Building a Life of Faith - Pastor Greg Addison - February 15, 2026

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

I like to push it to the last second and make Jacob nervous.

Thank you, Jacob and choir, congregation.

It's a great morning.

I know they talk to you about um ask the pastor and all that, but we're excited about that.

I hope you'll be here for that movie night.

I keep getting all these notes.

It's awesome.

So I hope you'll be here for that.

It'll be a great family night, great fun.

Hope you'll be here for the movie and enjoy that.

So we're looking forward to tonight.

But we're also, I'm looking forward to uh walking through this passage of scripture with you uh this morning.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 40 as we continue our journey through reading the Bible chronologically.

Exodus 40 · chapter mention

So uh first of all, I want to say congratulations and blessings.

You guys have been through three full large books of the Bible already.

Is that awesome?

Give yourselves a hand.

That's great.

It is awesome to see how everybody's jumped in and is plowing through, and I just want to give you a blessing and say thank you for doing that.

It's fun to talk about it.

People started sharing, and hey, we read this and all that kind of stuff.

That's really fun.

We're going into Leviticus, and uh, you know, you're reading all that stuff and all those details, and one of the guys came up and said, Man, I read all this stuff that priests have to do and judgment for when they don't do it and all that.

I'm glad I'm not you.

And I said, I'm just glad I'm not an Old Testament priest, right?

Uh but it's really fun to have those conversations and talk about it, people asking questions and sharing, and had a young man stop me after the service today in the Chaffee campus and was really working through some of that stuff.

It's just been great to do that together.

And now as we head into Leviticus, I kind of want to capture this and set that up for you so that's a little bit more, makes a little bit more sense why God has spent so much time sharing all of that.

As we've talked about the last couple of weeks, God is using the children of Israel, he is building them as a nation for the purpose of bringing the Savior into the world.

But I want you to think for a minute with me before we get started.

The Bible says in the in the New Testament that the lessons of the fathers, meaning the Old Testament patriarchs, are lessons for us in our life.

And so as we read the Old Testament, the things that God is doing when we understand them, they apply to us in the New Testament.

So here's what's happening in this moment in the life of the children of Israel.

God is teaching them how to be a people of faith.

Now, all of this stuff that we're reading about, and all of the stuff that he's asking them to do, is designed to be a classroom to show them what it means to have faith in him and to walk by faith in relationship with him.

Now think about it.

In the uh in the Exodus, the whole name of the Exodus, what the whole description of that is, is God redeeming the people out of slavery in Egypt and bringing them into the promised land, the promised path of them bringing a nation to bring the Redeemer into the world.

In Egypt, so they're there 400 years.

What happens is, if you'll remember from your reading, through Joseph and all that, the the his family comes in there, and then he's got all the twelve sons of Jacob and all that business, and they all start having babies and having kids, and they start having babies and kids, and we're there 400 years, the generation's expanding.

And as that happens, God is flourishing his people.

They are not yet a nation, they are a race of people, but they're not a nation.

In fact, as they flourish and become greater and wealthy and skilled, and more of them, and all of that kind of stuff over that course of 400 years, the Egyptians begin to think, man, these people are different.

They got skills we don't have, and there's stuff happening, and they're flourishing, and they begin to push back, and then they begin to oppose them, and then they begin to enslave them, and that's why they then cry out to the Lord.

Now, the Israelites, the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they knew who Jehovah God was, and they knew the promises that he had made to their great-great great great great great great grandfather Abraham, and they understood all that.

They knew how to worship.

They understood that there without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.

They understood blood sacrifices, they understood worshiping the Lord, but it was just as a race of people.

They were not yet a nation.

And so when God redeems them and brings them out of Egypt, he now has to turn them into structurally a nation, a people to follow him and for him to use.

And there's a journey in that.

They had to learn to walk by faith.

And the things that we see, what I want to capture here, is as he's establishing how they're going to do this, for you to understand that all of it is a faith lesson in walking with the Lord, and it applies to us and teaches us in our journey of learning how to walk by faith with the Lord.

Now, here's the big idea I want you to see from this.

And we'll continue to run this.

This was one of the principles that I gave you in the very beginning of this study.

God deeply desires a relationship with people.

