children need something, and so you adjust your schedule. You'll flip this, flop that, ask someone if you can just reschedule because you value someone.

More humorously, some of you know this is true, we find money for what we want. You say it's tight until you really want it, then what do you do? You find the money somehow because we always respond to what we value. We make time for those things.

What we value eventually becomes visible in how we respond. That's true of all of us in the positive and the negative, and that's exactly what happens beginning in Exodus 35. You take your Bibles, locate that chapter, and here's what I want you to do, clasp in your fingers Exodus 35 to 40.

Do that in a way that your fingers can do the walking this morning. We've got a lot to cover, five plus chapters. It's by design because it's really one story of a response.

It's five chapters, there's about three main threads in these chapters, but there's really just one main thing happening, and so I want us to be able to see that as a congregation this morning. You say, well, Todd, what is that one main thing? I'm really glad you asked that. How about if I give it to you in a sentence? Here's our presence principle.

You'll see over and over this morning, just emerging, bubbling up, surfacing in the text these five plus chapters. It's this simple principle that where God's presence is valued, his people respond. Will you say it with me? Where God's presence is valued, his people respond.

Now, I'm going to give you just a little bit of a, I don't want to call it a disclaimer or a qualifier, but I want to say something to all of our guests this morning that are here, first-time visitors, maybe third or fourth-time guests. I'm going to be talking mainly to those who kind of call this church their faith family. I'm really glad that our guests are here listening, because you're going to get a good bit of understanding about kind of why First Families First Family, kind of how we tick.

As we come to the end, I think I'll provide some, I'll use the word application for all of us. So don't think I'm saying don't listen. I'm just giving you a heads up that there's going to be some good, plain talk this morning in regards to responding to God's presence within his people.

My primary job is to pastor these people. So I just want you as a guest to know that. I'm really honored you're here.

As we get to the end, I think you'll hear more like, oh, that makes sense to all of us. But just be aware. I'm going to really take some direct, not shots, direct aim at this body to help us understand these five chapters in the best way possible.

So what do you say we dig right in? Can we do that? Exodus chapters 35 to 40. We know what the presence principle is going to be. We're going to see that emerge.

And like I said, we're going to see it emerge really across three threads. Those threads, you could use these words, sacrifice, service and submission, but they're all wrapped about around one major theme, and that is the response of God's people to God's presence. So let's look at thread number one.

It begins in chapter 35. It is the first 29 verses in this message this morning. I'll probably give you highlights within these sections.

I'll read parts of them. We're not going to read all the way through every bit of it, but I think you'll get the real gist of God's word upon us. In this first section where it says in chapter 35 that they gave this offering, just notice they gave willingly.

God's presence prompted sacrifice among them. Now this section opens in verse one with some verses about the Sabbath, and you may think that seems disconnected. Like why slowly talk about this day of rest and then jump into this idea of the offering? Here's the best way to explain what's happening here.

This really is the second attempt at establishing an offering for the tabernacle. You say, when was the first one? It was back prior to the golden calf. So I want you to think about the scope of Exodus.

Do you recall they came out of Egypt? God established His presence, gave the tablets to Moses. When He came back down, it seems that the goal was to deliver God's commandments, then take an offering, build a tabernacle. But in the middle of that was this interesting interruption.

From a human perspective, He came down with the tablets the first time, and He found that this golden calf had emerged from the fire. That's why Aaron described it, right? And so they've got to deal with that now, which is why in chapter 31, about verse 12, you find that Moses actually gives these Sabbath instructions, then realizes, oh my goodness, you're worshiping a false god. So they deal with the covenant breach.

God restores and renews His covenant, and now we're back to where we should have been earlier. So He's kind of saying, okay, let me get back to where we were. Here's the law.

Here's what God's revealed. And the way He wants you to now build the place where He will dwell among you is through your offerings. And verses 5 through 29 begin really a long description of this offering that the Israelite people sacrificially gave to build the tabernacle, which is where God would dwell among them.

In fact, look at verse 5, would you? Chapter 35, the Bible says this to us. Moses says, take up an offering among you for the Lord. Let everyone whose heart is willing, underline that word, to bring this as the Lord's offering.

