Giving God Your Best: Moses and Modern Worship

Show Notes

Episode 464: 
In this episode, we dive into a discussion on Exodus chapter 40, verses 17-33. We explore the meticulous obedience of Moses in setting up the tabernacle exactly as the Lord commanded. This passage emphasizes the importance of following God's instructions to the letter and how small acts of obedience can lead to a blessed life. We share personal stories of how obedience to God's nudges has led to unexpected blessings in our own lives.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. You know, Wesley, we're friends. We're a couple of friends talking about the Bible and fun and practical ways, which makes us the Bible Guys. Yes, we are the Bible Guys. Hey, if you're just tuning in for the first time, Jeff is out of pocket. So I'm here with Wesley Woods. My name is Chris Zarba, and we are the Bible Guys today, and we are basically doing this whole week. Right. We film five at a time, by the way, which is Monday through Friday in one setting, which is why we don't change clothes. Did you ever see the voice where they where they where they have the same outfits. I think some people thought we'd keep this on for the month. Hey, he wore that again today. Man, nothing must stink every time he gets to the end. Right, five days in a row, Holy Christmas. Well, listen today, Desiree has chosen a segment for us, and I like this segment lot, would you rather? Yeah? These are always good? Yeah, And so we just read take tres reading questions and then we have to pick one. Okay, are you ready? I'm right, Wesley. Here's your question and it's mine as well. Would you rather be able to speak any language fluently, oh but sound like a robot? Or only be able to whisper? That is tough? I would you know what I'm going to go with, speak fluently and sound like a robot? Really only because like how useful that would be. You could be in in India or China, or it'd be hard to emote, like like you have no inflection in your voice, you'd have no reflection. You could understand everybody, but I could preach if I whisper. Yeah, true, that's true. And then the Lord said, yeah, and let me tell you something about this, right, but if I'm going, But if I'm going, And then the Lord said, my name is Wesley. Was So I mean, I I just think the aspect of being able to speak in every language. Yes, you know, no matter where you go to Brazil, you go to wherever, And I think that is cool. Yeah, but I spend ninety eight percent of my time in English speaking territory. Yeah, so I'm going to choose whisker whisper. Okay, considering what I do for a living as well, So we differ on that one. All right, you want to take number two? Yeah, number two, Would you rather have a permanent unibrow or no eyebrows at all? Well, there's no question for me. I would say no eyebrows at all because I could draw them on. Okay, that's that's pretty good, right. So I mean because a permanent unibrow is I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine that. It's like Oscar the grouse, he's got one. It's like an m a slight im I can't even imagine unibrow. I'd rather have people go, Okay, does that dude draw his eyes eyebrows on? Then? Because at first glance you might not be able to tell. Yeah, but everybody everybody know you, is that your would I would go with no eyebrows at all, just because I'm not too far off. But the hair is already gone. It wouldn't be too hard of a shift. You can get a permanent tattoo of eyebrows. Yeah, you can do that too. So all right, here's number three. Would you rather have popcorn kernels stuck in your teeth forever? Or have cheeto dust on your fingers forever. Oh this is easy cheeto dust. Yeah, me too. The thing about having something wedged in your like between your teeth is like so irritating. Well, my wife said, hey, take a bite of this. I don't know what it was called, Like there's just some sort of roast beef for something in it. And I took a bite and these little strings of meat get cut and may tell you something. I immediately had to excuse myself, go upstairs, flush, brush, rinse my mouth out, and come down before I could continue to eat the rest of the food. Yeah, because I was there's no way I'm meeting any more of that meat. Yeah, because it's stuck in your teeth. For some reason, it's stuck in my teeth. Wow, I agree completely. Okay, next one is it me? Ye? Okay. Would you rather have a permanent mullet or a permanent mohawk? Wow? Great options. Jeez, I'd have to go mullet. I guess I was thinking the same thing. I think I would go mullet too. Yeah, because mohawks are the worst. Well, I think it's socially acceptable. Like you go in certain parts of the South, you still see the mullet going on and I think a lot of people wouldn't even bat an eye, right, so force you to move to Georgia. But like Dublin, Georgia, what part of Georgia your folks from. They are from the deep South in Georgia. So in a city called Bwoo's a town Brunswick, right on the Atlantic Ocean near Jekyl Eye. And yeah near is that near? Like Valdosta? And like, I'm probably not too far away? I know they are, like and I could get this wrong, it may be like an hour