God loves people, he reaches out to us, he created us, and as our creator, he loves us.

And the entire event of recorded history, and especially as you read it from scripture, you see the consistent theme that people reject God, and he continues to forgive, and he continues to reach out in the world to draw people in relationship with him.

Everything is about how much God loves us and the promise of redemption.

Sin separates us from him, and he's promising a redeemer, and he's teaching all these ways about how the Redeemer would come and what the Redeemer would do, and all the prophecies that pointed to Jesus that are fulfilled in him, so we would know who the Redeemer is when he came.

Everything God is doing is to reach out and bring us into relationship with him.

Now, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11, faith is the substance of things that we hope for, and it is the evidence.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

That's a legal word.

That means it has met the standard of credibility to be allowed as evidence in a courtroom, the evidence of things not seen.

So when we're walking with God, our faith in him and what he's doing is literally the evidence of his presence and what he's doing.

When he answers prayer, we know God is there.

When we step out in faith to follow his direction and he blesses that, it is that faith that we have invested in him and who he is and what he does, and he honors that.

And then in Hebrews 11, 6 it says, without faith it is impossible to please him.

So faith is how we walk with the Lord.

Paul said multiple times in different ways that captured in that famous verse, we walk by faith, not by sight.

And that is in the person of God.

Faith is not something you conjure up, it's not the force in Star Wars or whatever.

It is actually I trust in you because I know who you are and you revealed yourself to me, and I trust in you and what you're doing.

And that's what God is trying to do.

That's it.

Now, how do I know that?

That's just not some preachers say.

You're there in Exodus 40.

I just want to kind of give you a couple of phrases here that lead up to this.

Now remember what's happened as we get to this point.

This is the end of Exodus.

Everything has been put in place, and now we begin to learn how to walk with God as the nation of Israel.

God has called Moses up to the mountain.

He's given him the Ten Commandments.

They don't yet know how to walk by faith.

So you remember the story, you read it.

They get frustrated.

Moses is not around.

What's going on?

They get to Aaron.

They go, hey, we know how we worshiped in Egypt.

We understand that.

We miss that.

So make us a golden calf, and we're going to worship that.

And they do all that.

And they dis and they, you know, disrespect the Lord.

They are turning back to what they left.

They're not walking by faith.

They're not trusting in him because they have not learned how to do it.

And Moses comes down and drops the tablets and does all that.

God judges them for that.

But then he says, okay, we're going to get right back on track.

He calls Moses back up.

He gives them the Ten Commandments again.

He comes back down and they start on their way.

And here's what God says in the aftermath of that.

34, just listen to what it says.

34, verse 5.

The Lord came down in a cloud and stood with Moses there and proclaimed his own name to Moses, the Lord.

He says, Moses, I am the Lord.

The Lord passed in front of Moses and he proclaimed this, the Lord.

This is God speaking, the Lord, myself, the Lord.

I am compassionate and a gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in faithful love.

And in truth.

I am maintaining a faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion and sin.

That's who God is.

That's his character.

And he reminds Moses, even in the aftermath of judging this sin, I'm going to judge it so they learn.

And then we're going to get back on track and start it again because I am forgiving God.

I am a loving God.

This is my nature.

These are my people, and I am not going to let them flounder.

I am going to do the work in them I promise to do.

That is his character.

And he pronounces, I love and I forgive.

To a thousand generations, that's who I am.

And then he reiterates his purpose.

Look, I, God, am making a covenant.

That is a that is so far beyond a promise.

I'm not sure we even really understand.

Even contracts in our world today that have the enforcement of law and all that, we break them all the time and everything else.

When God makes a covenant, he keeps it by his own honor as holy God.

Even if we blow it, he would never breach his covenant.

And he states to Moses, I am making a covenant.

I, God, will perform wonders in the presence of all your people.

They have never been done in the whole of the earth or in any other nation.

That's what he says.

I am going to do a work in you as my people that has never been done before, and it shocks the world around you.

Listen to what else he says.

All the people you live among will see the Lord's work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.

Is that incredible?

Now I want you to think for a minute.

If that's God's character, that he's loving and forgiving, and he's working to thousands, you know, thousands of generations and all that business, and he's doing a work, listen, he wants to do an awe-inspiring work in your life and in the lives of our church.

