Where I Will Meet With You // Exodus 29:22–46

In Exodus 29:22–46, Pastor Josh Thompson unpacks the purpose behind the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the repeated sacrifices of Israel. This message reveals how all of it points to one central truth: God makes a way to meet with His people.

Discover how atonement, preparation, and sacrifice ultimately lead to Jesus, the final and perfect way into God’s presence. This sermon is a call to move beyond routine faith and rediscover the privilege of truly knowing God.

Series: Leaving the Darkness - Legacy City Church

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, church. How's everybody doing? Okay? All right. Happy Sunday. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. It's good to be in his temple with his people, full of the Spirit of God. And if you're just joining us to worship this Sunday, we want to say welcome. We're so happy you've come here to worship with legacy this weekend. And we're going to be in Exodus chapter 29 in our Bibles. If you want to turn there, Exodus chapter 29. We've been working through a series I have titled Leaving the Darkness. And this is sermon number 75 through the book of Exodus. My wife just asked me, Hey, how long have you been in Exodus? I don't know. How long are you going to be in Exodus? We think we're going to be going to be 100 sermons, no doubt, through Exodus. We got 40 chapters. We've got a few more to go. So Exodus chapter 29, we're going to cover verses 22 to 46 in our Bible. Title of the sermon today, if you're taking notes, is Where I Will Meet With You. Where I Will Meet With You, a phrase that we see in the text before us today, given by God Himself. And again, we've been working through this series that I've titled Leaving the Darkness, where we watch Moses lead the people out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of the hands of Pharaoh, into the promised land. Ultimately through the Red Sea to Mount Sinai, sets up a tabernacle in the wilderness, and that's kind of where we're at right now, where God is setting up society. He's established the moral law. He's established a sacrificial law. He establishes a societal law, laws, rules, and regulations to govern their society. God's president and he's leading these people. Moses is his representative. And here they they find themselves in the middle of this encampment, a tabernacle in which God would dwell and meet with his people. As you study the Old Testament and the stories of God, you'll find this tent of meeting, this place where God would actually meet with human beings, and this tent sat again in the middle of their encampment in the wilderness. We kind of see the big picture summation of the tabernacle today and what God was doing and instituting it. It's here in Exodus 29, verses 22 to 46. You know, there are some places in life that become sacred to you not because of the place itself, but because of what happened there. You know, a hospital room where a prayer was answered, uh, a kitchen table where hard truth was spoken in love. You never forget that. Maybe a church altar where you surrendered, a communion table, or a moment in a service where you gave your life over to the Lord. Maybe a quiet chair in the morning where the Lord keeps speaking and meeting with you time and time again. Remember that quiet place. For me, a place I'll never forget, of course, is uh living in Mexico and with a group of guys down there and a guy named John Corson taking us into the deserts to go seek God and to find him and to experience him in a real way. There's no screens, there's not even a newspaper, there's no telephone, there's nothing. We're just out in the middle of nowhere trying to connect with the Almighty. And I can never forget that Garden of Eden experience where everything was stripped away. We're just trying to seek the presence in the face of God. And sometimes the place itself is ordinary, you know, this place where we find God. But once God meets you there, it's never ordinary again. It's different. It's a Mount Sinai experience for you. It's a place. If I take you down to Mexico and the place where we met, you'd be looking around. But when I start to tell the stories, God met me there. I'm right there. So Jesus showed up in my life. You start to see the things. You see how he moved. Maybe that's happened for you in your life. This is what makes Exodus 29 so beautiful. At first glance, the chapter looks like a long list of priestly details. We got fat from the ram, we got cakes of bread, we got wave offerings, holy garments, seven days of ordination, bulls for atonement. We got lambs in the morning, lambs in twilight, we got flour, oil, wine, altars, fire, holy places, all listed before us. And if you read it too quickly again, you miss the point. But all of these details are moving towards this one glorious statement from God Himself in verse 42. He says, It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you to speak to you there. There it is. It's the heartbeat of the whole passage. The place where they will meet with God. This is what the tabernacle was about. God was making a place where he would meet with his people, and this is still the wonder of our salvation. God does not merely save us from judgment, he saves us so that we may know him, so that we can draw near to him so that we can live in his presence. This is a massive point. We can't