hour and a half south of Savannah, but like right on the yes, they're actually just fifty minutes maybe north of Jacksonville. So that's how like far south it is. One of my really good friends from my first youth group, yeah, lives in Brunswick, Georgia. Oh wow yeah yeah yeah yeah, so that's really cool. It's a cool little town. Yeah all right. And then the finally, the last one is would you rather have to sleep hanging upside down like a bat or standing up like a horse. I'm going horse only because I when I read this, I think, like logically, like if I'm upside down, all the blood is rushing to your head. You know I start going through all the so I'm like, yeah, I'll stand up. Well, like, okay, So horses are made to sleep standing up, humans are not. That's true, Okay. Bats are made to sleep upside down where their blood rushing their heads not a problem, and humans cannot. So when I read that question, I immediately thought to myself, I would obtain the ability to sleep upside down with no blood rushing in my head okay, and I'd be able to sleep standing up without falling down like a horse. Yeah. So now, given the choice between those, I put those two conditions the magic abilities. Yeah, then what would you choose? I will see at that point it wouldn't matter, so I would I could do either one. So I could be the bat, so it wouldn't matter. Then you could be the horse too, Yeah, who cares? Yeah, if if you're not going to have any effects from it, you know, right right, then I would say for me, I would choose the horse. Yeah. I don't like upside down, Yeah, because then you wake up the middle of the night and you're like, oh, yeah, what is going on? I'm upset. Everybody's upside down Europe side right right right? Yeah, and all of that but like bats have wings, true, so so we and so if they fall, they've got like some help, right right, whereas if we fall, we're done, right Yeah, all right, so there you go. We're the horse people. So, hey, thank you, Desiree. That was riveting, Yes, riveting. I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. So all right, Well we're launching into Exodus chapter forty, and basically we have skipped over the completing of the work. So we we've looked at the instructions from God, Hey, build this ark of the covenant, build this table to show bred, build this, alter the incense, build this, you know, all these different things, you know, And so basically we're skipping over the chapters that say that they've completed the work. You know, they've they've made the clothes for all the priests. Moses has inspected all the work. And now we're really reading the completion of the tabernacle and the dedication of the tabernacle. Exodus chapter forty versus seventeen through thirty three. It says, so the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month of the second year. Moses erected the tabernacle by setting down its bases, inserting the frames, attaching the crossbars, and setting up the posts. Then he spread the coverings over the tabernacle framework and put on the protective layers, just as the Lord had commanded him. He took the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the Covenant and placed them inside the art. Then he attached the carrying poles to the ark, and he set the ARC's cover the place of atonement on top of it. Then he brought the Ark of the Covenant into the tabernacle and hung the inner curtain to shield it from view, just as the Lord had commanded him. Next, Moses placed the table the table in the tabernacle along the north side of the Holy Place, just outside the inner curtain, and he arranged the bread of the Presence on the table before the Lord. Just as the Lord had commanded him. He set the lamp stand in their tabernacle across from the table on the south side of the Holy Place. Then he lit the lamps in the Lord's presence, just as the Lord had commanded him. He also placed the gold incense altar in the tabernacle in the Holy Place in front of the inner curtain. On it, he burned the fragrant incense, just as the Lord had commanded him. He hung the curtain at the entrance of the tabernacle, and he placed the altar of burnt offering near the tabernacle entrance. On it, he offered a burnt offering in a grain offering, just as the Lord had commanded him. Next, Moses placed the wash basin between the tabernacle and the altar. He filled it with water so the priests could wash themselves. Moses and Aaron and Aarin's sons use water from it to wash their hands and feet. Whenever they approached the altar and enter the tabernacle, they washed themselves, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Then he hung the curtains forming the courtyard around the tabernacle and the altar, and he set up the curtain at the entrance of the courtyard. So at last, Moses finished the work. So there's a very obvious repeated sentence that is the theme of this passage, and so you want to see it together, just as they command you see and over and over and over, and so that is the obvious sermon in the passages. So you know, Moses obeys and his obedience in the little things translates into a big kind of blessed life, right, So you know, it's