That's what God does.

We are his people, like we saw last week, that whole chosen generation, royal priesthood, we understood that from last week, what that meant.

And then when Peter pulls that back and says, okay, now as the church we are that, that means the way that he wanted to do an awe-inspiring thing in the midst of his holy nation, he wants to do awe-inspiring in the midst of his holy church.

That's God's promise in what he does.

And then he goes on to say, I'm going to take you to the land that I promised you, and I'm going to give it to you.

I'm going to drive out all your enemies.

I'm going to do this work because I, God, am going to do an awe-inspiring thing.

Because I have a purpose for you.

You're going to be there, and I'm going to do this in you, and all the world's going to look at you and go, Wow.

How do we be a part of that?

That's what God does.

That's his character and what he does.

Now, let's read in Exodus chapter 40, because this is the this is the picture now.

Exodus 40 · chapter mention

This is the, we've put a period on, this is what it all looks like, and now he's going, okay, we're going forward, and this is how we're going to do it.

This to me is one of the most beautiful pictures in all scripture.

I mean, I I can't tell you how much I love this.

I said, I told the Chaffee congregation this morning, I can't wait to get heaven.

I hope they have movie theaters in heaven.

And I hope they give us, they show us what this stuff looked like.

You know, you watch movies now and they just make up junk in the movies, right?

I want to see the real movie of what this is like.

I mean, here's what he, you know, he's talking about a pillar of a cloud.

Pastor Dave and I were having coffee this week.

We were trying to figure out what that was like.

We were brainstorming how awesome that must have been, what it must have looked like, and all that kind of a deal.

And I'm picturing the tabernacle and this pillar, this pillar of a cloud that goes straight up.

It's vertical, it's huge, and wherever you are in the children of Israel, you can see it.

So picture this now.

The tabernacle has been finished.

They've put it in place.

The children of Israel are camped around the tabernacle.

God gave them a map in where each of the twelve tribes was supposed to be.

And if you lay out that map, it actually lays out, it looks like a cross.

Everything is pointing to Jesus, and he's teaching them who he is and what he's doing.

And here's what the Bible says in verse 33.

Next, Moses set up the surrounding courtyard for the tabernacle and the altar, and hung a screen for the gate of the courtyard.

So Moses finished the work.

He's now done it.

Again, the picture, what you're seeing, if you're children of Israel and you're camped up on the hill with your family and you're looking down, what you see is you see a tent in the middle.

A tent building.

That's the tabernacle.

It has two rooms in it.

The back part of it, the smaller room, is called the Holy of Holies.

The Ark of the Covenant is in there, and you know it's in there because when you tear down the tent and you go somewhere else and you watch them put it back, they put the Ark of the Covenant in that part of the tent.

You see it go in and you know where it went.

The outer room has a few pieces of furniture in it that relate to worship, and every one of those teach us about how to worship.

Last week in the men's business luncheon, I taught about the altar of incense and how that represents prayer, and it's on our chapter and first podcast.

So what happens is you see that tent go up, you see those things go in, you're looking in there, and then you see a wall, basically, a fence, a curtain-type fence that goes around and creates a courtyard around the building.

And you can just, you can't see through the curtain.

If you got a little elevation, maybe you can sort of peek over in the top of it.

And there's this gate in the front, and in that courtyard, there's the big altar where they do the sacrifices, and there's a thing that looks like kind of like a fountain, and that's where the priests would ceremonially cleanse themselves before they go into the tabernacle to do their work in that larger outer room where the furniture is.

That's what we're seeing.

Moses has finished it, it's done.

Everyone is watching, and here's what happens: the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

The Israelites set out whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle throughout all the stages of their journey.

If the cloud was not taken up, they didn't go anywhere until the day it left.

For the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and there was a fire inside that cloud by night, visible to the entire house of Israel throughout all the stages of their journey.

Now you think about this.

You're standing there with your family, and you got grandma and grandpa, and you got the grandkids, and everybody, y'all look, kids, everybody's looking, we're watching.

This is a big momentous moment because the tabernacle is finished, they've set it up for the first time, it's complete for the first time.

Moses heads in.