miss this. He brings us out in order to bring us near to himself. He's saving us to bring us close to himself. I really want to look at this closely today. All of this points to the Lord Jesus, our greater high priest, the perfect sacrifice, the one whom we now meet, through the one whom we now meet with God. We're in Exodus 29. We're going to read just to verse 35. Can we stand for the reading of God's word? We always stand for the reading of God's word here at Legacy to pay honor to him, remember whose word we're reading. Not my words, not my story, not my Bible, not my book. This belongs to Him and Him alone. And so we stand for a moment to reflect on whose word we are reading and to remember that He's talking to us. He's trying to say something to us. We stand to honor our God and to bless him, say thank you for what he has given to us. Exodus 29, take a look at verse 22. You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them on the right thigh, for it is the ram of ordination. And you shall put all of the, I'm sorry, ordination in one cake of bread, and one cake of bread mixed with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread which is set before Yahweh, and you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron, in the hands of the sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. You shall take them from their hands and offer them up in smoke on the altar of the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before Yahweh. It is an offering by fire to Yahweh. Then you shall take the breast of Aaron's ram of ordination and wave it as a wave offering before Yahweh. It shall be your portion. You shall set apart a holy breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution offering which was which was waved, which was raised up as a contribution from the ram of ordination, from the one which was for Aaron, and for the one which was for his sons. It shall be for Aaron and his sons a perpetual state from the sons of Israel, for it is a contribution offering. It shall be a contribution offering from the sons of Israel, from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their contribution offering to Yahweh. The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, that in them they may be anointed and ordained. For seven days the one of his sons, who is a priest instead of him, shall put them on when he comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place. You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in the holy place. Aaron and his sons shall eat that flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Thus they shall eat those things by which atonement was made to ordain them, to set them apart is holy, but a layman shall not eat them because they are not whole they are holy. If any of the flesh of the ordination or any of the bread remains until morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten because it is holy. Thus ye shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you, you shall ordain them through seven days. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the details of this text, the extent that you commanded your priests to go through, to enter into your presence, the extent to which you commanded your people to go through, to enter into your presence, all of this stacking, all of this pushing, all of this building, all of this accomplished to enter into your presence. So many details, so many things that had to be done, so much preparation. And Lord, we pray today, God, I ask that you would help us to never take for granted the great work that was done, that we can just walk into your presence anytime we want to and have a conversation with you. To be with our God, to meet with you there. Lord, would you open our eyes to the text, help us to understand it deeply, help us to understand all that took place in order for us to be able to meet with you. I pray that you'd bless our time as we study your word. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. A lot of details, a lot of preparation, especially for this ordination of the priests. And all of these things, very detailed and very heavy in the text. We're going to work through 22 all the way to 46. We have a lot to cover. And so I will kind of work through some of the details, but take note of these things. It's really a lot to think through and a lot to work through just for ordination to take place for the priests. And there's a lot of really labor being done in order to enter into the presence of God. And what do we do? We come in here, pen and the band, they start the worship, we lift our hands to the Lord, and we're in his presence. No fat of rams, no kidneys in your hands, no cakes and bread and all of the other things. The cakes and bread and the drink and all that we do here, communion, again, another picture, another symbol. But there is no slaughtering of an animal up here on stage. But if there was, oh my gosh. We'd be shocked, huh? The whole city would be shocked. That legacy church, you know, they they bring a lamb on stage and they kill it in front of everybody. It'd be a serious moment now, wouldn't it? It is a serious moment. But the road has been paved, so we can just enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise freely. That's what this is about. Again, sometimes we get so caught up in the law, the do's and don'ts, do's and don'ts, don't do this, do this, don't do