This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - This is day three, week six of our look through the book of
Exodus. So that means we're in chapter 28 today. And this is a chapter that's
all about the garments for the priests.

Now these chapters as we read through them, it's easy for us to think, what does
this have to do with me? It has everything to do with you. I'll show you as we
walk through this why it has so much to do with you and I as we talk about the
garments of the priests.

But first, just a few verses. What happened, how God began to outline how the
priests of God were to dress. In chapter 28, verses one to four.

Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his
sons, Nadab and Abahu, Eliezer and Ithamar, so that they may serve me as
priests. Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and
honor. Tell all the skilled men to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that
they are to make garments for Aaron for his consecration so that he may serve me
as priest.

These are the garments they are to make. A breast piece, an ephod, a robe, a
woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for
your brother Aaron and his sons that they may serve me as priests.

Now that's just the start, the first four verses. This is a whole chapter on
priests' clothes. And in this chapter on priests' clothes, if you were to read
through it, there would be a couple of verses just in the description of the
clothing before we get to the meaning of the clothing.

There'd be a couple of verses that would pop out to you. Verse 30 particularly.
If you were reading through this chapter, you'd think, what does that mean?

Exodus 28, 30. Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breast piece so that
they may be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord. Thus
Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his
heart before the Lord.

Now what is this all about? It sounds just like a tongue twister, Urim and
Thummim. And how do you say that?

You see this place, this breast piece of decision again and again through the
Old Testament. People making decisions from time to time with this Urim and this
Thummim. Saul in 1 Samuel 14, 41 asks, inquires of the Urim and the Thummim.

The tribe of Levi in Deuteronomy 33, 8 talks about that God's will is revealed
by the Urim and the Thummim. All through the Old Testament, we have this sense
of getting to know God's will by somehow, it seems like the idea is they cast
lots and whatever of these, maybe they were two, many people think, we're not
sure. Many people think they were two precious stones and whichever one was
picked out of a bag or whichever one had this side up or that side up.

That gave a sense of this is God's decision in this situation. Throughout the
Old Testament, you have this. People making decisions from time to time, not all
the time, using Urim and Thummim or in other places, they'd put out a fleece and
they'd say, if it's wet, then God wants me to do this.

If it's not wet, if it's still dry, God wants me to do this. Remember that with
Gideon. Even in the New Testament, you have some of this.

Remember, they cast lots to decide who would take Judas' place as an apostle in
the Book of Acts. So the question we have is, is this a good way to make
decisions today? It sounds sort of attractive.

I mean, I can just throw some dice and if I get below a seven, then it's this.
If I get above a seven, it's this. If it's seven, then I just wait.

Some of you are thinking, yeah, that's how to make God's decisions. Absolutely
not. That is not how we make decisions today.

Why? Because you have God's indwelling Holy Spirit. Now, sometimes God does say
wait through his spirit, but also God can give direction through his spirit.

You have the personal voice of God in your life. So we no longer need things
like this. Now, that's the Urim and the Thummim.

There is an even more important question in this chapter. And the question is,
what do we wear as believers? What do we wear?

This is a chapter all about what the priests were to wear, so what are we to
wear? Remember, we've talked about it several times. We are all priests now as
believers.

It's not like some are priests and some are not. We're all priests now as
believers. Some people think, well, why don't all pastors today, pastors,
leaders of churches, wear some kind of special clothes, something that separates
them from everybody else so you can say, okay, there's the pastor and there's
not.

I mean, I gotta look for the guy that's carrying the Bible now to try to figure
out who the pastor is, or at least the guy carrying the big black Bible. Oh
yeah, he's probably the pastor. Couldn't it be better if they wear these special
clothes like Aaron did?

Absolutely not. That's the wrong thing to do. We're all priests now.

All of us are equal before him. So what do we wear now as believers? Well,
there's several places in the New Testament that we're told what we wear now as
believers.

One of them is Colossians three. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and
dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness,
and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have
against one another.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which
binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians three, 12 to 14 says, what
do we wear now?

We wear compassion, we wear kindness, we wear humility, we wear gentleness, we
wear patience. We wear, in a sense, the fruit of the spirit in our lives. God's
spirit is in our lives, and so because of that, people are able to see the
evidence of that in the way that we talk, in the way that we act, in the people
that we are.

That's what we wear now as believers. It's not some kind of clothes on the
outside that give the dignity and the honor now. It's God's spirit on the inside
that he has honored us with.

And out of that flow the compassion, the kindness, the humility, the gentleness,
the patience. Now, one more time, let me read those words. And think, Lord,
where do I need to put that on today?

You got up this morning, whenever that was, recently, long time ago, you decided
what clothes you're going to wear for the day to day. You wanted to look a certain
way for a certain circumstance. What about these clothes?

Where do you need to put on compassion? Who do you need to show kindness? Where
do you need to have humility?

Where do you need to put on gentleness? Where do you need to wear patience
today? Remember, these are gifts of the spirit.

So even as Aaron was dressed as a priest, skilled craftsman, made this priest's
clothing that he was to wear, and then they would put it on him, you and I are
clothed by the spirit of God. It's not something you do on your own. You
recognize you're clothed by God's spirit.

He's the skilled craftsman who works out these articles of clothing in our
lives. That's how we're to dress as believers. Now, this, in regard to how we
treat other people, there's another section in scripture, Ephesians 4, 22 to 24,
that talks about a new way of dressing in regard to how you grow in your life.

You were taught, in regard to your former way of life, to put off the old self,
which is being corrupted by what you made new in the attitude of your minds, and
to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness. So what do we put on? We put on the new person we are in Christ.

And then if you read over to Ephesians chapter six, we read a section of
scripture that says we're also to put on spiritual armor. You remember that
section that talks about we've got to put on the helmet of salvation. We've got
to have the shield of faith.

We have to have our shoes shod with the gospel of peace. We've got to put on
spiritual armor in our lives to protect us from the attacks of Satan in this
world. Those are the ways that you and I clothe ourselves today.

But in all of this, as we read through these chapters about the tabernacle and
now about the priests, we keep coming back, coming back to this same truth. You
are a tabernacle, a temple of God. You are a priest of God.

So these chapters are about you. God wants to clothe me. He wants to clothe you
in a different way, because now you are a priest.

And we've just read how. Now, reading it for me is one thing. Living it is
another thing.

I need God's power for that. Let's pray for his power right now. Our Father, we
pray today that by your strength, through your spirit, you would clothe us today
with compassion, with kindness, with humility, with gentleness, with patience.

That's how Jesus treated people. So we pray that you would clothe us in a way
that in some miraculous way, someone we meet today could see something of Jesus
in us. We know, Lord, we cannot do this on our own strength and power.

So we ask for your power. We ask for your strength to put off the former way of
life, to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and to put on the new self that
you've made in Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to take a deeper look at what it means for God to dwell
with us.