Moses, our leader, Moses who meets with God.

Moses who has been up on the mountain with God.

Moses who has been so close and communicating with a person of God that he received the tablets that God carved himself.

Moses has been in the presence of God.

That's Moses.

And you watch him walk in the gate, you see him stand around the tabernacle, the presence of God in the form of this cloud, God makes it visible that he is there.

And Moses walks up to the tabernacle.

Moses who's been in the presence of God is so overwhelmed with this presence of God, he can't even walk into the tabernacle.

I mean, God, he's been in God's presence, and yet it is so overwhelming, he can't even be in the presence.

It's powerful.

God is making a statement to his people: I am here in your midst.

I am here.

He is teaching them how to walk by faith with him.

I am here.

Worship me, follow with me, trust me.

We're going to do this together.

I am here in your midst.

And he makes it visible to them so that they can learn what it means to follow God and to walk with him.

There's three simple things I want you to kind of look at with me this morning, following up on that idea.

That pillar of cloud, it is a that cloud and the fire in the middle of it at night, it's a fixed image of God's presence.

The Bible says it was visible to the entire house of Israel throughout all the stages of their journey.

You always knew that God was there.

You could always, whatever you're doing over here and all this kind of stuff, you may be on the backside of the farthest tribe from the deal.

But the Bible says you could look up and you could see that pillar of cloud and know that God is there.

He establishes this presence.

And then he talks to them about how we're going to live and how we're going to do this journey, always calling them back to his presence and using that to teach them how to trust him.

First thing I want you to see, lesson one, is worship.

Because we're seeing a lot of this stuff.

Man, they're sacrificing every kind of animal they can lay their hands on, right?

I mean, you got turtle doves and you got cows and you got sheep and you got, I mean, it's like it never ends.

All that, like all this sacrificing, all this stuff.

You're bringing grain offerings and you're doing all, I mean, every, it's all.

What does all that mean?

Well, here's what we understand.

The Bible says that God filled the tabernacle and he established, verse 38, the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle.

Why is it over the tabernacle?

Of all the ways that God could have shown them his presence, he puts it over the tabernacle because he is teaching them when you do all this worship stuff, all these aspects of that worship is calling you to trust in me.

Every way you do this, every lamb, every turtle dove, every splatter of blood, every type of worship, every feast, all of that stuff, it is all calling us to worship to focus on the presence of God so we know he's there and who he is and how to trust him.

That's why he put it there.

Let me give you some examples.

First of all, their financial offerings.

Now we read about that, right?

The Bible says that God called the children of Israel through Moses, and Moses said, Hey, I want y'all to bring all these materials to make this beautiful tabernacle.

The tabernacle is going to sit in front of the people, the tabernacle that they're going to look at and then look up to see that God's presence is there.

God has them bring all the stuff.

They bring all that stuff.

Why?

Well, think about it.

Where did they get all that gold and material and all that?

They got it from Egypt.

They were slaves.

They didn't own anything.

And when Pharaoh finally let them go, they were.

Were lavished with wealth and money and gold and silver and all that stuff, tapestries and cloth and stuff to weave with and all that, and they took all of that out of Egypt.

Before they were learning to trust in God, what did they do with their money and stuff?

When God wasn't there quick enough, or Moses wasn't there quick enough, they took their stuff and they made their own golden calf with it.

Because they hadn't learned yet how to trust God.

And then God says, Okay, we're gonna fix that.

You're gonna have to learn this lesson because wherever you got is mine.

I just loaned it to you.

And so now you bring all that.

And when God forgives them of the golden calf and all that, then they come and they bring all their stuff.

And the Bible says the offering went so well that Moses literally had to come back and go, okay, y'all, the garage is full, don't bring any more.

Like we don't need any more.

Like, keep what you got.

I'm just waiting for an offering like that, just once in my lifetime as a pastor.

Just once.

Talk about awe-inspiring, right?

Why?

Why?

Why does he do it that way?

God doesn't need their money.

He's the one that gave them all that coming out of slavery and made somebody else that hated him give it to them.

Like, how awesome is that?

He does that all the time.

When Nehemiah has to go back and rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, God makes the pagan king give him a credit card with no limit to go buy all the stuff to build the wall around Jerusalem.