Notice the phrase, whose heart is willing. So Moses is not twisting arms. He's not manipulating them.

He's not manufacturing guilt. In fact, he's not even applying the tithe commandments here. If you were to read Leviticus and see the laws God gave, of course, Leviticus 27, I believe, talks about the tithe commandments.

He's not even here talking about the, and this is a weird phrase, the half-shekel commandment of Exodus 30. Exodus 30 relates the commandment that for every male registered, they owed a half-shekel. And so there are commandments regarding certain kinds of giving in which you did not have an option.

The tithe is one, the half-shekel offering was another. But here he's simply saying, if you're willing, bring what you can, and we're going to build God's dwelling place. What follows between the end of 5 and verse 29 is an amazing list of items.

Can I just read you some of them? You can read the full text later, but here's what's mentioned in those verses. Gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, fine linen, goat hair, go figure, ramskins, acacia wood, oil, spices, precious stones, all sorts of things are being brought for the temple, excuse me, the tabernacle construction. In short, they begin bringing what they possess as a free will offering.

And that kind of language continues to unfold in this chapter. In these verses, seven times, we see words similar to like free will, move or prompt. Can I give you some examples? Look at verse 21, everyone whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord.

Verse 22, both men and women came, all who had willing hearts. Look at verse 26, it speaks of some women whose hearts were moved. I think verse 29 is a great summary.

So the Israelites brought a free will offering to the Lord. All the men and women whose hearts prompted them to bring something for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded to be done. So you see a lot of repetition, moved, prompted, free will, willing.

And this points, catch this church, to desire, not duty. I'm not doubting duty. I'm not disagreeing with the command of God here for these people about tithing at all.

I'm saying this offering was not one of those legal expectations. It was one aimed at how eager are you to just voluntarily give? Now how eager were they? Well, it says in chapter 36 that they eventually brought too much and Moses had to make an announcement. Please stop giving.

We've got enough. When have you heard that in church, right? So a beautiful moment of not legal expectation, but just eagerness, watch this, to respond to God's presence. Now maybe you're like me a little bit and you're wondering, well, how much did they give voluntarily, sacrificially? Like in our terms, because Todd, I haven't given goat hair ever.

I'm not sure how to even, if I have some of these items, like I'm not sure what that world is like. And I'm with you in that boat. It seems so remote, doesn't it? So how much in today's terms would they have brought? Well, the text tells us in chapter 38 that they contributed more than seven and a half tons of gold, silver, and bronze.

Just those three items, seven and a half tons, which today's metal prices, that would be approaching $150 million. They brought 2000 pounds of gold alone. So Israel voluntarily, sacrificially, in addition to the commandments that they lived under, they sacrificially responded with what would be today almost $150 million to help build the place where God would dwell among them.

That's sacrificial giving, church, which really is the issue. It's sacrifice. And the language here throughout this text, it's not like sentimental language.

I mean, they give us items and figures and values, and so it's tangible, it's actual. This actually occurred. People brought things they had, and it added up to this incredible amount for something they highly valued.

So the question is not, will you sacrifice? The question is, what do you value? Because you will sacrifice for what you value. You don't believe me? Most church members in America pay more for their cell phone bill than they give to their church. Now, maybe that's not you.

I don't know. But the stats are about 50 to 60% of the evangelical Christians in America who are church members give $500 a year or less to their church, to the Lord's work. Some people have phone bills of $200 plus every month.

I think it's interesting that most of you don't bat an eye about a phone bill that may be $100, $200, but when you write, you know what a check is? When you Venmo or when you whatever you do, when you give to the Lord, and it's triple digits, you sometimes feel the pain of that. But you don't feel the pain to the streaming services. You don't feel the pain to the cable company or the restaurant.

I'm speaking to you and to myself. So I think it's interesting that we must think about, we aren't afraid to sacrifice. The question is, what will you sacrifice for? Now, I just mentioned some things that we sacrifice for at times.

Can I say to you, I don't think those things are inherently wrong. I'm not here to guilt you, to manipulate you, to twist on you. We sacrifice for lots of things.

