Well, good evening. Welcome to Harvest and welcome to our midweek service. We're so glad you've joined us tonight and we're looking forward to hearing from Jeremy Bolling we're preaching tonight. Pastor Holmes is here. He's back in Awana. About once a year he goes back and he'll talk to the students and get to see them and fellowship with them. So I'm looking forward to what Brother Boling has for us tonight. We're looking forward to also having prayer time and singing and fellowshipping with one another. I do have a special prayer request. We will take more requests later. My parents' pastor, Cecil Thayer, was on visitation, I think it was yesterday or the day before, I don't remember which, Long story short, he's riding his motorcycle back with a friend and a deer went out in front of him. And he hit the deer at about 50 miles an hour. So he's pretty banged up. Praise the Lord. We could be having a much different conversation right now. But I praise God that he is in ICU. He has some broken ribs. He's pretty dinged up. But it looks like he's going to pull through. There's some other damage. They're still assessing it. So we'll be praying for Cecil Thayer later on. But praise God that he is doing better, and really, frankly, that he survived it. I have a little scooter I like to put around on. I never worry about the scooter wrecking. I worry about someone pulling out in front of me. That's what I think about all the time. So just the same, praise the Lord that he is okay. It's so good to have all of you with us tonight. Let's go ahead and stand together and we'll open up with Therefore the Redeemed of the Lord. Sing out now. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing. A desire that everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. ♪ And come what's singing a desire ♪ ♪ And everlasting joy shall be upon their face ♪ ♪ They shall obtain gladness and joy ♪ ♪ And sorrow and mourning shall flee away ♪ shall be upon an everlasting joy shall be upon an everlasting joy shall be upon their heads Isn't it good to sing praises unto our Savior? Go ahead and look at your neighbor and say, good evening, neighbor. Are you prepared to be blessed? You know, if you're not, you can be. If you can just talk to the Lord right now and say, open my heart, open my mind, let me receive what you have for me tonight. Isn't that exciting? That we can bring our problems and trials and tribulations, and they may not be fixed necessarily, but we can get help tonight. Isn't that wonderful? That's absolutely wonderful. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father, we love you. Thank you for loving us. I thank you for this great church, for the Word of God, and for compassion. I thank you for salvation. I thank you for the blood that Brother Tully preached about the other night. Thank you, Father. Now, God, I ask that you'd meet with us tonight. Help our hearts, our minds to be prepared to receive what you have for us. In Jesus' most precious name, amen. This first song is in our Living Hymns book. It'll be on the screen for you, page number 829, Where We'll Never Grow Old. I have heard of a land on that faraway strand. It is a beautiful home of the soul. Built by Jesus on high. There we never shall die. Tis a land where we'll never grow old. Never grow old. Never grow old. In a land where we'll never grow old. Never grow old, never grow old in a land where we'll never grow old. In that beautiful dome, where we'll never more roam, we shall be in the sweet by and by. Happy praise to the King, through eternity sing, tis the land where we never shall die. Never grow old in a land where we'll never grow old. In a land where we'll never grow old, or the last. When our work here is done, and the life ground is won, and our troubles and trials are over. All our sorrow will end and our voices will blend with the loved ones who've gone on before. Never grow old, never grow old in a land where we'll never grow old. in a land where we'll never grow old. Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight rolls a melody sweeter than song. Peace, peace, wonderful peace. We'll sing verses number one, number three, and number five. Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight rose a melody sweeter than song. In celestial-like strings it unceasingly falls, o'er my soul like an infinite call. Peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray, In fathomless billows of love. I am resting today in this wonderful peace, Resting sweetly in Jesus' control. And I'm kept from all danger by night and by day. Now His glory is flooding my soul. Peace, peace, wonderful peace coming down from above. Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray, In fathomless pillows of hope. O soul, are you here without comfort or rest, walking down the rough pathway of time? Make Jesus your friend ere the shadows grow dark. O accept this sweet peace, O sublime. Peace, peace, wonderful peace, come into my heart. Good singing tonight. We'll sing now, Jesus, we just want to thank you. Jesus, we just want to thank you Jesus, we just want to thank you Jesus, we just want to thank you Thank you for being so good. Verse 2. Jesus, we just want to praise you. Jesus, we just want to praise You. Jesus, we just want to praise You. Praise You for being so good. Verse 3. Savior, we just want to serve You. Savior, we just want to serve You. Savior, we just want to serve You. Serve You for being so good. On the last verse. Jesus, we know You are coming. Jesus, we know you are coming. Jesus, we know you are coming. Take us to live in your home. Thank you, Mr. Brown, and thank you. You may be seated. Some announcements for this evening. The church will take a journey in the truth. This is pretty awesome. Our reading plan for the month of May, and of course you can do this as a family, will be reading Galatians through 2 Thessalonians and you can pick up a schedule at the Welcome Center and it's also available on the app. and the website as well. We have a special gift coming up this Sunday, so everyone in attendance will receive a special gift. We're actually, because of the overage, we're able to give everyone a brand new car this Sunday, so we're very excited about that. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I think you'll be excited what we're gonna do for everyone this Sunday, and it has to do with our theme, of course. Naturally, we normally would have rolled that out in January, But there were some things going on we weren't able to do that. So come back Sunday, it's going to be great. We have a missionary visiting with us. This is Brother Adam, and he's a missionary. We'll be sharing his burden on May the 5th, so a week from today. Now this is what I hope everyone can get involved in one way or another. We have our Green Springs Blitz. So we're going to be giving the gospel to the metropolis of Green Springs. Now it's May the 5th, starting at 10 a.m. So sign up at the Welcome Center, only because we're providing lunch and we want to know how many is going to be here. And the church will provide the lunch after the Blitz. Now this is how I want everybody, and pastor wants everyone to be involved. We would love for you to come on out. Now you might say, David, I work on Saturday. I can't be here. Then pray about maybe picking up a map ahead of time. You might say, David, I can't walk like I used to. I physically cannot do it. Then maybe you could show up at the gym a little early, and you could just pray for us that are going to go out. Wouldn't that be great? So that might be something where everyone can be involved in. Or you might say, David, I