Exodus 35:1–5Scripture
Our assignment today was Exodus 35, 36, and 37. I'm going to do Exodus 35:1–5, and I already have six pages of notes for that. If you know me, that's really bad. So we're not getting through all of that. We're probably going to get through a page, maybe two if we're lucky. And I will be happy to share this with you. You can read through them or whatever if you would like, but I'm not getting through all that unless a miracle happens, and those do happen. So, Exodus 35, let me read this. Let's read this together, 1 through 5. "Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, 'These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do.'" Yeah. Now, some of us might write that off because it's the Old Testament. "We're under grace now. We don't have to do nothing. We're just a big giant couch potato for Christ." But the doing part is not abolished. When you come and you are a believer in Christ, when you put your faith in Christ Jesus, when you are saved by faith, you know that he created you, then made you a new creation in Christ Jesus. It says in the New Testament, for good works, and those good works he prepared in advance for you to do. So there still is a doing, even if you're somebody who's under grace. And we are glad that we are not justified by works. But it does not mean that works are abolished in the life of a believer. But those works then are empowered not by human will but by divine intervention, through the power of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Okay? Okay. So there is a command, and the command requires doing. Verse two: "Six days work shall be done." That's
Introduction
A command. Work shall be done. "But on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest." That word "solemn" is key. See, we just think about rest. We don't think about solemn rest. There's a difference between rest and solemn rest. Don't let that be lost on you. And if we get there in my notes, and hopefully we can, that "solemn" is key. "Holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death." That's some pretty stringent punishment.
How many of you have been guilty of breaking the Sabbath? Can you imagine yourself just dropping dead when you do? This is a big deal. "You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day." "Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, 'This is the thing that the LORD has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze.'" We're probably going to stay on verses 1 through 3, but I want to let you know that the duration of chapters 35 and 36 and 37 is command upon command about how to appropriately build out the tabernacle. We see what they're to do, how they're to function, what they're to give, and all that good stuff. Okay. So today, and for you note-takers out there, I'll just kind of give you the title of this sermon. It's "God's Presence, God's Way." Now, today we live in a generation where everybody's clamoring for God's presence. We sing songs. We cry out to the Lord for his presence. We are a people hungry for the presence of God. We pray for revival in churches and conferences and camp meetings. We sing songs and ask for the fire of God to fall and for the Spirit to move, not only merely in the hearts of men, but in a corporate fashion, where we know that this assembly has been touched by his presence. We want that in our midst. We don't merely want to come have some dried-up, old, decrepit service. We want to feel something, sense something, and know that he has joined us and he has met with us and he has shown up in the place. And beyond the fact that as believers we walk in it every single day, we carry the very presence of God. And this is really symbolic of his presence resting in a tent, now resting in you, for all who believe, because he's purified you, made you righteous, covered you with the blood of Christ, hidden you in Christ Jesus, put his Spirit in you, and now he resides in you like he used to reside in the tent amongst the Israelites, quite specifically on the ark of the covenant, between the two cherubim in the Holy of Holies. We want his presence to not merely be in us. We want to sense his resident presence amongst us like he did with the Israelites. And so we cry out for this.
But the question that I'm plagued with is, do we want God's presence on his terms or on ours?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:19
Very similar to the song that J.R. Is referring to. We acknowledge him in all of his ways until his ways aren't our ways, and then we're not sure we want his presence to fall. I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of places in the Scripture that when his presence fell, it didn't feel so good. I might get an amen from the Sodom and Gomorrah crowd today. Can you get it? Are you with me today? I don't need to break it down for you too much. You've been in your Word a little bit. But sometimes God's presence falls, and it don't feel so good. Are you with me today? And so we want his presence, but oftentimes we want it on our terms. Israel had just experienced God's glory.
They saw fire on the mountain, heard it quake. They saw the residue of God's presence on Moses's face. They heard his voice quite literally. But when Moses delayed, they built a golden calf. I don't want this to be lost on you. You got to understand what's happening here. They wanted God's presence, but they wanted it on their terms. And here in Exodus 35, now we see a shift. After the golden calf incident, and after Moses had interceded for the people, God begins to reset what worship looks like, what godly worship is. And he reminds the Israelites, "If you want me to dwell among you, it will be according to my word, and it will be my way." And when I don't operate my way, you don't go off and worship some other way you wish to worship.