it's interesting because when I was in college, they told us to come up with a Christian Hallmark card, all these goofy assignments, right, And I remember it was like advertising. It was like an advertising exercise. And I came up with Hallmark, and I forget what I called it. It was like the sin Mark or something like that. And my slogan was little Sins mean a Lot, right, because because Hallmark's slogan at the time was little Things Mean a Lot, and because I thought it carried a lot of truth that little sins, even though they're small, added up over time, can stack up and mean a lot. And I thought, and I think the same thing with this little tiny acts of obedience, right. You know, they may not seem like they're huge, right. You know, so he hung a curtain like just as the Lord of command them. But all these little acts of obedience translate into a blessed life. The translates into you know, a safe life, a life that God promises for us, a total trajectory change. Because you know, did you ever hear about the in the nineteen nineties when they launched the probe to Mars and it missed Mars millions of miles, and and and they it missed it by millions of miles. And they and they tried to figure out what went wrong. They wanted they wanted somebody to blame because it was billions of dollars lost. Yeah, just float off. And come to find out, they traced it back to one engineer, and this one engineer changed the He was off on its trajectory by a fraction of a millimeter, but over time and distance, it missed Mars by millions of miles. Yeah, that's like being in Texas and being off by like a degree, you could end up in Let's see, if you're trying to get to Montana, you know, just above you, just straight north, you could end up in Maine, right, you know what I mean? Just a fraction of a degree off right? Yeah? Right? Isn't that amazing? And so it's it's it's one of those things where the trajectory of the little obedience commands can set you on a whole different path, and you'll find yourself with a completely different life just by obeying the little things that got God asked us to do. Chris. I thought about this years ago with obedience and how when you read God's word, it always seems like there's a blessing attached to the obedience. So whenever you see someone being obedient, there was a blessing that typically followed behind that. The interesting thing about that I started to think about this and say, well, wait a minute, I think that's why sometimes God asks us to do certain things, not because he has need for the thing. It's kind of like tithing. God isn't asking you to tithe because he's poor and he can't pay his light bill. He's asking you to tithe because when you obey him, you're blessed. He said, when you tithe, he would rebuke the devour. So the obedience is really for our benefit, It's for our blessing. Sometimes we look at the obedience as a difficult thing, where God is saying, I'm literally giving you opportunities to be obedient so you can be blessed. So when you start to look at it like this, like wait a minut, this hard thing that God is asking me to do, that's just an opportunity to be blessed. When God told me to forgive that person. Like we talked about in a previous episode, that's just an opportunity to be blessed. So when you change your thinking around that, I think it will help you be obedient, not just to get something. But there are blessings attached to our obedience. Yeah, that's right. And by the way, we don't necessarily think of being under the New Testament and under the grace of Jesus. We don't think that sometimes blessings are conditional, right, because most blessings are not conditional, right. I mean, God gives us unconditional mercy, unconditional love and love and grace. Sometimes He favors us in spite of ourselves, not because of ourselves, right, So sometimes we're on the receiving end of blessings even when we don't deserve this. Right, And God says that every blessing is given, but there are some blessings that are coming. They're attached to a promise of obedience. So, for instance, God does say if you honor God with your marriage right from the time you're dating to the time, there's blessings that come with that. Just like you mentioned before, if you honor God financially, then God says, there is a blessing that will come your way that you otherwise would not experience had you not walked out in faith. I think that sometimes when God nudges us to do a specific thing, you know, like there are blessings on the other side of that obedience. You know, so God says, you know, go do this. Well, you know, all we have to do is look back on our lives and say, man, there was that one time that God asked me to do this, and I did this, and so many blessings came from it, and then we all we have to do is say, well, had I not done that, I would have missed out on those blessings. I can give you a real life example of this happening in my life, and I've shared this story before where I was saving up money working at a part time job and I was saving up money for a car. You know, working at a part time job to save up to like almost one thousand dollars is an