Our houses, our future, our children, those are things, our careers. Most people will sacrifice for things that they know they value. I'm not saying those are inherently wrong.

What I'm asking you to do is realize something. The point the text says right off the bat is, you will respond to what you value. That's the principle no one can escape.

You don't change principles, they change you. So when you realize, oh my goodness, I do respond to what I value, and you start looking at how you've responded to God, you might suddenly realize, I don't really value God. That should be an awakening moment for you.

That you value T-Mobile more than you value God. T-Mobile, Netflix, Prime Video, your car, your mortgage, your address. Again, I'm speaking to you and to me.

These are hard questions, but these are things we should wrestle with as we think about sacrificial giving. You're probably thinking, well Todd, you've set it up well, here comes the big ask. You're going to lay the billing campaign on us, aren't you? You've got some big project and here it comes, we're going to have the price is right moment, like, you've won, eh? No, I'm not going to take this passage where they gave the tabernacle and tell you that you should give to what we're building.

I think that would probably be an exegetical error, because where does God dwell now? He dwells in His people, collectively and individually. So I will ask you this, how are you sacrificing for God's people? Admittedly, there are things that God's people need, both collectively and individually. When we gather, needs, God's mission.

So I'm not saying there aren't initiatives and things in store and things that every church has to wrestle with when it comes to God's people, but here's my point. Let's not aim for a building. God no longer lives and dwells in buildings.

God lives and dwells in people, His people, those who by faith have trusted Christ. When they gather, the church is meeting regardless of the structure. It's not wrong to give to where they meet, but we're not giving to a structure, we're giving to a people and the way God fulfills His purposes through those people.

So let me ask you again, how are you sacrificing for the mission of God work through a specific people you call your faith family? It's a legitimate question to ask, deserves some close scrutiny and attention by all of us. Generosity that never costs us anything isn't sacrifice. So where's the sacrifice? Just begin to ask yourself, where's the sacrifice? And if there isn't any, what do you really value? If you're hearing that and thinking, I need to make some adjustments, maybe for you it's deciding that giving to God's work will now come first instead of second, third, or fourth.

Like you're not going to begin with what's left, you're going to start with what God asks. Maybe for some it's increasing your regular giving and decreasing somewhere else because His kingdom matters more than seven brew. Maybe for others it's a commitment today to become a consistent giver and not just an occasional tipper.

Now I admit to you, I've said some strong words to myself and to all of us about topics that sometimes are sensitive in church life. But I have felt extremely emboldened this week because of a conversation I had this past week with a gentleman who spoke to some of our leaders about giving. We were getting some coaching.

We were receiving some instruction ourselves. And I didn't know this until Thursday. I was so moved by it, I made some changes with Julie Friday and Saturday.

Did you know that if every giver in our church would increase their giving by one percent, our church, I'm going to use a word here you won't like, but it's the best word because it's so plain, okay? Our church revenue, the offerings of our church as a whole would increase by 33 percent. Now when I first heard that, I was like, that's not true, and I'm not going to say that because some accountant will corner me and embarrass me. So I called two accountants.

I said, hey, is this actually mathematically right? I hate math. I don't do numbers. He said, that's true.

She said, that's right. I double checked it, triple checked it on Saturday. It's accurate that every giving unit in our church would increase one percent over the course of the next year or whenever that begins, we would see an increase of 33 percent in our total offerings.

As I thought about that, I looked at our stats and where we are with some things, and this is just one of the things we want to see accomplished over the next several months is our debt. If we did that, we'd have our debt paid off in less than 12 months. I think by the end of this year, it'll be around 700-ish thousand dollars that we owe.

We have a wonderful debt to, I'm not sure what the ratio wording is, but we're not in a bad shape. But wouldn't you love to see that erased? And then I realized, if all of our givers just increased one percent, we could see that gone. So I went home.

I said, honey, can you pray about something in the next 10 seconds, I got an idea. She said, let me hear it. I said, what do you say we increase our giving one percent this week? She goes, that's not that much.