God does that all the time.

He doesn't need our money.

Here's what he needs: He needs his people to learn to trust him.

So God made them give to the tabernacle.

And then the Bible says, as you read it, God gave skills to the people who made all of that stuff, and they did it.

So why?

So now our family is standing there and looking at that, and they're looking at the power of God, and grandma's weeping, and granddad gets on his knees and he's worshiping, and dad is putting his arms around the kids and goes, Y'all, that's God.

That's God.

You see that?

That's God.

And then he says, kids, you see that section of the wall right there on that tent?

You see that right there?

Our family gave that.

We're worshiping the Lord.

We built that right there, kids.

Hey, kids, you see the top of the altar right there?

You see that right there with the horns coming out, all that big thing?

That's where they sacrifice the lambs for our forgiveness.

You know, that's when we came out and we sacrificed the lamb to Passover, and that's where they do that.

How about you to know?

Uncle Hiram was one of the men that built that.

That's our God.

We serve and love him because of all he's done for that.

And you see, their giving to that turns their worship into trusting the Lord and what he's done and what it means and where it came from.

And he gave us this, and so we gave back to him.

And look what God is doing.

He is inhabiting our worship to him when we gave to that.

The sacrifices are the same way.

All that sacrifice and all that, it constantly reminds them God has taught us that sin is punished.

There is no payment for sin without the shedding of blood.

And we bring these to the Lord because He has promised to forgive.

And our God forgives us because He loves us.

Even when we mess up, our God forgives us because He loves us.

And kids, like we get to the Passover time and we sacrifice that lamb, and the whole the high priest is taken in there, and you're teaching your kids about it, and you're going, kids, that's a promise.

We have to do this every year to remind ourselves that one day God has promised to send the Messiah who will do that once and for all.

Kids, we are looking forward to the return of the Messiah.

Kids, that means that God loves you and He will always forgive you if you come back to Him.

And every one of those is calling us to worship and understand that.

The specialty of those things, the specificity of it, exactly how it to be, according to this pattern.

We talked about the men's luncheon the other day, the incense that went into the altar.

It was a very specific formula, and it was only to be used in that altar of incense in the tabernacle.

And God says, listen, I don't care if you like the smell, I don't care what you want, you do not use this anywhere but in this spot.

You do not use it anywhere else.

It is holy to the Lord.

And what is he teaching them?

How holy our prayers are to the Lord and how we pray and how we come to him repentant and how all that is.

And all of that is in a lesson.

Every bit of it.

The oil is the same way.

The anointing of the oil, there, there you can only make the oil this way, and has a specific recipe, and here's what it does.

And it smells a certain way, and it acts a certain way, and you're not to use it anywhere else.

Man, I don't know if you've ever been anointed by oil.

It is a strange experience.

You know, the Bible says that when they anointed Aaron, it like ran down his beard and all that.

How many of you remember promise keepers?

You're showing how old you are, right?

It was a movement of God amongst men, and we were coming to stadiums and arenas and praying and worshiping, and men were getting saved, and it was awesome and all that.

Well, we had one of those in Memphis.

It was at the Liberty Bowl Stadium, and we did all that, and our church was a part of the leadership team in that, and I was working on that because I was a minister of men.

We had these worship events afterwards where men would get together in different churches and they would host us.

The churches were involved, and all these men would come together and we'd do that.

And I was on the platform, somehow I got I was given the honor to be to lead the prayer time as men were praying at the end.

And so I was on the stage.

So we went to this one church, it was an African-American church, it was a great church, it was an incredible experience.

We got a lot to learn about worship, y'all.

And when you go into a church where they worship, you know we got like we like we're super uptight.

We got to learn to worship.

Myself and a bunch of men from our church who are involved with Pathway to Freedom.

We went to the prison in Riceville on Friday, and we got to preach and we got to meet with those guys and have mentor meetings and all that.

Let me tell you what, those guys worship, those guys know what it means to be forgiven.

And they sing their guts out before the Lord with grateful hearts.

Men who are tatted up with gang tats and everything else, man, they are raising those tatted arms to Jesus because he has freed them in salvation.

Man, we got a lot to learn at worship.

And it was an incredible experience being in that church.