incredible feat, you know, when you're working a part time job making minimum wage. Yeah, what year is this? So this is when this would have been like my first year of college. Oh yeah, I think it was my first year of college. Yeah. So in the nineties, yeah, five bucks. Yeah. So I had saved up like just under a thousand dollars. And I will never forget this, Chris, and don't ask why I had the money on me. I was sitting at a church service in Detroit, and I know to this day this was God. I felt this overwhelming feeling to give all the money in the offering and guess what I did, Chris. But I said, heck, no, that is my money. I am not giving that money. So God and I are having this argument back and forth in my seat. I'm not going this is all the money. I no. So finally I said, you know what, I'm just gonna be obedient. I'm gonna do it. This makes no sense. Don't even know why I had the money on me to begin with. I put all of that money in the offering plate and then within thirty days, so my prayer was for a car. That's what I was saving up for. My boss at the company I worked for at the time said, hey, Wesley, we see that you're commuting back and forth. At the time, I was going to Eastern Michigan. We see you commuting back and forth and you have to catch a shuttle and all this crazy stuff. We have a company car. You can just have the company car, just keep gas in it. If you ever have problems with it, fill out an expense report. We'll give you the money back. And I think about that. Would that have happened if I had not been obedient to God? That obedience opened a door. I was just trying to get a junkie, you know, thousand dollars car, and God blessed me with a very nice automobile, don't even have to make payments on. Well, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. And the other way it would have been worse. Yeah yeah, financially Yeah. So that yeah, that is amazing. Yeah. And it's uh, you know the scripture, what does Jesus say? He says, knock and then the door will be opened? Yes, right, seek and then you're going to find. Yeah. And so there are things that just you know, remind us that God's obedience, you know, or excuse me, God's commands and our obedience they're there for a reason. So God always has his endgame, right, Yeah, His endgame is ultimately for his glory. Right, He's going to ask you to do things for his glory. Yeah, but it's always for our benefit. So every time there's a command or a rule or an invitation, I neither have to live well or please him. It always comes back to it's going to be for his glory. But it's always, always, always going to be for our benefit, whether we see it in this life or the next. Yeah, but it's going to be. Yeah. Do you have an instance in your life where something like that where it was an act of obedience and then there was a blessing on the back end and you didn't maybe at the time, no, INFI there would have been a blessing or not, but it turns out that your obedience was blessed. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean the smallest of examples would have been. Again, this isn't translating into a car but but so I remember when I very first became a Christian. I was a Christian for like five minutes. Yeah, okay, like I was in I was in high school, so you were getting put to the test right away. I remember I remember going to Sunday Morning church and there was a missionary there and he was, you know, from from Kenya, Africa, and I only had five dollars in my wallet. Now, back then, five dollars can actually get you something. I had five dollars of my wallet and I remember thinking, Okay, I'm going to meet a girl at at a place and I know it was actually like a ballpark that I hung out at, and I know what I can get. I can get a hamburger for fifty cents. I can get a whole like a meal for like a dollar fifty. Right, I'm gonna be able to take her to this, uh you know, a snackshack where they where they basically provide food for the for the players and such. I'm gonna be able to like pretty much buy us a meal and have everything I need to have with this simple five dollars. So I'm in the church and I see this missionary and I feel like God says, give the five dollars, and I'm like, no, God, because I like, does God know I'm going to meet a girl and I'm trying to impress this girl. And it's the first time a meteor it's like a blind data such of sorts. So anyway, I'm like, oh, no, So I give the five dollars and I'm like, oh, I'm going to have to be embarrassed and say I have no money. So I go to this little date. Right, I'm getting out of the car. And you have to understand, my dad and my mom were divorced, and my dad just doesn't pass out money. He does not pass out money. And so the number of times I think, if I can count on my hand of times where he just said hey, here's some money at that time for no reason, would have been zero. And so anyway, he gives me a ride, drops me off. I must have been like fourteen he drops me off, and or fifteen maybe, and he goes. I get out of the car and he goes, hey, Chris, and he reaches in his back pocket and he's like, here's some money, and hans me a ten dollars bill. Oh wow, And