want to do more. Get a hold of pastor and say, maybe I can't be here. I have to work. I'm out of town, and I can't walk like I used to. Pastor, what else can I do to be involved? Giving the gospel is just an awesome opportunity. And remember, we're just hanging door hangers. So you don't necessarily have to talk to folks. Some of you may not be comfortable with that. But if you do talk to someone, it's super easy. Are you ready? Okay, take notes if you have to. You simply say, I would like to give you something good to read. That's it. Or, if you're really feeling crazy, you can do it with your offhand. So I'm right-handed. If I'm really feeling spunky, I'll hand it left-handed, just to change it up. So it's super easy to do. If they're not home, just hang it on the door. You can also tell them, I'm praying for you. So once again, we'd like to see everybody involved in this. And pastors put out a challenge that maybe once a month you can go out, whatever that looks like. So it's a lot of fun. And honestly, every time I go, now I get butterflies. How many of you get butterflies going door to door? I do, I get butterflies. I've been going almost my whole life. I still get butterflies. But every time I'm done, A, I'm always glad that I go. And B, I'm always glad that I'm giving out the gospel. Every time. Every time. So just pray about that if you would. And just a moment, I'm going to ask Brother Toto to come on up. He's going to give us our mission spotlight. And then we'll have a time of prayer for the offering. Be prepared now to maybe talk about what a prayer request you may have. And we'll take time to do that in just a moment. Brother Toto, if you would, our mission's update. Yes, sir. Amen. All right. I would just like to thank the church here for your faithful support. your prayers these many years that you supported our family and we appreciate that and we'll be entering our 25th year of being on the mission field next month and it doesn't seem possible we certainly thank the Lord for that you'll turn to the next slide there all right this is our church there in England the LifeGate Baptist Church and we thank the Lord for Blessing where we lease this building and we've just and we're just in the process of Renewing our lease for another 10 years and so we thank the Lord for that and we're looking forward pray for us We're on we're still in lockdown over there, and so we're hoping in June that will be out in the middle of June We're hoping June 21st. We'll be out of lockdown with hopefully and so do be praying about that show another slide there and This is pre-COVID. This is pre-COVID. We be our church and we thank the Lord that we have around somewhere around eight different countries represented all around the world. that come to LifeGate, and we thank the Lord for that. And we're hoping that Lord will add a lot more people to our church in the coming days. And we really have a burden to see our American military build up again. We have one family that's been coming off and on for about an hour and a half away. They drive to come to church. They don't come regularly because of special COVID conditions. They're not allowed to leave their county at the minute. No one's allowed to leave your county. at the minute because of all the regulations, but we're hoping when things start opening up that maybe they'll get more regular here. All right, our other slide here. This is COVID now. We have to wear a mask to go to church. We're not allowed to sing. We're allowed to hum the hymns, and we have to social distance. So a lot of regulations on us. and so you pray has been very difficult all but thank the lord even though through covid all we just been faithful to the lord of One of our men been witnessing to him and he got saved and we thank the Lord what God's doing in his life and he wants to get, he's not able, this young convert's not able to come to church right now because he lives out of town and we're not even allowed to pick people up to bring them. It's against the law to pick someone up to ride in your car. It's against the law for someone to come into your house. And so we have a lot of regulations that are hindering us. But we're just trying to be faithful during these difficult times just to go forward. And he's been excited about getting back in church. So just be praying for these folks there, especially the folks out of town. They're not even able to come. And we have other people in the church that are shielding at home. They're till they feel more comfortable coming out. So we only have about half of our church at the minute. They'll be praying for us. But thank the Lord we do have our own church building. Many missionaries haven't, I know a missionary right now in Scotland has not had a physical church service for a year because they don't own their own building. And so we thank the Lord for the building God's blessed us with. All right, well let's show what other slide here. This is Brother Paul, Brother Paul Randall. He's one of our men in our church, one of our preachers in our church, and he's been doing all the preaching while I'm gone, and you pray for him. He needs your prayers. He's having some heart problems, and so pray that we can be able to, he'll be able to get that sorted with maybe some medicine without having to have any type of surgery, because he's my right-hand man, and he's a real blessing. Or another slide here. This is one of our tracks. There is hope. And we're going to be giving that all through our area and our community this summer, Lord willing. And so we're just waiting for all the conditions to be lifted. Because at the minute, we're not even allowed to go soul winning. We're not allowed to give out tracks. So many regulations. And so we're just, we're getting everything printed and ready so we're able to go and you pray for that. I believe in power of prayer and we, you know, we can give all the tracts out in the world but without the power of God behind us to no avail. And so we're trusting God's going to bless. And then our last slide here, this is our New Testament. BMI, Mission Board down in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They contacted me, and I'm not one of their missionaries, but I'm very good friends of Dr. James Ray. He's been a dear friend of ours through the years, and Dr. Ray called me, and he said, I'd like to send you some New Testaments. We're trying to evangelize Europe this summer, and he said, we would like you to be a part of it, even though you're not part of our mission board. I thought that was very nice, and they're going to be sending 10,000 and we're going to be giving out all of these new testaments and that's the cover that's going to be on their view of those are scenes from our area and I ever is gonna receive a gospel literature, Lord willing, hopefully by Christmas time we'll have that done, and so you pray for us, the Bibles are already being, they're getting ready to be printed, and they'll be shipping those over here, and so we can have them, and hopefully we'll have them by the time all the restrictions are lifted, and so you pray for us, and Lord willing, we'll be going back on June the 3rd, possibly a week later maybe, but we're shooting for June the 3rd, and so you pray for us, Lord, help us get back in the ministry and looking for what God's going to do this 25th year for the glory of God. Wasn't that a blessing, church? Appreciate the Tooley family and their faithfulness over all these years. Praise God for that. Excuse me if I do some radio business. Mr. Utley, would you help Ryan? Apparently the video is not working at