I told her the story, I said, what if we all just did that? Imagine the impact in a few months. And she said, well, let's just go two or five, and I said, we start with what we learned. Just one percent.

And can we tell the church we're in, and will you join us? So I'm asking you this morning, I don't know if I've ever given a call like this, this specific and this small in some ways. I just want to ask you, if you don't give it all, could you give one percent? That's a start. It's a small one, and you got to do more, in my opinion, but start.

And whatever you're giving, could you just figure out what is one percent more? And over the next several months, watch the church offerings go up by 33 percent. Like I rejoice when I hear what we could accomplish for God's mission with that kind of sacrificial, willing, eager generosity. I became eager to get here Sunday and give the extra one percent.

I'm not bragging, because there's no bragging in one percent, all right? But if all of us join together, 33 percent is a wonderful jump. Hope you hear my heart in that, just kind of burying my soul. Comes out of these first 29 or so verses in which we see God's people giving willingly.

They didn't just open their hands and give, though. They rolled up their sleeves to work. This is the next section.

It begins in verse 30 of chapter 35. Write this down, would you? They served skillfully. And in this moment, God's presence really empowered their service.

This is how they responded next. So they gave willingly, and now they're serving skillfully. This is described in about 12 verses.

It goes through about verse 7 of chapter 36. And in there we meet a gentleman. Did you know this gentleman that we're going to meet, his name is Bezalel, he is the very first person described as being filled with the Spirit of God.

Now ponder that. It wasn't Moses, it wasn't Aaron, it wasn't Abraham, it wasn't a prophet or a preacher or a miracle worker. The first person the Bible explicitly describes as being filled with the Spirit of God was a craftsman, a construction builder.

That's what the text says. The first time this phrase is used describes someone, and it's a craftsman. I think it's a beautiful moment.

Look at verse 30 and 31 of chapter 35, would you? Here it is documented for us, Moses then said to the Israelites, look, the Lord is appointed by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. He has filled him with God's Spirit with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every craft. Now this language in the Hebrew text indicates to me he's describing, Moses is describing someone who's not just like a guy who's good at what he does.

There's specific language that's intentional, first-time use language to say that the Spirit of God has come upon and within someone for a specific task. God is gifting someone specifically, intentionally in a moment for service, empowering them by the Holy Spirit and for the good of the body, the people where God is dwelling. I think this is a very intriguing text.

Now I will say this, he wasn't the only empowered person in this fashion. He seems to be the leader of this group, but there's a man named Oholiab in verse 34. There's others who said they taught others how to do this.

There's some women who were spinning fabrics in chapter 35, verses 25 and 26. All of these people said they were filled with the Spirit of God and were given wisdom and ability. So there's a lot of intentionality here.

And I love this part of the story because I think there's two things happening. I want to share one with you and the other one I'm going to point you to Tuesday's podcast. I think this is potentially a pointer to the promise of spiritual gifts with God's people.

Now I can't prove that, but when I read this text, the language is so intentional. It's Spirit-driven, it's specific. I could mention the similarities, I won't here.

They were in my notes, but I don't have time, so I'm just going to mention them on the podcast Tuesday. But I think if you consider the one caveat that pneumatology of the Old Testament is slightly different than pneumatology of the New Testament, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. There's one real difference, and that's all I'll explain Tuesday.

But there's a lot of similarities, even with that caveat, that make me think God's kind of throwing a light for us. He's so gracious and kind. He's kind of casting a trajectory saying, hey, here's what I do, here's how I do it, and I won't stop doing it.

I'll do it somewhat differently, but you can bank on this. When I need a job done, I'll empower you by my Spirit to do it. It's a beautiful text that perhaps could be just God showing us what He's up to.

I am a firm believer God's Spirit gifts His church. I'm a firm believer that God's Spirit gifts His church for the comfort, strengthening, edifying of the church. I'm a firm believer of 1 Corinthians 11 through 14, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter as well.

They mean what they say. I don't understand everything about spiritual gifts, that's one of my favorite subjects, but I am so thankful for them, that the Holy Spirit of God will empower His people to do His work, because I can't do it on my own, and you can't either. But God's Spirit empowers us, He indwells us, so is this, perhaps, a moment when we see centuries ago the way in which God works among His people? I think it is.

