Exodus 37:10-16 Bible Study | Episode 637

March 19, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Exodus 37:10-16  Bible Study | Episode #637

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Alive, Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today.

In Jesus name good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Exodus chapter 37 and we're dealing with the table of acacia wood made for the showbread. Now you need to understand what the showbread is. The showbread was the bread made each day.

And it was placed on the table right outside of, right outside the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the tabernacle. And it sat out there and there was a lamp stand across from it, and by the way we'll be studying that next, but the showbread is one of the main elements, one of the main features of the tabernacle, and it's one of the main features of the tabernacle because It represents Jesus and how we consume Jesus as the bread of life.

And you go consume Jesus. Yeah, really scripture is really teaching that we consume him and we consume him because. There's a lot of things there's a lot of aspects of nourishing our bodies through food that go along with our spiritual growth and spiritual growth is a spiritual thing, but obviously we are not spiritual beings when we're born we're only spiritual beings after we're born again, and so we do not live life, generally speaking thinking spiritually.

In fact, we don't live life at all thinking spiritually until God steps in and begins to spiritually teach us. And when you're thinking about consuming the Word of God, you really have to think about it on a physical level. How, what do we do? We consume food in order to nourish our bodies.

Now, oftentimes we consume food that's not very good for our bodies, and that's not good for us. And the things we consume we consume in our bodies are going to what you are what you eat. That's what they say. And I, and the truth is that's very true. If you if you eat sugar and bread all the time you're probably going to be a little bit heavy.

And I know that from experience. And if you if you eat good food, if you eat fruits and vegetables and protein your body is going to it's going to prosper. And. And if you eat as far as your spirit is concerned, if you eat from the world you're going to have a, you're going to have an upset tummy.

Your spiritual your spiritual tummy is going to be upset. And if you if you eat from God's word, On a regular basis, you're going to become spiritually strong, you're going to become spiritually courageous, you're going to become spiritually knowledgeable, you're going to become spiritually healthy, and you are going to begin to act in faith based off of that spiritual health.

And when you act in faith off that spiritual health, your life is going to become more and more healthy. Now, at the start, it may be a little bit rocky because remember you've been doing it wrong for a long time and those of you who know about dieting and things like that the start of the diet is always a little bit rough.

When a person begins to eat spiritual food their life oftentimes becomes a little bit turbulent. And it's turbulent because they're changing and the things that are going on in their life before cannot be going on when they're having spiritual nourishment, spiritual food. And you're going to do better, but it's going to be a little bit of a struggle at the start because eating.

Eating well requires a lifestyle change, requires a change of life, and being spiritually mature, being spiritually fed, requires a change of life. It requires a lifestyle change. And when you're thinking about your spiritual walk, your spiritual journey you have to be regularly eating of the bread of life.

Jesus is the bread of life. He is, he, and he said, I'm the bread of life. So that's how we know he is. And This is a picture of preparation for eating the showbread. And I want you to notice that God puts he puts a lot of emphasis on this. In fact, each time he talks about making this, and then when he talks about It actually being put together, it is always second behind the ark.

So if the ark is the picture of us in worship then the showbread is a very important aspect of that. It leads us to it. And so obviously, it's going to have something to do with us. We are a part of this. And the bread is going to sit upon a table and the table is made of acacia wood, and that's what it says in verse 10.

He made the table of Acacia wood tube cubits was its length and a cubit with it was its width the size of maybe a a rectangular end table and a cubit and a half it's height. We've got a, it is a table of acacia wood that's about two to three feet tall. It is somewhere around three to four feet wide and two to three feet deep.

And it is the place where the showbread was sitting. It's right outside the temple. I want you to notice some aspects of it that are very Similar to the Ark. First of all it is very similar in size to the Ark. It is a rectangular table. Whereas the the Ark is a rectangular box.

It's made of acacia wood. It's overlaid with pure gold. So you have us, and then you have the royalty of God overlaying it. It has molding around it, so God is being intricate with it. He's intricate with the ark in the and the cherubim on top. But He's being intricate with this, actually with the actual table.

And God, which means God's work in you is going to be very intricate. It's going to be very personal. It's going to be very refining. He made the frame of hand breath all around it, and made a molding of gold. for the frame all around it. Notice notice the frame is there is a frame of acacia wood that is on the outside and it is inlaid with gold also.

He cast it with four rings of gold. Notice, the arc has to be carried by poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold. He's also going to make rings on this and it's going to be carried just like the arc is Both of them are going to be carried not by You're just throwing it on the back of an ox cart, but it's going to be carried by humans.

And by the way, Jesus Jesus's word is best carried in the hearts of human beings. It's not best carried any other way. When God's word speaks to your heart that's where life change takes place. And it's not a human being speaking. It's the Holy Spirit revealing that. Now God has chosen the foolishness of preaching unto salvation.

It's a very bloated idea. God says that preaching is foolishness, and it is. If you think about it, it really is. How can a very finite very limited being explain the wonders of God's plan for humanity in any real or viable way? It, it seems very foolishness, but God has ordained that foolishness.

Why is it foolish? Because we can't, but God has ordained it because He has ordained man to be His representation in the earth, so He's going to use us. To to purvey to tell to go out and share the good news of Jesus Christ. And he proves himself able to take that which is almost nothing and make wondrous things out of it.

And he does it also with his word. And so that's what's going on here. And so we have a picture that is this item is very much like the ark. It is us. It is us preparing to hear God's word. He says the rings were close to the frame as holders for the poles to bear the table. And he made the poles of acacia wood to bear the table and overlaid them with gold.