this, don't do this. What is the point? Just love your neighbor, please. Take care of each other. Stop hurting and hating each other. That's the point of the do's and don'ts. What's the point of all the sacrifice and all the blood and all the rituals and all the religion, all the things, the rituals and things that we have to do? Really, it's simple to meet with God. God is going to create a hundred roadblocks to stop you from getting into his presence until his son comes, moves them all out of the way, fulfilling all of them. Says, Enter through me. It's simple, it's easy, it's now. It's the Garden of Eden. The door's open, heaven is open. Point number one, if you're taking notes, God prepares his servants to meet with them. God first prepares his servants to meet with them. The first thing we see in this passage is that no one casually wanders into meeting with Almighty God. God prepares his servants to meet with them. Verse 22 begins with the ram of ordination. Moses is told that the fat of the ram, fat of the tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the lobe of the liver, the kidneys, the fat on them, and the right thigh. Then verse 23 adds on the cake of bread, one cake of bread mixed with oil, one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread for Yahweh. Then verse 24, you shall put all these into the hand of Aaron, the hands of Aaron and his sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. Now, when I saw this the phrase wave offering, I couldn't help but think of a nice wave. You know what I mean? I want to give a wave offering to the Lord. I want to paddle into that thing and take off, and this one's for you, Lord. Or is it for me? Thank you. The wave offering, the word wave sitting in the Old Testament. Can't help it. Thinking about the ocean. But this wave offering, it's like they would put all of these entrails and these cakes and all these inner organs in the hands. I mean, what a wild picture, huh? And then they would wave it to some degree before the Lord Almighty. And when I when I think about this, I think about the work that it takes, and again, the seriousness and the weight of bringing all of these things. Now, the inner organs and the inner workings of an animal are the fats are the most precious parts of the animal. I know we don't we don't see that today at sprouts, you know, at Whole Foods or Errowan or whatever, you know, but um it's like if you saw all the organs, these would be the most amazing pieces and the fat of the animal, the most choice pieces of the animal, the nicest, juiciest pieces of the animal, plus the cakes with oil. These are nice things that they're making. So it's bringing some of the nicest things they could possibly bring, which also is very difficult to accomplish. It's not fun to do that, not easy to do that, to take all of the entrails of an animal and they're waving this before God. This is part of the preparation. Their hands are full. They are not coming empty-handed. They are not inventing their own approach. They are not deciding for themselves what it what it what meeting with God should look like. They're not saying, we're gonna go and pull a bunch of flowers out of the field and bring them to God. Notice, you don't get to come to God on your own standards. You don't get to come in the way that you want to. He demanded that they come as he has said. This is the way it went before. But God fills their hands with what he requires. And then those filled hands are lifted before him in worship. This is ordination, this is consecration, and this is ultimately service. That is God saying, if you're going to serve me in my presence, I will determine how you come to me and what you will serve me with. Kind of sounds counter to the American church today, right? We're gonna come into his presence in the way that we want to. Really? The Almighty. Now, now, if the president of another country asked you to come into his courts and to meet with him, I'm sure you'd be asking what the dress code was. Their jeans okay? No, don't do that, don't do that. How does he want me to greet him? But for some reason with the church, we've gotten a little sloppy with this. God is saying, You're going to serve me in my presence. I will determine how you come and what you will serve me with. The whole thing belongs to him. The same is true with ministry. The Lord tells us how we qualify, 1 Timothy 3. How we will serve him and what we will bring to him and how we will bring it. It's all his, it's not ours. We don't determine that. We submit to what he is saying. Then verse 25 says that the offering is burned on the altar for a soothing aroma before Yahweh. In other words, the best parts are given to God, the richest parts, the choicest parts, and what they considered the best was surrendered back to him, and it was a soothing aroma unto God because they gave their best to him. They gave the best. Again, oftentimes the church likes to give their leftovers, right? But God is saying, no, you're bringing your best. And that's between you and the Lord, because you no one gets to decide for you what is your best. You alone can decide what is the best for God, and you alone know what is the best. Whatever it might be, of your time, of your resources. Whatever it is, your giftings, your talents, and your abilities, whatever it is your best that you're giving to the Lord, that's between you and him. You got to figure that out. Then verse 26 through 28 tell us that the breast and the thigh become the portion for Aaron and his sons. God is not only receiving worship from his servants, he's also providing for his servants. Here is a provision tax for the priests in the Old Testament. Never miss that. The God who calls people into his service also provides for those who serve him. God sets up a way for his serving ministers to be taken care of and provided for from the beginning. They would be given a portion of the offering offered to God. They literally, the offering would come from the people and it would be given to God, and they would parse some of that and give it to the priests. 