harvest time. and we know how to fix that. There's always radio issues, there's always something. Praise the Lord, amen. Speaking of praising the Lord, thank you for your tenderness to the radio meeting, and we need that generator, because when I got up Monday morning, how many of you had lost power in Clyde? So I almost missed the program, because my alarm didn't go off. And I rode over, and I saw that blinking light. You ever have that feeling you're laying in it? Boy, I feel kind of refreshed. I thought, I shouldn't feel refreshed, because I got all this extra hour of sleep. So we'll just have to now work out. Once we get the generator at the radio station, we'll work out a generator at my house, right? Just kidding. Little joke there. We're going to go ahead and just take a pause a moment that we normally would have our offering. And I'll have Mr. Brown pray for that in just a moment. While they're playing the offertory, I challenge you just to thank the Lord for what He's done in your life financially, and give Him praise. Honestly, it's all His anyways, and He's asked us to be a steward of it. So as we're praying for the offering, just take a moment to think about what God has done for you. Mr. Brown, would you pray for the offering, please? Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to be able to give to You. What a privilege it is to be able to serve You, Heavenly Father. and what a privilege it is to know you and look forward to our eternal home with you in heaven. We thank you so much Heavenly Father for this church and what you've done with it. We thank you for all the folks who are so faithful in their tithes and their offerings and all the other things that we're all involved in. We love you so much and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. so Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate our orchestra very much, and it's growing. I appreciate their thankfulness and all that they do. We're going to be dismissed, orchestra and those on the platform. Mr. Brown, if you could go ahead and get a mic, and then maybe Gideon, that's not Gideon, that's Job. Looks like Gideon. Gideon's right behind him. Gideon, if you can grab a microphone, too, on the other side, and we'll take prayer requests here in just a moment. It's Job, right? I looked at you, I thought, look, just like Gideon. I have my glasses on, I promise. If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to read any of this up here. Pastor Holmes has specifically asked us, as we take prayer requests, to think of and remember Lynn Heiser. She is home from the hospital, but she's having difficulties with, she has a lot of blood clots right now. And I spoke with her on the phone last night, he spoke with her today. and she's just been having a lot of pain and complications. So if we could pray for Lynn Heiser, please. He spoke with Pastor Mott, and Pastor Mott is looking at having a hernia surgery in the month of May. So I'd appreciate if you'd pray for Pastor Wayne Mott, if you would. You may or may not know, but Theodosa Heisman lost her mama. I believe it was Monday morning that she passed away. Was it yes, Tuesday? Excuse me, it's Tuesday, that's correct. So she did pass away, thank you, Kathy. So if you would go ahead and pray for that situation. The funeral will be Monday at 11 o'clock. Visitation is Sunday, two to eight. And it is at the Heyman, Chesinski, and Keller Funeral Home in Fremont, which is on Arch Street. So once again, the visitation is Sunday, two to eight, and the funeral will be 11 o'clock at that funeral home, which is, I believe it's pronounced Heyman, Chesinski, and Keller. It's located at 416 South Arch Street in Fremont. If you could pray for that too. I mentioned Cecil Thayer. He's a great man of God. He's pretty banged up in the hospital. Some of you may have saw the prayer requests that come across the chain today. So Cecil Thayer, Pastor Cecil Thayer, if you could pray for him. Mrs. Wiesner. One of our Facebook people that watch on Facebook, his name is Randy Brockama. He lives up in Canada. He's just asking that we keep him in prayer. He doesn't give any specifics, but just to keep him there in prayer. What was the first name again? His name is Randy Brockama. Thank you. And then Kay Bryant is also asking for prayer. She's having trouble with her stomach. and my mom did reschedule her surgery and she's planning on that middle of May. So Mrs. Mammon is gonna have surgery the middle of May, sis? May 18th. May 18th. We'll be praying for her and pray that it goes well and that she's able to get back on the organ and back have her here with us. Other requests, Mr. Brown. Yes, Brenda. I went to the doctor today to have my leg checked out, and he was happy, happy, happy for me. And I'm going to get to change my brace. Yeah, that's a big thing. So into a nice plastic one I had, and I should be able to walk on it more. I should be able to walk. So if anybody wants to walk with me, say, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he said, I'm doing OK, except for I got to do that. But he said, OK, OK, OK, OK. Brenda, that's wonderful news. Your leg is doing so much better. And hopefully, it will be fitted with another brace. If you can run around the house, we're all for it, sis. That'd be great. All right, take a lap in church. Well, however the Lord leads you. Brother Frank. If you would, I had shared this with Nancy, and she put it on the prayer request. Family, we all grew up in the same neighborhood. Her name is Regina. And I'll be honest, I can't remember. That family had so many kids, I can't remember what order. She's around my age, though. She had COVID, was in the hospital. They said the COVID is gone. However, they still had to have her on life support. They took the life support off. Her body's just not responding to healing. So her mom called me today, asked if we'd have the church to pray. Also, Regina, her dad, mom and dad were divorced, but the mom asked for prayer. He's in another hospital dying. He's facing the end of life possibly anytime. So if you'd remember Regina and then also her dad, and it's terrible. You know how it is growing up. I know his name's Mr. Brown. I don't know what his first name is. I don't remember anymore. So I know the family would truly appreciate it. And of course for Betty, the mom, this would be the second child she's lost. So difficult. So we're gonna pray for Regina. Just pray, Frank, that her body responds to the medicine and treatment. So she's over the COVID, but for whatever reason, her body's just not responding now. So we'll pray for that family and for Dad Brown, end of life, and the family as well. Someone else, Jean. Yes, last night I was talking to a gentleman. I'm not going to mention his name at this time, but anyways, he has lung cancer and he was taking treatments and then he had something else wrong. I don't remember what it was. They had to stop the treatments. I would like to have prayer for him. So what does pray for your friend that he needs a physical touch? Mr. Brown, who do we got here? I don't know who's got the mic. Oh, I'm sorry. Edgar, go ahead, my brother. Thank you, brother. Yeah, the reason I want to say something is because my sister, Carmen, her daughter, Alicia, she had a little girl this past Monday. And for some reason, she was having problems with that baby right now. They had to take her to Columbus. Oh, goodness. So they said something about that. might have like blood clots up by the brain or I guess or something they said, you know. So we just keep our prayers in after that poor baby. Baby girl, I can't think of her name, but. So