dude, ten dollars back then you rich? Like heaving a kid of fifty today? Yeah, right, And he gives me a ten dollar bill and I'm like what And it was no reason at all. It was not no reason. Yeah, he didn't have any motivation and he didn't even ask me if I had money. Yeah, he just gave me ten bucks. I thought to myself, Okay, okay, God, is that if this how he works. If this is how you work, that's pretty cool. Yeah, right, because I was a boss walk by faith and by the way, that's how I love. That's why I love how the church works. And so let's get back to the scripture and let's talk about the fact that that God or excuse me, Moses will God first, and then Moses puts such great importance in the details of taking care of everything. And it reminds me that this tabernacle was the very first example of a central place of worship. Right, so we have a central place of worship called the church. And even though that God doesn't exist in one address at a building of a church, even though people think he does, right, like God's at that place, let me go to that building because that's where God is. Well, that's not true. And the church technically is not a building. The church definition is the called out body of believers, which is us. We're the church, right, so we make up the church. But the thing that's in common is this is the first example of a central place of worship, because up to that point they didn't have a central place of worship. So think about this. Our central place of worship is the church. And so people should choose great care. So, I mean, things in this central place of worship is they're made out of gold. Right, It's only the best of the best. Even the fabric woven I sold you with gold and silver rope, even you know, all of this is very treasured. It's very valued. Even that once verse that talks about putting a covering, yes, just for extra protection. Yeah. So yeah, and so give God your best. And those are semantics. And it doesn't necessarily translate into wearing a suit to church, and it doesn't translate into you know, plastering everything with gold, but it does give you an entire mindset that God is honored with excellence. Right. So so yeah, I don't necessarily wear a suit and tie. I mean, heck, you could take it to the example, to the extreme. Hey, why are you only in a suit and tie? Wear a tuxedo? Right, I mean you know those are semantics. Well, well, that means everybody be required to wear a taxedo to come to your church, right, which nobody would come. Right. So anyway, the point is is that you know, it's not necessarily the letter of the law, it's the spirit of the law. That's what Paul said, right, Paul says, it's not the letter, it's the spirit. So the spirit is whatever you do, do it to honor God. And if it's not honoring God, change it, right. And if you're going to honor God, do it with excellence. And so that's why we have such high standards at our church. And so if there's something that happens and you know, and it's not good enough, we'll cut it. And let's just say a person gets up and they sing off key and they're like, all right, right, and that we have a thing in between the first service and the second service called to make a better meeting. And and if there's something that's not quite up to par, we'll go to that person and be like, hey man, you know you're a great singer this song. Maybe it's just not your day for the song, and so we're going to cut the song. And some people would say, oh, I never do that because you you know you're going to hurt people's feelings. Well, God has honored excellence, right, and so and so it's you know, we as Christians should sacrifice our own feelings and preferences so that we all understand that we're going to bring the best possible experience to honor God, which means if it means cutting your song or cutting your video that you took time to make, or changing this or changing that, we're going to make it better because we believe that the church deserves the best. Yeah, and God is honored with the best. Yes, that's awesome. I'll toss in one really quick thing. A couple of days ago, I think it was, there was a verse that talked about a not offering unholy incense. I think it was yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it kind of ties into that very thing that you're talking about, give God your best. Don't give God the scraps or the leftovers, don't. I think the implication there was don't give God the thing that you don't even want, Right, Sometimes we'll do that with God. Well we'll give an offering, but it's like, well I didn't care about that anyway. Well, it's the heart behind it. That's what God is after, It's not the actual thing. It's like people who say, hey, I was going to throw this couch to the curb. Yeah, but does the church want it? Yeah? Exactly? Like that mertality is the worst, right, Like, Hey, these old books in my cellar. They're so outdated and they're from nineteen seventy two. Does the church want them? Yeah, you know anybody that's funny. So hey, those are a lot of good sermons in there, and we are at our time, so hopefully we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,