I'll tell you more, I'll teach you on the podcast. Here's what I want to say to you in full, though, this morning on this topic, on this one point. When you take the first thread they gave willingly, and you take the second thread they served skillfully, here's what we know.

God always provides what we need and who we need. He'll never leave His church powerless, provisionless. God will always give us what we need and who we need.

And that's not always easy to believe. Sometimes in the organizational side of church, when there's a staff, and when there are leaders that are employed by the church, which is not wrong, by the way, when there's transition there, you can begin to worry, like, well, what are we going to do if we lose this staff person, or we have a transition here, how's it going to work, who's going to step up and step in? I remember 12 or 15 years ago, we lost two really key staff people at the same time. Very influential.

Nothing was wrong, they just moved to different opportunities and locations. And when they both told me, I was like, oh my goodness, two really influential staff people shepherding our flock together and really leading ministries, influential. And I did become somewhat anxious, like, I don't know how to fill these two slots at one time.

Church hiring is just a long process generally. And I wasn't excited about that, I got nervous. I thought, are we going to lose traction? Here's a general rule you can bank on, most churches trip over transitions.

That's usually where churches lose traction. And I saw two big transitions, and I'm like, Lord, I don't want to lose traction, Lord, help us. And I became very nervous.

Julie knew this, we talk about it sometimes when we're walking and so forth. And so I remember one night, I'm just going to share, kind of peel back my chest cap and share what happened. It's not, I'm not requiring it, I don't think you have to have one of these.

I think they are given by God to assure us of his word. Word's always first. God gives us moments to remind us his word never fails us.

I just remember though, going to bed and just being nervous and like, God, I don't know if this is going to work. I don't know what to do. I don't know if we're going to, if we lose traction, just those human thoughts.

And I had a very comforting, but awakening, and I don't know what you call it. You can call it a dream. That's kind of what it was.

It had a little bit of prophetic tone to it. It was somewhat of a vision, but it awakened me immediately. I've only had maybe a handful of these in my life, maybe three or four.

This is one of them. And I remember sitting up in bed thinking, Lord, that is exactly what I needed. Some folks have wondered, how do you know if a dream's from the Lord? Well, here's what the Bible would say, in my opinion.

I have a verse for this. I have a pattern that no one in the Bible has ever asked themselves, was this from the Lord? If you wake up from a dream and ask that question, it probably wasn't from the Lord. If you have a word from the Lord in a vision or dream way that is meant to affirm what he's told you in his word, it comes for your comfort and strengthen, I might say to you, it's probably a spiritual gift in that moment you're to share with the body, and you'll never doubt it's from God.

You'll know the minute it happens. That's from the Lord. That's the biblical pattern.

No one ever asked themselves, who's this dream from? When I woke, I said, God has given me a great word of encouragement. Not new revelation, confirmation that he's told me in his word what's already true. And it was in the form of a vision.

I was standing in the airport, and I was holding hands with a lot of our church members. All of our leaders were there, and there were some other ones mixed in. And then, I didn't know why we were in the airport, I didn't know why we were in the circle with hands held, but when I woke up, I knew it was from the Lord, because here's what I sensed.

The Lord was saying through that vision, that dream, that moment, that gift, Todd, you won't need to worry about anybody from the outside. I've got everything you need within the body. And what played out was, for the next season of ministry, God provided everything we needed for those two positions from within our body.

And I also believe spiritual gifts are given, they're supernatural enablements for seasons when God is doing a work. And I don't want to unpack all that here, I want to, but I'm not going to, okay? My point is this, I shared that with our staff the next day. I said, hey, I've got some great news, I think God's going to meet all of our needs from within our body for the next season of ministry.

And He did. The Lord raised up people, some of you are in this room, you remember that time. And for a season of ministry, the Lord met every one of our needs, watch this, not just in what we needed, but in who we needed.