There is a protocol to worship. It will be my way or the highway.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:38
That's how it's going to be, for you note-takers out there. So that's the problem. The problem is we want God's presence, but we want it our way. That's the problem. That was the problem then. It's the problem today. It was the problem thousands of years ago with the Israelites. It's still the problem today. We pick churches based on whether the worship tickles our fancy. Are you with me today? We base it on how we feel about the subject. The first thing I want to mention to you is,
Point 1We want God's presence on our terms
And I'll kind of recap, this is point one, I'm going to extend on this a little more: we want God's presence our way. So verse one says this: "these are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do." Listen, they are commanded here how to make a tent and an ark of the covenant and the altar. They're commanded with very specific details. The tent and the ark, this is important, represent God's presence. It's the ark where the Shekinah glory of the Lord we read about is, or the kavod in Hebrew. That's where it represents the presence of God, the manifest presence of God. Now, there's always God's omnipresence. We hear about God being in all places, at all times, and in all things, at all places, all the time. And when we think of God, we know that he's everywhere. If you've been in the Bible any amount of time, you know that he's everywhere. But only Israel got to enjoy his resident presence, or, another way they say it, his manifest presence. This is a special privilege. God is with everybody, but especially with his people. This is the key. He's specifically with them. Now, this should encourage your heart as believers.
There is a presence that is with his people that is not found anywhere else. It's specific. How many of you have ever met somebody, and you've hung out with them, maybe as a believer, some sort of amount of time, and after a time, there's no real conversation about how much you love the Lord or how much you walk with the Lord or how much you go to church or what you do for a living? For me specifically, "pastor" seems to really just bring everything to a halt in a conversation. But I will say that if you can get past the whole "What do you do for a living?" When you meet a man, for me specifically, and you can hang out with somebody, how many of you have ever run into the thing where somebody says, "I don't know what it is, but there's just something different about you"? It's his presence, because there's just something special about the presence of God on, in, and through the lives of his children.
It's manifest. They don't even have spiritual eyes to see it, and they can see it. They don't even have a spiritual heart to feel it, and they feel it. His presence is real and abiding in his people. Isn't that a beautiful thing to know? And sometimes his presence can be real with you, and you not even know that God's presence is abiding, and other people can see what you don't even notice. And in spite of you, his glory falls and rests and is resident and manifest, even to people who don't know him. That's good stuff. That's really encouraging. There is a presence that is with his people that's not found everywhere. Everywhere we look, God is.
There's no place that God is not. God is with all things and above all things, but his people have his resident presence, his glory, his Shekinah, his abiding presence. God's people are distinguished and set apart, it says in the Bible. And it's not by their dress. I know you think it's because of the way that we dress. Have you seen the way I dress up here? It's not the way you dress. You're not distinguished by the clothing style, or by the car you drive, or by the house you live in, or by your hairstyle. Wish I had some. Just pause for a second. Just pause for a second. This has nothing to do with my sermon. Sometimes I'm watching TV, particularly basketball lately, and I'll see somebody that has enough hair for five people, and I'll just randomly, in the middle of a basketball game, and I know this is not Christlike, I'll say, "I hate that person." Oh, no. Or I'll say, "That's rude." And Brook will be like, "The hair?" I'm like, "Yeah, that's rude. He has so much hair. He has eight hairs per follicle. It's not right. God should just disperse that to others thus lacking in that area." Amen. I got an amen from my bald brother in the back. Amen. All right. Not by your hairstyle, thank goodness. That's not why we're distinguished. Not by any other thing. We're distinguished by his glory, or his presence. It is one thing. It is the one thing we have deprioritized, I'm afraid, in our churches: his presence. What distinguishes us as a church is not the grandeur of the person or the grandeur of the building, but the grandeur of our God. Because this building can be, and we can still stand in awe every Sunday, or every time we gather, at the grandeur of our God. That's important. See, the problem is, we want God's presence our way. We want to bring God's presence into his house, but we want to do so in a way that makes us comfortable. We want his presence to show up, but we want to enjoy it. We want to like it. We want it to minister to us. So we've therefore designed most of our services to accommodate people rather than accommodate God. We've deprioritized God, and he has therefore become a secondary consequence to our worship. We'll worship him as long as he meets our needs, satisfies our hearts, makes us feel real charged up to be able to make it through another four days. Therefore, we've designed churches that are shaped by what is commonly known as seeker-sensitive ministries. And I get the urging for this. I care about lost people. Whenever I see a new person come into the fellowship, that I've been ministering to, that shows up to our church, I start thinking about them. But listen, we're not here because of them. We're here because of him. And now everything doesn't need to be catered down to the one lost soul, because if we worship him, God does what he does in the hearts of men.