that's your sister's daughter's daughter. Right. My sister's daughter, daughter, right. Bless her heart. I'm telling you, I don't think there's anything worse than a little baby going through issues. That's very difficult. We'll be praying, Edgar. Lord touch her. Anybody else? Mrs. Skaggs. I'd like to ask you if you could remember to keep praying for Angela. Um, last month she had that internal radiation surgery and a complication was from that was that there was an abscess. They said they would do a surgery, but it was very risky. So they decided to drain, put a tube in and drain that abscess. That's still in her and they're still doing that, but she also had to go down and put a, they put a hose down through her nose because she's having some bowel issue now. They don't know if it's blockage in her bowel, her small intestine. They're not sure. And a doctor, a team of doctors are coming into Cleveland tomorrow. Well, they're in Cleveland, but they're coming to see her tomorrow to see if they can figure out what the next step is. And they said, They really don't want to do any kind of that kind of surgery. That's even riskier than the other ones. So she just really needs prayer. And she's at the Cleveland Clinic? She's in university. University. Pray for Angela. And of course, we're still planning for the Skaggs family as well. Bless your heart. Anybody else? If I'm missing someone, just point them out. I don't want to miss anybody tonight. Mrs. Tooley. I mentioned a few weeks ago about a missionary kid in Scotland who's supposed to have a kidney transplant and another missionaries being a live donor, and that's supposed to take place tomorrow. So if you just keep the Brinkley and Gossmeier family in your prayers, please. Could you give me that last name again? Brinkley is the one receiving and Gossmeier is the one getting. Brinkley and Gossmeier. Between the English accent and the southern accent, I was struggling a bit, so. Also, how about we pray for the Tooley family tonight? As a minister of the gospel, it is so frustrating when you want to get the word out and you can't. So just pray that God ends COVID, I pray almost every day, Lord, we don't deserve your mercy, but would you give it to us so that we can get back into the nursing homes, so we can get back into the jails, so we can get back out talking to people and ministering the gospel, because the only hope for the world is Jesus Christ. So just pray that with Brother Toley, too, be able to give the gospel out to people. And I've found people to be even more open now to the gospel and willing to talk. Several weeks ago, my wife and I were at door to door. If someone's there, we'll talk to them. And long story short, the guy said he was an atheist and he was a Satanist. And I talked to him for probably 30 minutes and just had an open and candid conversation with him. But you know, the good news is at the end, this is crazy, he took the gospel track. So you just never know, you just never know. You never know what God can do. So pray for that. He told me his name, but I don't think that was his real name, but that's okay. Anybody else is at it? Okay, Mrs. Wiesner, if you would play music for us, and we'll go ahead and take time, gather together if you feel comfortable, or pray there at your seat, and then we'll close as we pray together for these requests. you you you I urge you to continue to pray as I'm praying. Please do not stop. Feel free to keep praying. Lord, we're so thankful for the opportunity to gather tonight as a church. It's so precious to hear your people praying. God, I think of the many prayer requests that were given. Some folks we know, some we don't. I pray for the dear listeners Randy in Canada, for Kay, that you would touch and meet these needs. I pray on behalf of Mrs. Mann and her surgery coming up on May 18th. God, what a sweet lady who loves you. I pray that the surgery would be successful. We're thanking the Lord that Brenda's doing better with her leg, Lord, be it the situation with the brace. I think of Frank Wiesner's friend, Regina. Lord, we're asking that her body would respond to the medications, Lord. For her daddy, Lord, it looks like end of life is coming. I pray for his spiritual well-being, Lord. Be with Betty. Lord, I pray for Jean's friend who needs a physical touch. You know the need, Lord. I pray for Edgar's sister's granddaughter that is going to be having some procedures done, Lord. It's so difficult to hear of a little one suffering. I pray that you'd work a miracle. God, be with the Skaggs family. Touch them, give them peace and comfort and help and hope, Lord. Be with Angela. Lord, it seems like there's so much going on, but you are the great physician, and we pray, we beg, we ask that you would work and meet that need. Lord, I think of Lynn Heiser tonight. Touch her physical body, Lord. Help it to respond to the treatments. Let them know exactly what's happening. I pray that the blood clots would go away, that she would be back with us soon, Lord. We're asking for a miracle. I think of our dear missionary friends in Scotland with the kidney transfer, that everything would go smoothly. I think of Ronnie Messer's son, Steve. Lord, he needs a touch. He desperately needs your help. Lord, it looks like things just continue to be so difficult, but God, please, we're begging of you that you would touch Steve tonight. I think of Theodosia and her family, the loss of her mama. Lord, I pray that you would touch Theodosia, touch her, her family, all involved. Be with those that are gonna be doing the funeral. Lord, as they give the gospel, that people would respond, their lives would be touched, souls changed. I think of Pastor Thayer. Help him, Lord. He's a minister of the gospel. He loves you. He's given his life for you. I pray that you would touch his physical body, Lord. Give him strength. Lord, I know that there are other requests given. Lord, you know what they are. They're all important to you. We thank you and praise you. In closing, touch the Tooley family. Lord, I pray that the restrictions would be lifted in England so that they could get back to doing the things they want to do, getting the gospel out, that they might go to pick up people for church, that folks might be able to come, that as they go back out and give the gospel, the life-changing gospel, that people would be prepared to receive it. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' precious name, amen. Thank you, church, for praying. We have such a wonderful church. Just keep that sweetness going, beloved. Keep being sweet to one another. Keep loving on one another. Keep praying for one another. That's the way it really should be. Let's go ahead and stand together. We'll go ahead and stretch just a moment. Just a moment where the Jerry Bowling's gonna preach to us. But we're gonna do a spiritual exercise here, okay? Are you ready? Some of you, this is the most exercise you've done all day, so this'll be good. Go ahead and look at your neighbor and say, good evening, neighbor. Just a moment ago, we asked if you were ready to receive a blessing. Some of you aren't talking. Let's try this again. Are you ready to receive a blessing? That's it. A voice and everything. I was going to say, donate to the radio, but that wouldn't be very Christ-like. You know, beloved, open up your heart and your mind, and be prepared to be blessed. For Brother Jeremy Boulding preaching us tonight. Brother Boulding, come preach to us. You may be seated. God bless you, my brother. Death of me. Exodus chapter 40 in your Bibles. Exodus chapter 40. Somebody saw the title of my message