1 Timothy 5 18 reinforces this. The New Testament, Paul writing to the young Timothy, the young pastor, he writes to him, For the scriptures say, do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. And the worker is worthy of his wages. It's speaking about the elder in the text. And Paul is actually quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 25, verse 4 Do not muzzle an ox while it's treading out the grain. I know you're hungry, but you can't eat any of that grain that you tread on because that's for something else. No, uh the point is being made in the Old Testament. Moses is making the case that the work being done, the ox is able to take from that grain. The priest is able to take from those offerings, the minister, the elder is able to take from those offerings to make sure they're taken care of. This is important. It's set apart right here in verse 26, 28. Um, sadly, a lot of times in ministry, I don't know, you know, I've seen it in a lot of years, but oftentimes there is almost for most ministers this expectation or these people who serve in ministry a work for the church to basically live in poverty. And the scripture just does not say that. You don't see it with the priests, you don't see it uh in the New Testament either. You see this exchange, you see this taking care of happening in the text. And so it's important to see that here in Exodus. That it started way back when, that the foundation was being laid there. Now, obviously, there's ministers who are taking advantage of money, taking advantage of the church. You see televangelists and all the other things lining their pockets, and it's really sad to see. The abuse has caused such an attack on all ministers, sadly. Uh, but this is a foundation that's been laid from day one. Deuteronomy chapter 25, Exodus chapter 29, it starts. And then Paul reinforces it in 1 Timothy 5. Verse 31 and 32 says, You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket and the doorway of the tent of meeting. So this is not just a meal, but we actually see fellowship with Almighty God. This is a covenant meal after being washed, clothed, anointed, sprinkled, the priests sit down and they would eat a meal in the presence of God. And I love that. Communion. Uh, communion with the Almighty. And we've talked pretty extensively about this. But, you know, sitting at the table of God and communing with Him, and no doubt there's something special about meals. There's something special about getting together with other people in meals, and something magical happens. Uh, most of the meetings that you see Jesus having, it's like he's always like, invite me over for a meal. You know, there's always a meal in place. They go and sit down. There's something magical. Food unlocks people, you know, drink unlocks people. It really does. It's like, you know, it's like we're so you doing, hey, nice to meet you. You know, so all right. We sit down, we have a meal, we have something in our face, you know, to just kind of block the other person's face. You know, we can hide behind the food of the drink. You know, and we start to lighten up and have fun and laugh, and there's something beautiful about it. I love that that God is instructing them to have a covenant meal with him in the ordination. Sit down, have a meal. Let's eat of the sacrifice, let's have a barbecue. Verse 33 says, Thus they shall eat the things which atonement was made to ordain them to set them apart is holy. They're gonna eat the atonement. God was preparing the priests step by step to minister in his presence. Their hands were filled by him, their offerings were received by him. Their meal was eaten before him, and all of it was about being set apart to meet with the living God. And it means that drawing near to God is never casual, it's never self-made. We do not stroll into the presence of God based on our own ideas or our goodness or our own sincerity, even. God Himself must prepare us. God Himself must consecrate us. God Himself must give what is required for fellowship with Him. That is exactly what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is our greater high priest. The Lord Jesus is our greater offering. The Lord Jesus is the one who fills our empty hands. And we do not come to God holding our merits. We come holding Jesus. We come holding the Christ. We don't come with our own. We come with Him and say, I'm not worthy. We do not come to God with our best efforts. We come through the finished work of His Son Jesus. And that should stir us to want to bring our best to the Lord. Not because we have to, but because we want to. We want to bless the Lord. And like those priests, we are not merely forgiven from a distance, we're brought to the table. And this is why the