What you have to understand is, you can have a fine church packed with thousands of people that can be empty. But if God is not there, it's a mausoleum.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:13
You're not the reason we come here this morning. It's so encouraging to come to Echo Church, isn't it? You're not the reason we're here today. He is the reason we come here. He's the reason. I know you want God's presence, but you don't get God's presence your way. And the reason you want it
Point 2Obedience is not a recommendation
Your way is because you think the reason we're here is you. Number two: obedience is not a recommendation. Verse two: "Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death." Woo! Really psyches me up. Obedience is not a recommendation. "Well, now in the New Testament we don't have to obey no more. Thank goodness. We just do whatever we want.
Grace." Both work and rest are commanded here, not just rest. Now, we know, according to Christ Jesus, according to the full gospel story, not just Exodus, but the full gospel story, that we enter into Christ's rest. But that does not mean we do not have work to do. It just means that work is empowered by God. It also means we're not justified by that work. We're justified by his work. Okay? But that does not mean that work is abolished. The command still stands. That's important for you to understand in the New Testament context that you sit and find yourself in today, those who are hidden in Christ and filled with his Spirit. Okay? You need to understand that work is still commanded, and so is rest. Church, listen: the Lord isn't asking for your opinion about this. He didn't take a poll. The church's worst idea ever is to take polls. He didn't take a poll. The Lord isn't asking for your permission. He's not floating a suggestion. He is issuing a divine command. That's lost on us in our culture, because we live in a very democratic world where everybody thinks their opinion means the world. It doesn't.
You cannot claim the presence of God while rejecting the voice of God. You cannot walk in covenant and trample his commands.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:53
Track with me here. That's New testament too.
We've raised a generation of believers who treat God's Word like a buffet. We take what we like; we leave what we don't.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:06
Okay, let me give you some New testament commentary on the subject. And I don't have time. I didn't put it up there. I had too many scriptures, and I don't want the media team to hate me because they turned my mic off and on. Okay. 1 John 2:3–6 says this: "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." That's New Testament, folks. 1 John 3:24: "Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." 1 John 5:2–3: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." Oh man, that preaches right there. I could stay there a while. I could stay there a while. "When's God going to quit coming to me and telling me something else to do?" It's not burdensome.
And just in case you didn't know, partial obedience is full rebellion.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:56
I don't care how you frame it. Partial obedience is full rebellion. That's a fact, Jack.
Don't talk about walking with God if you've got one foot in the Word and one foot in your will.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:16
Don't sing "Yes, Lord" with your lips while screaming "No, Lord" with your life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:34
Obedience is not legalism; it's alignment. It's not legalism; it's being an image bearer. Obedience is not about control; it's about trust. When God says rest, we rest. When he says give, we give. When he says forgive, we forgive. No delay, no debate, no discussion. He says, "Whoever does any work on the Sabbath shall be put to death." This is not some slap on the wrist, folks. This is how seriously he takes his commandments and the obedience of them. This was life and death, because to disregard God's sabbath was to defy God's authority. That wasn't just about working on a Saturday. It was about rebellion. It was about saying, "I'll run my own schedule, God, the way that I please, and then I'll demand your presence on top of it. I'm going to need you to acquiesce to whatever I want and then show up whenever I want." And today we might not be dropping dead physically, but we are dying spiritually.