and said, could you pick a drier passage? And I thought to myself, don't challenge me, because I probably could. Exodus chapter 40 in your Bibles. I began writing this message and I originally intended it to be a one night message and about a page and a half of an outline for me is about a 30 to 35 minute sermon. And by the time I got through point two, it was three pages long. And so I texted my wife and I said, I said, honey, this thing's getting a little out of control and I can't rein it in. She said, well, maybe you need to split it into a series. I said, yeah, that's really probably the only way that it's going to happen. So we're going to get part one of a four-part series on studying the tabernacle blueprints. Exodus chapters 25 through 40 really is the blueprints for the tabernacle. Outside of a couple of things that happen right in the middle of it, it's I'm not exaggerating when I say it's God giving the plan for several chapters of exactly how it's supposed to be built, some events that happen, and then the rest of the book is them following through on the plans. That's 15 chapters of the book of Exodus. And it is, again, it is a dry passage. But, you know, we read in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. But the truth is there are a number of passages that we read and we go, I understand that 2 Timothy 3.16 is true, so where's the prophet in this? I'll give you an example. Genesis chapter 5. And such and such begat such and such, and such and such begat such and such, and such and such begat such and such. And I'm not even going to try to pronounce names. Where do I find the prophet in that? Well, the truth is a big part of that has historical significance, you know, proving who came from where and where they went, but the other part is it just shows that God's faithful to his promise. I mean, that's a big part of it. Can you draw deep spiritual truths that are gonna help you throughout your everyday life? You're gonna struggle, but the truth is you can see God in those passages. You can see who he is, you can see what he was doing, you can see that he's faithful to it. And so, even though this seems like we're just walking through the blueprints of a building, There's significant spiritual truth that's found here. And tonight we're going to look at part one. Part one. So let's all stand for the reading of God's word. Exodus chapter 40 verses 34 through 38. Now I understand that this is the end and not the beginning. Okay. The truth is, if you tried to exposit Exodus 25 through 40, it would be extremely difficult. But what we can do is kind of survey the whole thing. And that's what we're going to do over the next, you know, for however many messages it actually ends up taking me. So we're actually going to start at the end because it kind of sums the whole thing up. Exodus chapter 40 beginning in verse 34. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. for the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you for this opportunity to open your word. I thank you for this time in the middle of the week to Set the cares of the week aside and truly focus on your word and what it has for us. Lord, I pray that this would be a time of recharging, a time to prep us and a time to prepare us to live out the rest of this week for you. Lord, I pray that you would work in hearts. I pray that your Holy Spirit would have the free reign to do what needs to be done in each individual heart here tonight. Lord, bless this message, bless your people, and Lord, I just pray that we would all leave here closer to you for it. We ask this all in your precious name, amen. You can be seated. Studying the Tabernacle Blueprints, part one. Here's the central truth we're gonna cover tonight. We're gonna break it down a little bit. We're gonna get into a little bit more depth. Here's the central truth we're covering tonight. As we study the Tabernacle Blueprints, we learn that God wants to dwell with his people. Again, we'll get into some depth, but if you get nothing else out of tonight, I want you to get this truth. God wants to dwell with his people. Now you have to understand that the tabernacle was meant to be the dwelling place of God. Now before we get any further, I want you to understand, God doesn't need a dwelling place. Okay? God is omnipresent. He is everywhere all at once, and if you ask me how that works, I got nothing for you. Sorry. So God doesn't need a dwelling place. The entire earth is his dwelling place, okay? All of the universe, the whole of creation is his dwelling place. God doesn't need a dwelling place and God can't be confined to a little dwelling place, okay? But the tabernacle was meant to be a dwelling place for God in the midst of the nation of Israel. want you to understand that God wanted to be with his creation. If you go back with me in your minds to the book of Genesis, go back to chapters, probably chapters one and two, but we see it very clearly in chapter three. We have the indication that in the cool of the day, God came down and just spent time with Adam and Eve. I mean, Literally they just kind of walked through the Garden of Eden together. Now I don't know if you can imagine that, but that's pretty impressive. That Adam and Eve are, they just got to walk with God on an everyday basis. But what that tells us is that when God made man, When he made man, his goal was to be with man, was to spend time with his creation. That was the idea, that was the purpose, that was the goal. He wanted to be with his creation. Now, we said Adam and Eve got to walk with God in the cool of the evening, but that was all pre-sin. You see, then that day came, and the serpent tempted Eve, and Eve gave to her husband, and he ate with her. And then when God came down, as he did all of the other times before, they hid themselves. They sewed themselves clothings of leaves, and they hid themselves. God comes to them and essentially discovers that, hey, they've sinned. Now, I say discovered. God knew full well, but they finally fessed up to the fact that they sinned. That sin broke the relationship or the fellowship between man and God. From the time of Adam and Eve's sin to the time of Jesus Christ, the only way man could approach God was with a sacrifice. And even then, the ultimate sacrifice, the Holy of Holies, where the glory of God dwelt in the tabernacle and later in the temple, that most holy place could only be accessed one time a year by one person after he made sacrifice for himself. And so we understand that God meant to be with his creation, to have a relationship with mankind. The tabernacle shows us that that was God's goal. The tabernacle was a means by which God could spend time with man. Now we understand that again the bulls and the goats and the sheep and the lambs and all of those sacrifices were made but they all pointed to an ultimate time with Jesus. God himself took on human flesh, came to this earth, was born as a baby, lived for 33 years, did absolutely nothing wrong. Man, if I can live for 30 minutes without doing something wrong, that's a good day. Jesus Christ came to this earth and lived 33 years without ever doing anything wrong. And he was tried by men for crimes which he didn't commit. And he hung on a cross to serve a punishment that he didn't deserve. When Jesus hung on that cross, he hung there to pay the penalty for my sin. He hung there to pay the penalty for your sin. As grotesque as that story can get, and by the way, if you ever read a physical description of what happened at the crucifixion, it is jarring. It's very uncomfortable. From a medical perspective, what he went through is, it'll really shake you. But all of that he did, he did so that man could again have a relationship with God. If you take your Bibles and flip over with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We are going to be all over the place tonight. I'm just going to warn you. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 18 and 19 say this. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now there's a word that popped up there multiple times and I hope you caught it. It's that word reconcile. The idea of the word reconcile is simply to bring two parties together. So according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 18 and 19, what we know is that Jesus Christ came to earth to reconcile man to God. Jesus Christ came to earth so that we could have a relationship with God. And by the way, the relationship that God had always intended for man to have. I've said this before, I'll say it again. Heaven and all of the perks that we think of with salvation are great. Do not get me wrong. But the ultimate purpose of salvation was that man could have a relationship with God again. So that we could, or so that God could, or we could dwell with God. Now I'm not talking about eternal life, I'm talking about here and now. Right now, you can have a relationship with God, and the only way you can do that is because Christ went through what he went through so that he could reconcile you to God. There is no other way. None. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Zero. None. When Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me, he wasn't hedging his bets there. He wasn't given some good ideas here. He wasn't given one of the many options. He wasn't giving the best option. He was giving the only option. The only way you can have a relationship with God tonight is through the work of Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and your faith placed in that. So as we look at the tabernacle, we see that man, the tabernacle illustrates to us that we were meant to dwell with God. Now I'm gonna stop here for just a second and just say this, because I'm gonna say it again in a little while, but you'll get it twice. If you're here tonight and you do not have a relationship with God, it is literally the most important decision that you can ever make. And if you choose to ignore it or you choose not to accept it, I'm going to be totally honest with you and say that it is the absolute worst decision you could make. Not talking even about heaven and hell, but the truth is you were put on this earth to have a relationship with God. And you're missing your purpose if you aren't accepting him as your personal savior. And so as we look at the blueprints for the tabernacle, we see that the tabernacle was meant to be a dwelling for God. We also see that God wanted Israel to know that he was with them. Again, Exodus chapter 40 in verses 34 and 35 says this. I took my post-it note out. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter into the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Hey, the cloud that covered the tabernacle was meant to be a very public way for Israel to know that God was with them. Imagine with me a giant pillar of cloud in the sky during the day and fire by night. You can't really miss it. I mean, I can't drive down the road without noticing the blinking lights, you know, when a police car has somebody pulled over on the side of the road. Listen, I admit it. I have gawker tendencies. If I can notice those flashing lights, can you imagine a giant pillar going from the sky to the ground? You can't miss it. And that cloud was there, and it says that that cloud is essentially the glory of the Lord resting upon the tabernacle. The cloud showed Israel that God was with them. Can I tell you something? God is always with us. You know, even ignoring the whole omniscience or the omnipresence of God and the fact that he is everywhere all at once at the same time, again don't ask me, I can't explain it, over and over again in the New Testament he tells us that he's with us. Matthew chapter 28 and verse 20 says, Jesus says to his disciples just before ascending into heaven, Now when God uses words like all way, Again, he's not speaking in a general sense. He's speaking very specifically. Anytime you see that all or that it's not meant to be a, oh, well, you can consider that most of the time. It's meant at all times, all way. Okay, if that doesn't convince you, Hebrews chapter 13, verses five and six says, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Verse six, did we get it? So that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Hey, when he says things like, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's a promise you can hang your hat on. John chapter 14 verses 16 and 17 say, and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. So let's take all of those three verses together and process them very quickly. We see that Jesus promised that he was with us always. We see that he was never going to leave us or forsake us. And then we see that he is going to put his Holy Spirit inside of us and the Holy Spirit is going to live inside of us. There's a really interesting thing when we talk about the Holy Spirit and I'm moving fast, I promise. There's a really interesting thing when we look at the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament would come upon people and then leave people. The idea simply being that he came upon them to enable them for whatever God had for them to do and then when that was done, He departed. So you get somebody like David, and David says things like, take not thine Holy Spirit from me. The idea was that God's Holy Spirit was with David constantly, but David was completely aware of the fact that he could be taken away at any time. When we get to the New Testament, that changes. Because we are now indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Meaning, he takes up residence inside you. And he's not bouncing from house to house. He's not constantly looking for the upgrade. He is dwelling in you. In fact, God goes so far as to say that that Holy Spirit is what we are sealed with. Meaning essentially locked up tight. But it also gives us the timeframe. It gives us how long we're sealed with that Holy Spirit. It says we are sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. Meaning I've got the Holy Spirit living literally inside of me until I die and meet God. Now at that point I'm literally, physically, spiritually dwelling with God, so I don't need the Holy Spirit living inside of me at that point. But for every minute post-salvation that you are on this earth, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you. Psalm 46 in verse 1. I love this verse. This verse has gotten me through a lot of rough times. Psalm 46 one says, God is my refuge and strength and ever present help in time of trouble. Now, I will be honest, ever present in my mind, and I'm not getting back into the Hebrew on this one, but ever present in my mind has that same equivalency as always. Can I tell you that every single person who matters to you could turn against you. Every friend could move away. Every friend could leave. Your family could abandon you. Every single person that you care about could be gone and God would not leave. Now, I don't know about you. And I'm not a jumper, and I'm not a screamer. I like to think of myself as a pretty mellow guy. But inside, that turns me bad to costal. I mean, the fact that regardless of what happens, I've always got someone on my side. And by the way, that is illustrated by the fact that God dropped