Lord's Supper matters so much. It reminds us that salvation is not only legal, it is relational. I think we like to sit in the legal realm. I don't know why. I think it brings us a little more peace. But all of this is mostly relational. We are not merely pardoned criminals. We are welcomed family and guests into the home of Almighty God. We are brought near into fellowship with our God. We have to remember that ministry begins with receiving before it ever becomes doing. And some of us are trying to serve God with empty hands, exhausted hearts, self-made strength, but God fills the hands of his servants. The Christian life begins not with what God, what you do for God, but what God gives to you in Christ Jesus. John 15, 4, you know it. Abide in me, and I in you. A branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. The one who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from it you can do nothing. You remove the branch, that thing will never produce fruit. The branch must abide. It must connect. It must remain. The nutrients are so important. I cut off a branch recently of my apple tree. It's this one in the back yard, the far back of the yard. And I wanted to plant an apple tree at the front of the yard, and I found this stuff online. It's this, you know, hormone substance that you can basically make cuts in the bottom of a branch and you apply it to the bottom of this tree branch. You can stick it in some fresh soil and start to water it, and it will produce roots. The branch will produce roots. You can see it struggling. Because it doesn't have the base. It doesn't have. It's not abiding like it once was. It's creating roots now. Once that thing gets anchored in the ground and once it starts to grow, the branches that then abide to the trunk will start to produce great fruits. But I'm telling you, you get removed from the trunk, you don't abide in Jesus. The fruit will start to wither. The source is in him. And oh, what a message to myself and ministry. I'm telling you over and over again over the last decade here in LA, it's so easy to get out on my own and start focusing so much on strategy instead of focusing on the Lord Jesus. When you focus on him and you abide in him, the fruit just shows up. Try to focus on all the man things and how you make stuff work. I tell you, it doesn't always work. A.W. Tozer said, we are saved to serve, but we cannot serve unless we are first strengthened by his grace. Charles Haddon Spurgeon says the Lord does not send his soldiers to their warfare on their own charges. He's with them. We have to remember that fellowship with God is not a small thing. Do not lose the wonder of it. Do not get so familiar with grace that you forget the privilege of his nearness. Do not let communion become common. Fain repetition. The communion of God common. Let it not be so. The living God has made a way for sinners to sit at his table. Psalm 95, 2, let us enter into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him in song. We gotta get back to our first love. We gotta enter into his gates every time with thanksgiving. Enter into his courts with praise and a joyful noise. Yeah, we meet all the time, you know. It's not that big of a deal. You're gonna meet with God, yeah. C.S. Lewis, he cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself because it's not there. There is no such thing. It's all in him. Augustine, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you. Point number two, God makes atonement so we can meet with him. First he prepares us, and then he makes an atonement so we can actually get there. Verse 35 says, Thus you shall do to Aaron and his sons according to all that I have commanded you. You shall ordain them through seven days. Seven days. That's not a quick ceremony, huh? How long is your graduation? Seven days. Are you gonna show up every day for me? I was kind of hoping for one. Seven days ceremony that is sustained, repeated, the solemn process of consecration. Verse 36 says, Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for the atonement. Each day a fresh bull, seven of them. A fresh reminder, a fresh sacrifice. And not only were the priests being atoned for, the altar itself had to be purified. There was this huge process. Verse 36 continues, you shall purify the altar when you make an atonement for it, you shall anoint it and set it apart as holy. Said that purify the altar, and then they had to make an atonement. They had to clean the whole thing up and anoint it again, purify it again, make another sacrifice. Verse 37, for seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, set it apart as holy, then the altar shall be most holy. You feel the repetition. Seven days, daily sacrifice, daily atonement, daily cleansing, daily holiness. Why? Why so much? God is pounding into the hearts of them the seriousness of sin. Why do you have to do this over and over and over and over? Because sin is great and it's serious. Holiness is costly. No sinner meets with God without great atonement. And none of us have ever done this. No one's made a sacrifice seven days in a row. You have to clean the altar over and over. The passage it widens out beyond ordination into this daily rhythm of Israel's life. Verse 38 says, Now this is what you shall offer on the altar, two one-year-old lambs each day continuously, morning and evening. Verse 39, the one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the