Some of you are busy but broken, hustling while hollow, because disobedience wears a mask of productivity, but it starves the soul.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:57
"Shawn, this is so legalistic. How about we see this in terms of grace?" Okay. Romans 8:14 says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Galatians 5:16 says, "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." That's New Testament grace context. Some of you are like, "You know, now I can get with that, the whole being led by the Spirit thing. I can jive with that." I can't believe I just said "jive," by the way. "I can get down with that. Whenever the Spirit comes in there, yeah. Enough of this whole law and the Word and the Scripture and obedience and do this and do that. But if you start talking about the Spirit leading me, well, you know, yeah. Yeah, I'm in. I'm in on that. I'll follow the Spirit. I'll obey the Spirit. I'll do what the Spirit says, however the Spirit leads me." Are you with me today? Notice this is a communal context, the command, not individual. I know you want to break this down: "The Spirit is leading me to do this, and all the other Christians don't do what I do." It's amazing how we can even use the Spirit. It's basically God's presence our way. And we turn the Spirit into some kind of magic wand that leads us into our own will rather than his. Are you with me today? Let's look biblically at how the Spirit leads. The Spirit doesn't give some new revelation apart from Scripture, but opens the believer's eyes to understand, love, and apply God's Word to their life. That's important. "I got a new revelation just for me. God's Word's not good enough. It's trash. He has to..." Are you with me today? You know that the Spirit's job is to illuminate Scripture, correct? Why is he illuminating something he don't need, because he can just give you a word? He'll give you a word through Scripture and through illumination. Let's look. Let's look at this. 1 Corinthians 2:12–14 says, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." John 17:17. Notice what the job of the Spirit is in this illumination, and for the sake of the illumination, and the sake of God, the Spirit leading you. What is he trying to do? John 17:17 brings clarity to that.
The Spirit sanctifies them in the truth. Okay. "Give me its personal truth." That's not what it says, because it has a semicolon in there. Sanctify, the Holy Spirit: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth." Amen. Don't get it convoluted. "Well, I have a personal truth. I have a personal Jesus." Your Word is truth. Be very careful to not divorce your encounter with the Lord and your encounter with his presence from what he commands in his word. Because nothing will get you lost quicker than finding your way by using the Holy Spirit as a magic wand to get your will. Are you with me today? All right. It's not some mystical whisper or internal impression disconnected from Scripture. It's Spirit-driven understanding and application of God's revealed Word. God spoke a word to them.
It was in command form. He was leading them. He was teaching them. He was sanctifying his people, that their worship would be pure and undefiled. He is doing that today with us and for us through the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit, much like he was when his presence dwelt in the
Point 3Rest is a holy posture, not a pause
Tent. Point three: rest is not a recommendation. Okay? Rest is not a pause. It is a posture. Rest is not a pause; it is a posture.
This is not about sleep. This is not about naps and hammocks. This is about a holy rhythm, a divine cadence of trust that says, "I don't live by hustle. I live by him."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:31
Oh, that's good. And that's really lost on us today, because hustle's the way. The text says "solemn rest." That word "solemn" is not casual. It's not recreational. It means sacred, set apart, weighty, holy, righteous. The Sabbath is not man's idea. It's God's instruction.
And when God gives instruction, it is not to restrict you. It is to protect you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:21
Now, you understand that as a parent when you yell at your kid not to run in the street. It's amazing how quickly you forget it when God begins to instruct you. You were not designed to live in constant movement. Can I get an amen? Amen. You were designed to move in sync with God. We're in a generation that is addicted to motion. Just do me a favor today, just for homework's sake. Don't be on your phone the rest of the day after service. Because some of you are taking notes and reading the Bible, don't do it.
Find yourself, how many times you reach for your phone because you can't even sit in conversation, or if the conversation grows stale and it's quiet, without thumbing or scrolling or doing some motion to calm and appease yourself, like a baby has a binky. Are you with me? Because you're ruled by motion and movement. And the enemy loves it. Because if he can keep you busy, he can keep you worshiping something other than God. We brag about being busy today. "How you doing? What you been up to?" "I've been real busy." In other words, "I'm awesome sauce." Notice how I say "sauce." That's the way we say it in the South.