that pillar of cloud and that pillar of fire over that tabernacle. And every time that some child of Israel looked at that tabernacle and saw that cloud or saw that fire, they knew that God was with them. And can we point out that they needed it? Remember the spot that Israel's in right here. They've been freed as slaves in a remarkable way. They've seen the Red Sea opened up for them and walked through on dry land and saw the entire army of Egypt destroyed in the Red Sea. They've been given manna until they were sick of it. They've been given meat when they wanted it. They've always had water. But the thing they didn't have was any security. They're nomads. They're wandering around. They've got no home. They've honestly, like, we understand them to be the nation of Israel and we understand the history because we can study Genesis 1 through 50 and really into Exodus through chapter 20 or so. Like, we can study that and we understand they have a history, but honestly, they don't have much of a nationality at this point. It's a giant family that's grown out of control. I mean, that's really what we're looking at. But the one thing they could count on was that the God who brought him out of Egypt and the God who's provided for them every step of the way, every time they looked at that pillar of cloud or that pillar of fire, they knew he was with them. Now, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but you would think that that would carry on generation after generation and that they'd get it and they didn't, but let's be honest, neither would we. I mean, we'd mess up like the nation of Israel did, and they whined, and they complained, and they didn't have faith in God, and they made mistakes, and they sinned, and they turned against Him, and they worshiped idols. That's like the 32nd history of Israel. But they, every time, at least for this time, every time that pillar of cloud and that pillar of fire was seen, they knew that the God who brought them out and had provided for them was right there with them. So the blueprints for the tabernacle show us that God wanted to dwell with man. The blueprints for the tabernacle show us that God wanted Israel to know that he was with them, and it reminds us that God's with us. And then finally, God wanted to direct Israel in the way that they should go. Again in Exodus chapter 40, verses 36 through 38, it says this, God was working, God was planning, for the nation of Israel without them even realizing it. Essentially what we've got here as we read in the last three verses of the book of Exodus is that every time that cloud lifted from off the tabernacle, the nation of Israel's responsibility was to bundle up that tabernacle in the way that it was supposed to be and then to travel to follow that cloud. And when that cloud stopped, they unpacked the tabernacle and they put it all down. And they would camp there. They had no clue how long. But they would camp there until that pillar of cloud started moving again. And then they'd pack it all up again and put it on their shoulders and start walking. And they'd just follow that pillar of cloud. And then it'd stop again. And when it stopped, they set up camp. Don't know for how long. Don't know when they were going to move. Don't know how far they were going to go. Didn't know how many days they were going to be traveling. But they knew that when that cloud moves, we move. When that cloud stops, we stop. Israel's responsibility was to simply obey. My dad taught me simple obedience. It's a lesson that got ingrained in my mind, though it didn't always play out in my life. Be completely honest with you. Simple obedience, doing what you're told when you're told with a good attitude. That'll sum it up for you. You don't have to understand. It doesn't have to make sense. You don't have to like it. You just have to obey it. I didn't like that. Yeah, all the parents in here are laughing, the kids aren't. Just pointing out to you. I didn't like that until I became a parent. And then I remember looking at my daughter one day going, you just need to obey. Obedience is doing what you're told, when you're told, with a good attitude. And I went, oh my goodness, what did I just do? I just became my dad. It was a very terrifying moment for me. Now, listen, parents, we get this concept of simple obedience, don't we? Because I see a bigger picture than my kid does. I understand inner workings and social interactions and environments. And I understand the weather better than they do. And I understand, look, for the most part, I know better than my kids. And there are going to be times that they're going to ask why. And I'm going to give them a reason. But there are gonna be times that I don't need you to ask me for a reason. I don't need you to understand. I just need you to obey. Hey, parents, we get that, don't we? So why don't we practice it with God? I mean, can we admit, I mean, look, let's just get honest with each other. Can we admit that sometimes we don't understand what God's trying to do? I don't. It really doesn't matter why God has things set up the way he does. What matters is my obedience to what he tells me to do. You know, 2 Corinthians 5, and I didn't give him this verse on purpose, 2 Corinthians 5 reminds us that we walk by faith, not by sight. But the author of Hebrews goes a little bit further. He says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, That means, in order to have faith, there are going to be things that you don't see. But he also goes a step further when he writes in verse 6, but without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hey, faith requires not always understanding and you cannot please God without faith. As if we couldn't understand it, God has the author of Hebrews write it this way, it is impossible. We are completely incapable of pleasing God outside of faith. You say, wait a minute, but I do everything that God wants me to do when I get it. The minute you added when I get it, It stopped being faith. Listen, I do not understand always what God is doing. Did you know God knew that? He knew that we wouldn't always understand. Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8, 9 and 10 say, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down and snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. You know what that tells me? That as I observe things and they don't make sense to me, that God's a whole lot bigger, stronger, and smarter than I am. And his plan is a whole lot better than anything I try to work out on my own. You see, all God wanted from the nation of Israel was faith that resulted in obedience. And all he wants from you and me today is faith that results in obedience. Listen, God has a plan for you. I know that with absolute certainty. Do you want to know how I know that? Because if he didn't and you're saved, you wouldn't be here. So if you're here and you just took a breath, God's got a reason for you being on this earth. So let him lead. I enjoy deeply intellectual pursuits. I like making my head hurt with facts. It's a little sadistic, but it is what it is. God operates outside of the realm of time. We as mankind are bound by time and space, meaning I cannot be here and I cannot be home in my bed at the same time. Maybe a little better. I cannot be eating wings at one place and a burger at another place at the same time. as really cool as that would be. But I can't do it. Sorry, I have fat kid tendencies. I can't do it. I'm bound by space. Do you know I'm bound by time? I don't actually know what's going to happen in 10 minutes. I don't know what's going to happen 10 years