And one of the things they did, their prayer time, they got us all in a chair, in a row of chairs.

All the guys were on the platform.

So I'm sitting in this chair, and all these other guys, and they're coming by and their leaders are praying over us.

And so it almost like a deacon ordination.

They pray over this guy, and they pray over this guy and pray over this guy, and other people in line, and all these people are laying hands on you, and they're praying, and we're praying.

It was incredible.

I mean, I'm I'm in awe.

We're worshiping, this is going on, and all of a sudden I feel this something feels like a fly in the top of my hair.

I'm like, and I didn't know what that was, and all of a sudden my fingers are greedy.

And about that time I feel something running down the back of my neck.

I'm thinking, ooh.

And I'm thinking, I'm gonna get home, my wife's gonna say, What'd you do to ruin that tie?

This is one of those we had ties on all that.

And I got, and all of a sudden you start to smell it, and you go, Oh, that's oil.

Like, ugh, like it's down my shirt now, and it's running in my belt, down in my boxer shorts, and it's like, this is uh, what are we doing?

And I'm it's like, and we're praying, and all these people are praying, and somebody puts their hand on my head, and now it's kind of gross because it got that oil in it.

And like, I don't like oily product, right?

And now I'm going bald, I don't even need it anymore.

But it was just all of that, and then there's this, and and then all of a sudden there's this aroma as they're doing that with all the guys around me, and all these people are praying out loud, and I mean it was powerful, it was powerful.

I mean, it's the only time I've been in an experience like that.

I thought, man, that's incredible.

And I get this picture in the Old Testament, and you think about it, you're not just using any old oil.

You're using the oil that was designed by God with a recipe that smells a certain way and has a certain form and that represents certain things, and he's pouring that on you, and you're praying, and all of that is calling me to the presence of God.

You can only do this sacrifice for this, you can only do this sacrifice for this, you can only do this sacrifice for this.

Why the specificity in all that?

Because every one of those is a lesson that God is trying to teach us the significance of worship and who he is, and something about his character, and something about his forgiveness for us, and it calls us to him.

And every one of those detailed things you read, all of a sudden, if you begin to look at those or what they are, God is teaching them how to worship because that focuses them on his presence, and God is there, and now I can trust him because he's there.

These acts of consecration in there.

I mean, every stinking thing they do in there sounds like they go throw blood on somebody.

You throw it on the furniture, you throw on the priest, you throw on people, you throw, like, why are you flicking this blood on me all the time?

Because the consecration is the shed blood of Jesus is what forgives our sins and brings us into his presence.

He is teaching us that we are consecrated to him.

When Jesus died for you on the cross and he bought you with his blood, you are not yours any longer.

You are his, consecrated to him, and you got to do it his way and what he wants to do, and he is now the Lord, and you are not, and you are consecrated to him, and it required the blood of Jesus to set you apart.

And all of that is designed in worship to bring us to him.

Now, if these are faith lessons for us, how did you come to church this morning?

How do we prepare for church?

What are we doing in all that we're doing?

Man, we live in a world today where it's great, man.

I just hang out at the lake house all the time and just check it in online.

Find out what weird thing Pastor Greg said this week.

There's a much higher commitment level to worshiping the Lord that we have in the New Testament than they even had in the Old Testament.

Pray without ceasing.

The Great Commission.

Go into all the world, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you.

There's a level of consecration to this.

And when we lead someone to Christ, we're not supposed to teach them that 50% attendance gets it done.

We're supposed to teach them that we are consecrated to the Lord and we have an obligation to this, and everything we do in this process is pointing us to the Lord, and it's all designed to teach us to trust in Him.

Regardless of what's happening in our life, regardless of whatever's there, we are trusting in Him and what He's doing.

The details of it, the seriousness of it.

Man, we get this, we take this whole grace thing like way too far.

Like we're free.

We're not in the Old Testament, man.

We're like free, you know.

So I can worship in the deer stand, man.

It's cool.

Like I'm seeing God, you know.

I have my quiet time in the car on the way to work.

Seriously.

Learn a little bit about what worship is and the standard and requirement of who we're supposed to be as we come to the Lord.

And see if it doesn't teach us and elevate our walk with the Lord to an entirely new level of faith and intimacy.