"I need some sauce on that. I'm awesome sauce." He said, "You shall kindle no fire," listen to this, "in all your dwelling places." Man, why are we talking about cooking dinner and making fires in our houses? And why do you have to get specific about that? Well, first of all, it took a long time for them to make something. It wasn't just like they flipped a switch and boom, a pizza popped out. They had to go get wood. They had to put the wood in the stove. They had to light the fire. They had to tend it. How many of you have a smoker that ain't pellet-fed? Like a real smoker? How many of you know how much work it is to tend that when you want a pork butt for dinner? How many hours you have to tend it? It's nonstop stoking and smoking and stoking and smoking and stoking and smoking and smoking, and by the time the meat comes out, you don't even want it anymore. You hate meat. You're a vegetarian now. But the rest of the people who are there, they love it. That's the picture. It is busyness. And can we just stop and say, "you mean to tell me we can't think in advance and be responsible enough to get stuff prepared, so we don't have to cook one day? It's called meal prep," in case you didn't know. Okay. "You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places." Why? Because even your home, even your private space, must bow to his lordship. Now, that's important for our homes today, the homes that are represented in here today. Even your homes, not just you personally, but communally, even your homes must bow to his lordship. The fire here speaks not just of labor, but of effort, of production, of striving. And God is saying, "You don't need to produce today. Just be present with me. Just be present."
Isn't it amazing that people that can't be present want his presence?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:24
We're asking from him what we refuse to give. Don't let that be lost on you. We are a people that have a hard time being present. Let me put this in reality for you. Watch people when you go on a date with your... Some of you can't even go on a date with your spouse because you're too busy. Yeah. You're like, "I already got her now, man. I don't need dating no more." If you're too busy to date your wife, someone else will. Are you with me today? Is this too hard? I don't mean it hard. It's the truth. And the reality is, if you go on a date and you watch people, they can't even be present with the person they're dating. That's right. They're in a relationship with their phone. It's crazy. They can't even be present with the one they expect to be present with. That's the way it is with our relationship with God, often. It's sad. Can you imagine how sad it is that he's sitting on the other end of the table, and you're busy with other things? And then you've not been present with him all week, but you come on Sunday and you want the fire to fall from heaven and him to show up for you, because you finally put your phone away long enough that you actually want him to show up for you. How frustrating must that be to your loved one?
Rest is an act of war. It is warfare against Pharaoh. It is defiance against every taskmaster that says your value is your output.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:02
The Sabbath says, "I am not a slave. I don't work to prove. I don't labor to earn. I rest because I'm in covenant." Rest exposes idolatry. Some of us are afraid to rest because we've built altars to our own ability. We say, "If I stop, it'll all fall apart." Exactly. Because it's built on you. And let me tell you what: you are shifting sand.
Rest dethrones self. "Well, I can't rest. Everything will fall apart." No, it won't. "I can't rest. We're in a really busy season." No, you're not. Rest dismantles your ego.
Point 4Abusing work or rest is rebellion
And then my final point: abuse of either is not a recommendation by God. Abuse of either, rest or work, is not a recommendation. "Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD." Notice, the kingdom of God is built on balance, not extremes. Notice, this is a weekly prescription, not a monthly one, not a quarterly one, not an annual one. It's a weekly one. Notice: obedience without rest is slavery. Rest without obedience is laziness.
I'm gonna say it again: obedience without rest is slavery, and rest without obedience is laziness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:29
Could it be that the hyper- grace movement has created lazy Christians? This was not God's prescription. Let us not too quickly forget that we just popped out of Romans, and the apostle Paul gave instructions to the church that those who do not work in the fellowship should not eat. Work is required. And both abuses, either abuse of work or abuse of rest, are rebellion wrapped up in religious language. Some of you obey, but you don't do so with joy. You perform every command, but your heart is dry. You tithe, but you do not trust. You serve, but you don't sit. You've made a god out of duty. And you think your sacrifice replaces your need for intimacy with God. And it doesn't. That's not holiness. That's idolatry with a mask and some religious jargon to make you look good, so your ego can be stroked. Then there's the other camp. You've made rest a license for rebellion. You call it grace, but you're just undisciplined. You say you're waiting on the Lord, but you haven't obeyed his last command. You say, "I'm just in a season of rest." But what you really mean is, "I don't want to submit, and I'm not gonna, and I'm going to use grace as an excuse to be lazy."
You're not in Sabbath; you're in stagnation.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:25
And stagnant water is dead water. Are you with me today? Okay, both are out of alignment. I'll close with this. God did not call you to be a Pharisee with a checklist, and he didn't call you to be a sluggard in the name of rest.
He's not impressed by your grind. He's not amused by your drift. He wants your yes and your yield.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:57
Obedience without intimacy is cold.
Intimacy without obedience is counterfeit. And God will reject both. Don't you dare come today and say you want his presence your way, because it's his way or the highway.
Way.
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