I thought about that when I read through these verses, and I just became, again, very thankful that God meets our needs. Aren't you? That when He's dwelling among His people, we see His presence, we should not worry or fear, and when we have moments where sometimes we're drawn to like the human reaction to transitions or needs, man, God is so gracious and kind to assure us and confirm, I've got this, don't worry. And He does every time.

Here in this case, He provided every single person necessary to build what was needed for His dwelling place. So let me make this very practical before we go to the third thread. Can I ask you a question? Where are you actually serving? Where are you physically, in bodily fashion, showing up to do a job, empowered by the Spirit to perform some type of task that helps God's people when He's dwelling among them? I didn't ask where you used to serve, where you could serve, where you might serve.

I want to know, where are you presently putting what God has given you to work for the good of His people? If you're a student, don't think you're too young. You can welcome people. You can serve children, help with technology, go on a mission trip, invite friends.

If you're raising a family and you feel life is already full, don't assume busy means unavailable. If you're an empty nester or retired, don't retire from the mission of God. And here's what I think is becoming more and more meaningful to me and Julie.

There is some things that we have at this age that younger people don't have. And so instead of bemoaning the younger people, and they're moving up in the leadership, let's see if we can help hand the baton off better and help mold and shape them. We all have something to give.

We all have a part to play. Here's a metric worth considering. Ask yourself this, if everyone at First Family served like I serve, what kind of church would this be? And I would ask you that.

I would ask myself that. I'll ask our staff that. And I would say this to those on staff, I don't think you could say, well, I work here.

That doesn't count. Subtract your work and ask yourself, if everyone were a member like me, what would this church be like? Here's the call. Just find your place.

Get to work. God will gift you. His spirit will fill you in ways that you may not even understand.

But the Holy Spirit empowers the people of God to do the work of God. You're beginning to see the presence principle, aren't you? That at every turn, that where God's presence is valued, His people respond. We saw they first of all responded by giving willingly.

Now they're serving skillfully. Notice the last thread begins in chapter 36, about verse 8, they obeyed carefully. This may be the most important response because I'm kind of underneath the other two, even though they're kind of in reverse order.

Here we're going to see how God's presence really brought them to incredible submission in small details. Let me show you what I mean. When you begin to read Exodus 36, about verse 8, to the end of the book, here's what you're going to experience.

You're going to find that, wow, this is extremely boring. It's going to sound like blueprints. In fact, even now as you're glancing through the text, you're probably thinking, man, what do we see in here? Because it sounds very repetitive in addition to very boring.

There's things like dimensions for curtains and loops and clasps and frames and crossbars and arc, the table, the lampstand, the altar, the priestly garments and the materials. On and on it goes like, Todd, what in the world is going on here? I have no idea what that world is like. And so you kind of read verse after verse and you're like, I don't get the point of this.

Well, you have heard this before, first of all, so let me help you make sense of this section. It is, it is repetitive because here's why. What is documented in 36 through about 40 is the actual building of the tabernacle.

When you read it before in Exodus 25 to about 30, it was the instructions for the building, but they sound the same because one's documenting God giving it to them saying, build it like this. The other one is documenting that they built it just like God said. So they're the same instructions.

So you're reading it like, man, this is a little repetitious. It's also a little boring because it's like a bunch of blueprints for buildings I don't even get. I don't think you should read it for blueprints.

Listen church, I think you should read it for heart prints. You say, what's the heart print of this section? It's found in a repeating phrase that's got a ton of meat in it. It's the phrase, and it could be this phrase or a cousin to it, but it's the phrase that basically says, they did everything God commanded.

Let me show you the first example of it, or at least near the first one. It'd be like in 36 eight. You look in there, 36 eight, you see the phrase, everything the Lord commanded Moses, do you see that phrase? Now watch this, that phrase or one of his cousins, such as, as the Lord commanded or just as the Lord commanded him, any phrase along those lines, there's more than a dozen of them, not only in the last two or so chapters, but throughout this last section.

And so what you find is the core phrase is, when they got the instructions, they did exactly what God said. It's called careful obedience. Look at chapter 40 verse 22.

I think this may be the final one. Just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So you've got multiple phrases that show they carefully obeyed.

