This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to week six of our look through the book of Exodus. This is day one of
week six, so we're in chapter 26 today. We're continuing to walk through what
God's Word has to say to us in Exodus about how to be set free.

We're looking at the life of freedom. The first part of Exodus is really about
how God sets us free, and the last half of Exodus is how do you live in this
life of freedom, and we've come across things like you've got to watch out for
the little things, and really in the life of Moses, it was bread and water that
God used to deal in their lives. Bread, manna, water that came out of a rock.

You've got to watch out for the little things. As you do that, in the little
things of life, you have to consider God's care, you have to obey God's
direction. We've been looking also in this life of freedom, especially this
week, at the fact that you have to understand who you really are.

In the book of Exodus, when we read about the tabernacle, when we read about
priests, it's not just about something that happened a long time ago. We're
going to remind ourselves again this week that it's the story of our lives. Now
we are the temple of God.

Now we are all priests of God, so this is the story of how God wants to work in
our lives as part of living the life of freedom. We're going to see even next
week as we continue through the history of the life of Moses that another great
principle in this life of freedom is the principle of forgiveness. Moses has a
lot to teach us about forgiveness.

If you're going to live the life of freedom, you have to forgive. You have to
forgive those who have hurt you. Otherwise, the bitterness will eat you up.

This week, we are continuing to focus on understanding who you really are.
Today, the tabernacle. In fact, Exodus chapter 26 is a chapter that's about the
curtains and the coverings of the tabernacle with verses like 1 and 2.

"Make the tabernacle with 10 curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple,
and scarlet yarn. With cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman. All the
curtains are to be the same size, 28 cubits long and four cubits wide.

" Now if I were to read on verse after verse, you would see that the detail of
what they were to do is amazing. This in many ways is like a building
contractor's chapter. This is the plan for what was to happen in the exterior
structure of the tent of the tabernacle.

Now remember that all of this is not just a building plan. All of it's to look
forward to the holiness of God and the person of Jesus and what God wants to do
in your life as he makes you a temple of the Holy Spirit. It's interesting in
this chapter how exact the details are and it's a reminder to me that sometimes,
oftentimes, God allows us to bring creativity and ideas to the things that we're
doing for him as we follow him.

But there are times, and this is one of them in this chapter, when God says, "Do
it this way. " I may not understand totally why it's supposed to be that size or
have that in it, but God says, "Do it this way. " And when I sense that, then I
got to do it that way.

There's times in your life when the direction is clear and then the obedience
out of that must be exact. Now this is a chapter about clear direction for
curtains in the tabernacle. What could that have to do with us?

Let me read for you verses 31 to 33. "Make a curtain of blue, purple, and
scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen with cherubim worked into it by skilled
craftsmen and hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with
gold and standing on four silver bases. Hang the curtain from the clasps and
place the arc of the testimony behind the curtain.

The curtain will separate the holy place from the most holy place. " In this
tabernacle and later in the temple, there were two rooms. There was the holy
place and the most holy place.

The holy place was where many of the priests could go or some of the priests
could go to offer sacrifices and to care for the items that were in that place.
The most holy place was the place where the Ark of the Covenant was, where the
mercy seat of God was, where offering was made once a year for the sins of the
people. Only once a year could you go into that most holy place.

And this curtain that we just read about is the curtain that was made that
divided the holy place from the most holy place. The most holy place was the
place of God's most intimate presence. That's where you had to go to make
offering for the sins of the people.

And there was a dividing wall, a dividing curtain between the two. You see, in
Old Testament times, God's dwelling was with people but not in people. But when
we come to the New Testament, God's going to do something entirely different and
it has to do with this curtain.

This curtain is going to be involved in the change of address that Jesus is
going to work out for us when it comes to the presence of God. Look at what
happened to this curtain, not this exact one, but the one that was in the temple
at that time, the curtain that divided the holy place from the most holy place.
Look at what happened to this curtain when Jesus died on the cross, Matthew 27,
50 to 51.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At
that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The
earth shook and the rocks split.

What an amazing moment. Jesus dies on the cross, the earth shakes, the rocks
split. The scripture tells us in other verses that people actually came out of
their graves.

They were resuscitated for a time because of the power of what happened when
Jesus gave his life for us on the cross and then something else happened. This
curtain, this curtain in the temple was torn in two and it was torn in two from
top to bottom. The hands of God reached down from heaven, grasped this and tore
it in two, ripped it in two.

What's God saying here? What's God saying here? The places where God allowed the
Jewish people to experience his presence were the tabernacle and the temple in
Jerusalem.

And there was this one place in the tabernacle and the temple where they most
specifically experienced his presence, the Holy of Holies. And in that Holy of
Holies, only one person, as I just said, the high priest, was allowed to enter
that place once a year to make offering for the sins of the people. After he'd
made purification for his own sins, he went in and he offered for the sins of
everyone in Israel.

In fact, it was such a holy place, before he went in they tied a rope to him
because he was the only one that could go in. No one else could go in without
dying. They tied a rope to him in case he had a heart attack while he was in
there and died.

No one could go in to get him out. They would die too so they tied a rope to him
so if something happened they could pull him out. That's how holy this place
was, this dwelling of God.

And when Jesus died on the cross, this curtain is torn in two from top to
bottom. God was sending the world his change of address. God was saying, "I
don't live here anymore.

I'm going to live in the people of God. I'm going to live in the hearts of my
people. " One of the most significant spiritual changes in human history
happened the moment Jesus died on the cross.

Everything changed and so now you and I get to not just go and experience the
presence of God. Go to a place where I can be near the presence of God. But you
get to be a temple of the presence of God.

That is the goodness and the grace and the power of God. So to be set free, I've
got to remember who I really am. And who are you?

You're the one in whom the dwelling of God now resides. Now do you feel like
that every day? I don't.

I don't. I see my own temptations. I see my own sins.

I see my own struggles. I feel anything but a dwelling place of God, anything
but a temple. So to be set free, what do I do?

I can either try to be what I already am, try to live up to it, try to feel like
a temple, try to feel like a holy place of God, or I can accept by faith who God
has made me to be. Trying to do it on my own energy and strength and power.
That's exactly where Satan wants you to live.

That's a place of depression and discouragement because you'll never feel holy.
You'll never feel like a temple of God. This is by faith and not by sight.

So I accept, God, you've done something different in my life. You changed
everything when Jesus died. You tore that curtain in two.

You changed everything when I came to you. You came into my heart, into my life.
And so by faith, I accept that today.

Help me to live by faith today. Let's pray right now that God would do exactly
that in my life, your life. Our Father today, help us to remember to live out
the truth that the curtain was torn in two.

From top to bottom, help us to remember that you live in us. As we've accepted
you, Jesus, put our faith in you, I pray that you would allow us today the
strength to put faith in you moment by moment, realizing that you live in us,
whether we feel like it or not, whether we've stumbled or not, whether we've
struggled or not, whether we've succeeded or not. You're right there with us.

You are in us by your promise. You're in us by your power, the power of the
cross and resurrection. So I pray, pray for myself, for every one of us, help us
to live by faith in that power today.

In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. We use very much today the word ordinance and the
powerful meaning that's behind that word.