We learn from that.

Then the others are easy.

It's easy to move from there.

Once you have that worship and you're focused on the person of God and who we are and how we come from Him, the other two are easy.

The Bible says here, the Israelites set out when the cloud went.

They stayed when the cloud stayed.

It's teaching us that God's direction for us calls us to trust in His presence.

He's going to lead us where we should be.

He's going to keep us out of where we should not be.

He's going to work where He's working, and we want to be where He is and where He's working.

Once I've worshiped and I know who He is, then I always want to be there.

And so wherever the cloud is, that's where I am.

If it goes, I'm going.

If it stays, I'm staying.

And so the Bible teaching us, as we walk daily by faith, what do you think it means to walk by faith?

It means that I am pursuing the presence of God in my life, and where God is, I'm going to stay there, and where he's not, I'm not going there.

If God leaves and goes somewhere else, I'm going there.

When I'm praying about whether I take a new job, or I'm praying about, you know, this relationship thing, or I'm praying about what I'm going to do with my kids, or I'm praying about how I'm going to do my finances, or I'm praying about direction and decision, whatever it is.

My first prayer is like, God, where are you in this?

Because I want to be where you are.

I had a friend used to, a friend a while ago used to tell us all the time, God's everywhere, go where the money is.

Yeah, okay.

But we're talking about a little bit more detailed than that, right?

Where's God and where does he want me to be?

And that's where I want to be.

Because I've learned in worship who God is and what he's doing, and now I'm learning I want to be there.

And so God is literally teaching them.

He could guide them all kinds of ways.

He could give map, Moses, a map, and say, Hey, I'll meet you there.

He can do however he wanted to.

But he shows up in a visible presence and he requires us to follow him so that we learn being in his presence is where I'm supposed to be.

And lesson three then follows from that.

If I've worshipped and I know who God is, and now I'm following him to be where he is, then God's provision calls us to trust in God's presence.

That's the lesson of the manna and the quail.

God could have fed the children of Israel in all kinds of ways.

He could have blessed their crops, he could have made them great hunters, he could have done all kinds of stuff.

There's a point later on where they're claiming about food and they're complaining about it.

All we get is manna and quail, man and quail, quail and manna, man and quail.

What are we having for today?

Well, we had manna, waffles yesterday, manna pancakes today, manna, omelets today.

Like, I'm tired of manna.

Like, God, do something else.

He says, I'm tired of hearing you complaining, and I'm so tired of it.

I'm gonna show you this as a trust deal, and I'm gonna bury you in pheasant.

Crank up the grill because y'all are about to have a feast like you've never seen before, and he buries them in pheasant just to prove he is a God who provides.

He could have provided in all the ways he wanted to, but he does the manna thing.

And here's what he says: every day you pick up just enough for today.

Like I know in Arkansas we love our mason jars, right?

Like, let's go canning and let's save stuff, and man, we love mason jars in my house.

We even start putting the leftovers and stuff in mason jars in the house, right?

So dad tells mama, go get you mason jars.

We're gonna pick up enough manna today, we're gonna do that and save some for tomorrow so we can sleep a little late.

We don't have to get up early.

And what happens?

The next day, the manna, it says, is filled with maggots and worms, and it stinks so bad you can't even leave it in the tent.

Why?

Why does God do that?

Why does he destroy the second day?

Because he makes you get up every day and get the manna that day because you're learning that God provides for you and it's teaching us to trust in God.

And by the way, the manna goes where God goes.

The cloud goes down the street and you don't go, there ain't no manna around your tent.

God's provision is where God's direction is, and God's direction is we learn to follow him when we're worshiping.

And the Bible teaches us this, it makes it clear.

That's why you don't skip over stuff like Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Look at what it says in Deuteronomy.

He reminds them exactly of what the manna is.

The Bible says there in that verse, and I actually have it right here, if we don't have it on the screen.

Uh here's what he says.

I had it in my notes.

There it is, Deuteronomy 8.3.

He humbled you by letting you go hungry, then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that the man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

He is giving them provision to teach them dependence and trust on him.

And so you go where God is, because that's where his presence is, and his presence is where he provides for us.