And he made it pure gold. He made of pure gold, the utensils which were on the table, it's dishes, it's cups, it's bowls, it's pitchers for pouring so they would eat and drink wine and water with the showbread, and they would consume it. on a regular basis. I want you to notice this is not something that is a very special event that only happens once a year.

This is for the purpose of our consumption all the time. Now, did they eat the showbread? No, the priests ate the showbread, but we're priests, so we get to eat the showbread. Did regular people get to go in and eat the showbread? No. And regular people don't get to eat of God's word. Only his priests get to eat of his word.

And you go I'm not one of those. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. We are a kingdom of priests. Everybody who is born again, everybody's part of Kingdom of God, is a priest. You have ac, you have access to the throne room of heaven. You can go into the Holy of Holies. So you are a priest. If you are a believer, you are a priest.

If you are a believer, you have anointing from God. If you're a believer, you have a calling from God. If you are a believer. You are able to hear God's word, the Holy Spirit is able to teach you spiritual things, and you can walk in it. If you are a believer, you have it all. Do not let people tell you that there's some hierarchy as far as your spiritual position in the kingdom of heaven.

Now, there is going to be a hierarchy in heaven. That's going to be based on, based off of our willingness to walk by faith in Him. It's going to be based off of our reward for our faithfulness toward God. It's not going to be, it's going to be a merit based system, okay? It's going to be based off of your willingness to hear what God says and act upon it.

But there is not a two tiered system or a three tiered system in believers walking the face of the earth. Sure, do some people have callings like, I'm a pastor and I'm a teacher. Sure, I have that calling, but that does not make me any better than you. It doesn't make me any more able to understand. or take in God's word in you.

It does make me have a gift that helps other people study God's word, but it is not, it does not make me some priest above you. In fact, I say this all the time there's a group of people that God Said he he did not like. In the book of the Revelation, he says, the practice of the nicolaitans, I cannot stand.

Nico means to rule over and latan means the regular people. So to rule over the lay the laity, he says is a practice he cannot stand. He does not like it. He says it twice in the book of the Revelation. It is an important understanding that there is not a ruling class. In scripture, there is a pastoral class.

There is a elder class. There, there are ministers of the gospel, but we're not rulers. We are servants. We're teachers. We're shepherds. We're those who are to help the body of Christ to grow. And to become the full. The full priest that you're supposed to be. The full believer that has access to the kingdom of God that you're supposed to be.

We are not better than you and we're not we're not more important than you. We all have the ability to eat from the bread of life. to hear the Holy Spirit teach us and to walk by faith in power and in might using our spiritual gifts. And each one of us has at least one. Many of us have many more.

We are to walk in those things by faith and glorify. Our Heavenly Father. And if we're doing that we're doing Kingdom work. And if we're not doing that we're missing out on the Kingdom work. And if you're not doing that you're not building in that merit based system I was talking about.

You want to be building treasure for yourself in Heaven and not treasure for yourself on Earth. And that's spirit, being spiritually minded. That's thinking about things spiritually. from a spiritual perspective. And I want you to see that God says, the Holy of Holies is real important. And that Ark of the covenant where he comes down and touches us is real important.

And then he comes out and he says, okay, this table out here, it's outside the Holy of Holies, but I want you to hear me. It's real important too. In fact, it's so really important that it almost looks exactly like. Except for the cherubs and the bread on top, it looks exactly the Ark of the Covenant.

And I want you to treat it that way. I want you to treat my son and his revelation to you, who he is, I want you to treat it like Like what it is. It is me revealing myself to you. I want you to treat it as holy and important and powerful. And he says, if you'll do that, if you'll do that with your life then you're going to see and understand and walk in things that, Yeah, that that are going to make it possible for you to really fulfill that role that gets played in the Holy of Holies.

Where you have perfect communion with me and the only way for that to be happening is you got to have the bread of life. Tomorrow on Monday we'll be talking about the golden lamp stand. which is the Holy Spirit revealing it. All these aspects are teaching us about how to know God, how to worship and how to be a kingdom of priests, which God has made us.

And I want you to think about yourself that way. So many times we want to put people on spiritual pedestals. A spiritual pedestal is an idol and God will not have it. Okay. Do not place people on pedestals. If someone is feeding into your life spiritually, Love them and appreciate them. That is an important thing to do for anyone who is fed into you, for you to feed back into them love and appreciation, but don't place them on a pedestal that first of all limits your ability to grow because you're saying that I'm in a, I'm a second class citizen in the kingdom of God and you're not a second of all.

It elevates them to a place where they really can't live up to it, and they're always going to fall short of it, and I'm going to do that myself all the time. They're always going to fall short of it, they're going to be limited and they, that heaps condemnation on them when they can't live up to the spiritual ideal that you have for them.

Don't do that. Don't do that to yourself, and for sure for those who who have fed into you, don't do that to them. Give them the chance to be just like you. a child of the king and give them an opportunity to know that you appreciate what they do for you the love and the respect that they've given you by teaching and by feeding into your spiritual life.

And that's how you do it. And if you do it well you become one of those, you become one of those spiritual leaders, teachers, one of those spiritual servants that build the kingdom of God and that people look up to. Look up to not because they're above you, but look up to because they have proven themselves to be people that are willing to love and to walk with you.

And I pray that as you head in the weekend, as we get ready to study through the book of 1st John, not 1st John, the gospel of John we'll start in verse 1, chapter 1 this Sunday morning. We're going to start a long journey through the gospel of John. I pray that you will be ready for that, that we'll get together on Sunday morning and that we will be fed and that we will study and that we will know you know him more and more as you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you.

That he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope. And peace today in Jesus name.