down the road. Goodness, I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow morning. I mean, we are bound in our knowledge and our ability by time, but God's not. And so he has seen, and again, if you want a headache, wrap your mind around this one. He has seen the beginning of time and the end of time all at the same time. So like, he knew you before you were born and knew exactly how your life was going to play out, knows the date of your death, and he's known that since he started this whole world. Now again, you want a headache, wrap your, think about that one for a while. But if I have a God, who can see the entire course of time in one moment, why would I trust myself to direct my own paths instead of Him? Solomon writes it in Proverbs this way, Who are you going to let direct your path? You see, the nation of Israel was meant to be following exactly what God wanted them to do. Get up and go when God tells you to go, stop when God tells you to stop. Eat what he tells you to eat, don't eat what he tells you not to eat. Drink what he tells you to drink, don't drink what you're not supposed to. Faith resulting in obedience will result in them accomplishing God's purpose for them. And that exact same expectation is placed upon us today. So you see, even in looking at five verses at the end of the blueprints of the tabernacle, we get a very, very clear picture of a very important truth that has implications throughout all of scripture, that God wants to dwell with mankind. If you were to look at blueprints for a building, as you look at them, you can tell things about the architect. You can tell things about the person who designed that. In fact, if you were to study architecture, you would find that as you looked through different architects' blueprints, you would notice subtleties and notice commonalities that become characteristic of that architect. But not only do we see stuff about the architect, as we follow through on the building and we look at how it was built and why it was built, we discover stuff about the people who own it, the people who built it. So as we study the blueprints for the tabernacle, we find that we learn a whole lot about God, about who he is. By the way, that's part four. We find out we learn a lot about his workers. That's, I think, part two. But we also learn a whole lot about what he expects for us. Listen, I would be remiss not to say this. The entire point of this message is that God wants a relationship with you. That's the entire point. If you're here and you've never accepted Christ as your personal Savior, again, I told you I'd say it again in a little while, if you're here and you've never accepted Christ as your personal Savior, I want you to understand, it's the single most important decision that you'll ever make. The ramifications go far past your life on this earth into all of eternity. And the truth of the matter is, that's step one. establishing the relationship is step one. Before you can understand what's expected of you in that relationship, before you can follow through on obedience, step one is establishing the relationship. Listen, God says every single person in this world is a sinner. Myself included. We've all chosen to break God's law. Every one of us. And God says that the payment for that is death. But Jesus Christ came to this earth to reconcile us to God, to pay the penalty for that sin so that we could have the relationship with God that he always meant for us to have. If you're here and you've never accepted Christ as your personal Savior, I encourage you to make that decision tonight. But you know, this isn't just a salvation message. Because when you, Christian, when you think about all that God has done, all that God expects, it forces us, it begs us to ask the question, how am I holding up my end? Do I want to dwell with God? Do I want God to dwell with me? Does he have full ownership of me or is he paying rental, it seems? Am I practicing faith as evidenced by simple obedience? Am I letting him direct my steps? We're going to have a hymn of invitation in just a second, and if we can all stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Everybody standing, heads bowed, eyes closed, nobody looking around. If you're here and you've never accepted Christ as your personal Savior, again, most important decision that you'll ever make, I encourage you to get my attention, get the attention of somebody you saw on stage, get the attention of somebody who you're comfortable with, and make certain that you know with 100% certainty that you're a child of God, that you have a relationship with God tonight. And Christian, maybe there are some things that you need to get right. Maybe there are some areas in your life that God doesn't have control, that you're not letting him direct. Maybe the faith isn't there that you're willing to obey when you get it, but when you don't, there's no way. Maybe the obedience isn't there. Maybe that's something that you need to make right with God tonight. However the Holy Spirit leads in your heart, I encourage you to make a decision appropriate to that. Father, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for the opportunity to open it. I thank you for the time that we can talk about what it teaches us. Lord, I do thank you for the illustrations you've given us through the tabernacle. Lord, that you want a relationship with us. And Father, if there is one here who's never accepted you as their personal Savior, I I ask that your Holy Spirit would prick their heart even now. Show them their desperate need of you. And Lord, for the Christian, I do pray that you would draw us closer to you. Lord, help us to please you. Help us to obey you. And Lord, I pray that you'd help us to confess those areas and times that we don't. Bless in this invitation as only you can. We ask this all in your precious name. Amen. Mm. As they're playing that verse through again, think about it, beloved, are you reconciled with God? Do you have that relationship with Him? Have you really thought about how awesome God is and the fact that He wants to have a relationship with you? And are you obeying Him? Take a moment even now, ask yourself the tough questions in reflection of God's Word, how do you look? What a tremendous message by Brother Jeremy tonight, beloved. I appreciate his ministry, I appreciate what he did tonight. And I tell you what, how about you, but I was absolutely challenged. That was an awesome message. I'm looking forward to parts two, three, and four. Oh boy. So here's the question. Are you on the schedule yet for two, three, and four? Okay. All right. What a place to be. Think about that. The God of the universe wants to have, excuse me, a relationship with you. Isn't that awesome? I love that word, reconciled. Boy, isn't that an awesome, awesome thought. But he stepped on my toes a bit, because he talked about, let's see, do what you're told, when you're told, with a good attitude. Now that'll preach until what? It's applied to me. Then I'm like, brother, let's stop meddling here now. But honestly, my friends, are you doing what you're told, when you're told, with a good attitude? Adults, that applies to us, too. Are we doing what God tells us to do? Boy, that's challenging. There's a lot of scary verses in the Bible, and I'll just be raw with you. I'm not going to tell you everything that was wrong with me. But do you know the one verse that scares me a lot? Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Every now and then, I'll ask myself, David, when was the last time you did the impossible? When was the last time you didn't say to God?