And I learned that when I'm in God's presence, he provides for me, and I learned that I can trust the Lord and that it calls me to worship the Lord, and I worship the Lord for what he is and what he does, and I'm reminded I'm a sinner and shed blood, covers my sin, and one day I'll provide the redeemer.

And I've learned about provision.

And is he going to really provide the redeemer?

Well, I know he is because he provides manna every day and quail at night.

And I know that God provides, and so I worship him more because he provides.

And the cloud moves, and you go, Oh, mama, let's pick up the tent.

God's moving, we're going.

Because we don't want to be anywhere that God is not.

And God's teaching them to trust in the Lord.

That's how he turns them into his people.

And in our lives, God does these things in our lives.

They are lessons and classrooms for us to learn to trust the Lord so we can have a relationship with him in the walk of life.

And the relationship begins first and foremost with the very first decision you make to trust the Lord, and that is to trust Jesus, the promised and provided Redeemer, as your Savior.

All of that blood, as we talked about, all of that sacrifice, it was all to remind us that sin must be punished.

He promised in the Old Testament and He provided.

Historically, we see in the New Testament that Jesus was that promised Redeemer.

He stepped out of heaven, he lived a sinless life, and just like they would have to get a sinless lamb to go shed his blood for the cover of their sins because there was no blemish in the Lamb, it was a perfect lamb, and so in perfection, it could cover our sin.

Jesus, as a man, lived a sinless life.

He never sinned, and he went to the cross and he voluntarily gave his life there for us.

So a sinless life that had no judgment attached to it, sacrificed for sin, could be a substitute for ours.

But you have to place your faith in Jesus Christ.

The manna is only where God is.

If God goes and you go this way, you have no provision.

You don't come to Jesus on your own terms, you come to Jesus in the way that he calls us to come.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him will never perish but have everlasting life.

It's faith in him and what he did.

And how do you come to Jesus?

You take your life, everything you've been, everything you are, everything you ever will be, and you turn it all over to him.

That's what worship is.

I give it all to him.

I worship on his terms.

I surrender my life to him the way he has taught me to do that.

But when you give your life to Jesus, he will save you and he will do more with your life than you can ever imagine, and you will spend an eternity in heaven with him because he has paid the price for your sin.

He has consecrated us through his shed blood when we make him the Lord and Savior of our life.

Why don't you bow your heads as we close?

And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want to invite you to give your life to Jesus.

Trust him.

All this stuff we're reading, it is all pointing to Jesus.

The way of salvation.

If you've never trusted him, come and give your life to him.

We'll have pastors and deacons at our aisles down here.

Listen, you don't have, we're not pressuring you into decision.

We're just giving you the opportunity.

If you want to come and ask questions, come ask questions.

If you want to come and just set up an appointment.

If you want to find one of us after the service and do it then, that's fine.

You don't have to necessarily walk the aisle.

We do this time to let you know God's calling you to a decision and we're here to help you with that.

If you're ready to get saved, come give your life to Christ.

Don't hesitate.

Do it now.

He's spoken to you and loves you.

Come and give your life to him.

If you'd like to talk about it, you have questions, you want to research some more, we're here to take that journey with you.

We're here just to serve you in that journey.

Let us know how we can walk with you.

If you're already a brother and sister in Christ, you need a church home.

There's a standard to walking with Jesus.

Come and join us.

We'll help you, you help us.

Come be a part of our church family.

Let's walk this journey together.

If you need prayer, come, let us pray for you.

We're in this together as a family.

If we can pray for you, come.

Let us pray for you.

This is a time where we get to choose to have faith in what God's doing in your life.

Lord, we love you and we thank you.

And I ask, Father, as we continue to read through Leviticus, that you'll give us fresh eyes to see how you teach us, how things you ask us or command us to do help place our faith in you, how they relate to the promised Messiah, how they teach us to be your people, that you can do an awe-inspiring work in.

Meet with your people as we read through these studies.

And this morning, as we close the service, as we sing a hymn of worship to you for what you've done for us.

Lord, I pray if there's someone who has a spiritual decision to make, give them the freedom to make it.

If they need to be saved, Father, give them the freedom to come.

We pray these in the saving name of Jesus and all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and first of the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith at the First Methodist Church.