This is their heart print. This shows their spiritual posture to the Lord. So they got the instructions, they completed the action, and then Moses erects the tabernacle.

That's the flow of these chapters from 25 all the way to 40, 33. And throughout this last section, here's the drum beat you're going to hear. Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him.

The people did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses. You're going to find that careful obedience was really their refrain. I think that's a beautiful response to God's presence, don't you? And notice the word we chose.

It's careful obedience. Here's why. Because they obeyed God's instructions with care and they obeyed them fully.

Put those together and you have careful obedience. That is a needed word for us today. We live in a culture that says, well, my spirituality is personal.

I kind of decide how I want to do it. Well, I think I can worship God in whatever way I want to worship God. Well, you know what? The Lord understands.

So I think I can cut some corners. He's gracious. He's merciful.

He'll understand. Well, I know what the Bible says, but that's a famous one, isn't it? Church, hear this humbly. I'll say it humbly.

The greatest evidence that we value God's presence isn't necessarily an external action like giving or serving. It's an internal bending of the need of King Jesus that results in giving and serving. It's obedience to whatever he says.

It's accepting the weight of the word on any issue because God said it. That's really what we're after, is an internal posture that then causes external action. This is the deepest, truest response that I think ignites every other response.

That's why we're seeing in this text really three threads, yes. There's willing giving, there's skillful serving, and there's careful obedience. But really, it's one response to God because they value his presence.

We'll give to see this place built where he dwells. We'll serve to make sure the work gets done, and we'll do it exactly the way he said it because it's his dwelling place. King Jesus has spoken.

So church, do you see it? The simple sentence that describes the entire section? Where God's presence is valued, his people respond. In this section, there's three actions. They gave willingly, they served skillfully, they obeyed carefully.

They really were affected by God's presence in their possessions, their abilities, and their wills. In these moments, we really find out what we value, don't we? When we look at our possessions, our abilities, and our wills. Now let me just say to all of us here beyond our faith family, you may be wondering, well, why? Why respond to God in this fashion? I've heard you say God's presence.

What does that mean? Is it really that clear? Oh, it is. The gospel makes it that clear because God's presence is the power of the Holy Spirit bringing the reality and truth of Christ into clear focus week in and week out through his word, the Spirit's power. I just want you to know, what we're preaching through in Exodus is not designed to try to garner something from someone or from our church family or try to leverage them, manipulate them.

It's designed to help us understand and appreciate the presence of God among us. And God does dwell among his people today. The Holy Spirit dwells in you to open our eyes to the glory and beauty of Christ.

And here's what I want to say to all of us, whether you're a first family or not, when you see the glory and beauty of Christ, you will respond. The scriptural reality is this, when the glory and beauty of Christ occupies your attention, everything else in the room disappears. Everything in your life takes its proper place.

And I'm not so sure it's a list, by the way, I'm not a real fan of prioritized list. I think it's more of a centralized perspective that when you see the glory and beauty of Christ, you realize everything in my life revolves around this one thing. It's not like he's first and then this is second and third, so I'll give God, you know, 10 minutes a day that I'll take the rest of the 23 hours and 50 minutes.

I'm not saying that's wrong, I'm just not a real fan of listings. True understanding of the glory and beauty of Christ is it's so life-changing that every part of your life, your giving, your abilities, your time, everything is suddenly revolving around this one who is so compelling and attractive. He lived, he died, he was raised from the dead in real time and space.

Jesus Christ is factually, supernaturally true and he changes lives. It's God in the flesh who gave his life as a ransom for all who would believe and he calls upon all men and women everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. When that just consumes your life, then everything is centralized around that one thing, the glory and beauty of Christ.

That's what we're after. That's what these chapters reveal. That applies to everyone in this room, no matter if you belong to this church or not.

But as pastor, as one of the pastors here, my call is to these people who say this is our faith family, I'm urging you to centralize every part of your life, prioritize every part of your life around the glory and beauty of Christ and his presence with us, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God and respond to that. When that occurs, we'll make the announcement, please stop giving, we've got enough. No preacher will need to drag it out of anybody.

There will be no cornering needed.