second lamb you shall offer at twilight. Verse 41 says, The evening offering is also for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh. So every day in Israel began with a sacrifice, and it ended with a sacrifice. One in the morning, as soon as the sun comes up, and one at night at sundown, and they were sacrificed. Every sunrise was met with blood, every sunset was met with blood. Every morning, every evening. There was never a point where the people could say, we no longer need atonement. For hundreds of years, thousands of years. This is what it meant then. Israel lived in this continual dependence on the mercy of God. The priests needed atonement. The altar needed sacrificing and sanctification. The people needed sacrifice. The entire system, again and again, that sinful people can only meet with a holy God through the shedding of blood. Morning and evening, shedding of blood. Morning and evening, shedding of blood. Of course, this points us straight to the Lord Jesus. John 1.29, the next day, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and he said, Behold, there he is, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. They had been sacrificing morning and evening. All of these signs, all these sacrifices were signs. All of them were shadows. They're ultimately pointing forward. Bull after bull, lamb after lamb, morning after morning, evening after evening. That's a lot of blood, huh? And all of it was preparing the world for the Lamb of God. Because unlike those repeated sacrifices, Jesus offers himself once and for all. He is the final sacrifice, he's the better lamb. He is the one who did not need to be offered again tomorrow morning and again tomorrow evening. Once and for all, he is offered. Calvary finished, the cross finished, what the tabernacle could only foreshadow. And that means the only reason you and I can ever meet with God is because Jesus Christ has made atonement for sin and it is happening perpetually forever, morning and evening, morning and evening. We can enter into the presence of God because the sacrifice has been made morning and evening forever. Isn't that amazing? The temple is open. You can go meet with God. The gates of heaven are open. You can go meet with God. Eden, the Garden of Eden, is open. You can go meet with God. The blood has been shed. And that means the only reason we get there is because of the atonement of Christ. Not your effort, not your church attendance, not your tears, and not your sincerity. Only because of Christ. How do we apply this? Well, never minimize your need for atonement. You know, we live in a time when people want spirituality without sacrifice, forgiveness without blood, and this nearness to God without true repentance. But the Bible will not let us have that. Sin is real, guilt is real, judgment is real, and atonement is absolutely necessary. And that's why Passion of the Christ is so hard to watch, because it's just like, I can't watch that like morning and evening, morning and evening, morning and evening, morning. I'm not watching the atonement that much. But the truth is, is it should that's the whole point. That's what Mel Gibson's trying to do. He's trying to shock you. The blood. Why? Leviticus 17, 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. Of course, the one thing on the planet that is most precious to human beings is the thing that makes the atonement. It's the center. It's the center of us. The life is in the blood. So we will use blood for the atonement. And it will send a shockwave to all human beings how serious their sin is, how dark it is, how much it ruins your life, how much it ruins your relationships, how much it ruins your connection with God. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22, and according to the law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. When I was living in Israel for a little while, it was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I was walking the back streets in Jerusalem, and the Hasidic, the Orthodox Jews, were out. And because there was no temple to make sacrifice, it's the Day of Atonement. They are slitting the throats of chickens and turning them upside down. There's blood running all over the street. I videoed it. I'm walking by and like, what's going on here? Yom Kippur. You're trying to see the seriousness of blood very quickly, you know? Chickens don't just die. They were turning them upside down on these cones, and their heads were pushed, and it was blood just pouring. I say that to you, and it bothers you. I'm seeing this in real life. We are so far from atonement. Do you see? We are so far from blood atonement. We take of communion. It's a piece of bread and some grape juice. Thank you very much. We're so far from the atonement. Thus, we don't see the weight of what Christ went through to get there. What he's given to us, what it cost, the blood of the Son of God to turn him upside down and watch him bleed. The blood of the Son of Almighty God given for humanity so they could come close to him. Never outgrow the cross. Some people treat the cross as a doorway into Christianity, but not the center of Christian life. You never move beyond your need for Jesus. Every morning you need Jesus. Every evening you need Jesus. We always need the cross. Every day begins and ends with our dependent on Him. John Stott, who wrote the cross of Christ, before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us. We did it, and he has made us clean. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, there is no healing medicine in all the world like the precious blood of Jesus. You know, Billy Graham was asked one time, he preached to millions of people, saw many turned to Christ over the decades, and they said, if you could preach on one thing, your last, what is the final thing? What's the thing you wish you would have preached on more in your lifetime? He said, the blood of Jesus. Of all things, the blood of Jesus, our whole life should become a grateful response to his sacrifice. If Christ has given you himself, then your life is no longer your own. You're called to live as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, worship, obedience, and love. We do it out of love, not out of fear, out of true love. We have to ask ourselves, am I still amazed by the cross? Have I become casual about the blood of Jesus? Do I live each day as someone who knows I can only meet with God because Jesus has made atonement for me? The Gospel Primer, great book, little book, small book, gospel primer. I think maybe 70, 80 pages. You can get through it in a day. Teaches you the repetition of the cross, the repetition of the gospel, the repetition of it in your life, praying it, thinking it, living it, speaking it into your life each morning. Recommend it. Point number three, finally, God's ultimate purpose is to meet with us. He prepares us, he makes atonement for us. Why? So he can meet with us. This is the summit of the chapter. Verse 42 says, It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you to speak with you there. That is the title of the sermon. It's the heartbeat of the text, where I will meet with you. Now, if God said, I don't know, if a letter floated down from heaven and God said, Hey, I'm gonna meet you over on the corner of Laurel Canyon, Ventura Boulevard, right there by that blue mailbox, you meet me there, 1 a.m. in the morning, you're gonna find me. That would be the craziest thing ever. I got an appointment with God. He says in the text, where I will meet with you, there is a place in which he will meet with humans. Verse 43, I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be set apart as holy by my glory. Verse 44, I will set the tent of meeting and the altar apart as holy, and I will also set Aaron and his sons apart as holy to minister as priests to me. Verse 45, I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and I will be their God. Verse 46, they shall know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. Why? That I might dwell among them. That I am Yahweh their God. Did you hear what God is saying? He says, I did not merely bring you out of Egypt to get you out of trouble. I brought you out of Egypt so I could bring you near to me. I redeemed you so I could dwell with you. That's the whole thing. And that's what it meant then. Completely, the whole purpose, the picture. It's the Garden of Eden. They were with God. They were already meeting with God. They got kicked out because of sin. And God is trying to reconcile them back to Himself, saving you out of Egypt to bring you close to me. I'm saving you out of the world to bring you close to me. It's a whole picture, it's the whole story. The tabernacle was the place where God would meet with his people, speak to them. The whole sacrificial system was aimed at this one magnificent end, the presence of God with his redeemed people. And that changes the way you read Exodus. The Exodus was never merely about escape, it was about communion, it's about covenant, it's about presence of God, peace with him. It wasn't about just leaving Egypt and being freed out of slavery. Of course, that's a great part. The greater Exodus is leaving the darkness to be brought into his light, brought into the presence of God. What does that mean for us? It means this passage reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ. Jesus is Emmanuel, which means what church? God with us. Through his death, resurrection, the gift of the Holy Spirit, God now dwells with and in his people. The church is his temple. The believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells within you. Think about how staggering that is. The God who once consecrated a tent now consecrates a people. The God who met Israel at a doorway of the tent of meeting now meets us in Christ. The God who once dwelt in a tabernacle now dwells by his spirit in his people. We are the tent. We are the tabernacle. This is the great goal of salvation. It's not just forgiveness, it's not rescue, it's not just blessing. It's God Himself. We got to remember what salvation is really for. You were not saved merely to escape judgment. You were saved to know God. You were saved to live in his presence, and you were saved to have fellowship with him for all of eternity. So get on with it. Get on walking with him. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him 300 years. He walked with God. That's the whole point. He has shown thee, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee to do justly, love mercy, and what? Walk humbly with your God. Just get on walking with him. Know your God. Throw all the other stuff away. It does, it all points to that single thing. You get so caught up in these micro points. You miss the whole forest. Yeah, but I know that tree. And I know it well. I've circled that tree a hundred times. I can tell you everything about it. I'm telling you, there's a point to all these trees. It's ultimately to be with God. John 17 3. Are you ready? Strap on your seat belts. This is eternal life. That they may know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, that they may know you. Make the prize, the presence of God, above the gifts of God. Too often we want what God gives more than God Himself. It's like the person who's more excited about the gift than the person who gave it. You know what I mean? It's like, you know, somebody gets something for somebody. This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It's like, who did it come from? I don't know, but this is amazing. They're like the thing rather than the person. We want answers, we want peace, we want open doors, we want relief, we want blessings. But the highest gift of salvation is not what God gives, it's God Himself. Psalm 73, 25, who have I in heaven but you? And besides you I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever. Forget the stuff. I don't care. Francis Chan said, if I get to heaven and I got all the stuff, gold streets and a mansion and all things, but God's not there, I don't care. I don't want to be there. John Piper said, the gospel is not a way to get people to heaven. It is a way to get people to God. What's the point of heaven if God's not there? We're going there to be with the Lord. John 14, 11. Listen, uh John sorry, John 14, 1. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. There is more than enough rooms in my father's home. If it were not so, I would have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you. When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am. And that's all humans want. Why do we want God so bad? We were created to be with Him first. We were created for Him. And our greatest pleasure is finding rest and peace and home and family in Him. That's what the earth is searching for in money and pleasure and success. We're searching for God, trying to find security, trying to find home, trying to find peace. It's all found in the one who made us. Thomas Watson, God's greatest gift is Himself. AW Tozer, the man who has God for his treasure, has all things in one. The Garden of Eden was so special because God was there. And that's why everything was perfect. That's why everything grew so beautifully. That's why the birds sang perfect songs. That's why the lion laid with the lamb, and that's where we want to be. There's good news. You can get there now. Church, we must live like someone amongst who God dwells. If God dwells in his people with his people, then holiness will just come forth. Reverence is not an option, it just is in us. Worship is not optional. We do it. We walk in worship. We're not empty buildings, we're the dwelling place of Almighty God. And in his presence, in his presence is fullness of joy. At his right hand, pleasures forevermore. We have to ask ourselves: do I live with this awareness of God's presence? Do I actually treasure God Himself? Do I come to Him only for what He can give to me? Or because I just want to meet with Him? Is my life a fitting place for His glory to be on display? All of this leads to Jesus. The message of Exodus 29 is not simply that Israel had a religious system. It's that God filled their hands. He consecrated the priests, he provided sacrifice, an altar, he established daily offering. Why? All of this for one reason, so he could say, This is where I will meet with you. Jesus has made a way for this to happen. The greatest blessing in all the world is not merely that God rescues sinners from the cross. That's part of it. It's that he has said to them after the cross, this is where I will meet with you. You're forgiven. Now what? Now meet with God. Enjoy His presence. I know, church, that if you unlock this one door, your whole life changes. I know that if you plug into Him, if you meet with the Creator, your whole life changes. It changes your marriage, changes all your relationships, changes the way you work, changes the way you see life. It is the hardest things for humans to do. The enemy and our flesh will set every barrier in the way to get us to meet with God. I'm not talking about religious prayers, just throw all that away, please. I'm talking about meeting with the living God. You, yourself, seeking him. If you seek me, you'll find me if you seek me with all of your heart. I know this unlocks your whole life because it has for me. And as I seek him, as I find him, it changes the way I see everything in a single moment. I can be so man-centric and bent in my ways. I have one 30-second meeting with the King of all kings. It all changes. You need God. You need him today. I want to pray for you. Let's turn to the Lord now. Lord, we thank you that you have created a way and a place in which we can meet with you. And I pray now by the power of your Holy Spirit, you cause everyone in this place to believe on your death, burial, and resurrection in a new way. To confess their sins, to ask for forgiveness. That all that sin would be forgiven. And they would be brought into closer relationship with you now. And they would go on their way, walking and talking with you all the days of their life. Please, God, help us. We can't do it without you. Change us from the inside out. We give you our lives, we surrender to you. We do it in Jesus' name. Amen.