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2022 Tuesday morning August 2 Blind camp service
112 Plays2 years ago
in this episode, you will hear the service the check place on August 2 Tuesday morning for Blind camp.
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Transcript
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00:00:06
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Blind Camp 2022 Morning Service
00:01:36
Speaker
We are going to hear the Blind Camp 2022 edition for Tuesday, August 2nd morning service.
00:02:04
Speaker
So this morning, let's sing the prayer, make me a sanctuary, all right? I don't have the music. Give me a first line. Sing it for me. On this, Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary.
00:02:41
Speaker
Lord, prepare me to be sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. Will you face me?
00:03:01
Speaker
I'll be the living sanctuary, Lord, for you. Lord, prepare me to be a missionary, pure and holy.
00:03:28
Speaker
tried and true. With thanksgiving, I'll be a living missionary. Lord, for you.
Musical Reflections
00:03:50
Speaker
Are we ready for the theme song? Okay, good.
00:03:57
Speaker
As long as your pastor friend's ready, we should all be ready, right?
00:04:19
Speaker
day by day and the passing moment strength I find to feed my trials horn trusting in my father's wise bestowments
00:04:43
Speaker
I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure.
00:04:59
Speaker
Gives unto each day what he deems best, lovingly his part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.
00:05:23
Speaker
Every day the Lord Himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour.
00:05:39
Speaker
All my tears that fain would hear me, He whose name is comforter and part, The protection of his fallen treasure,
00:06:04
Speaker
Is a charge that on himself he lay As your days your strength shall be in measure
00:06:20
Speaker
This the pledge to me he made.
Sermon on Sanctuaries
00:06:28
Speaker
Help me then in every tribulation. So to trust your promises, O Lord,
00:06:43
Speaker
that I lost, not face reconciliation, offered me within you holy word. Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
00:07:08
Speaker
e'er to take as from a father's hand. One by one, the days, the moments fleeting, till I reach the promised land. Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary.
00:07:37
Speaker
Pure and holy, tried and true. Lord, we want you to dwell in us. We want to understand your will and your way. We want to live through your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:07:50
Speaker
Well, I thank you for coming. And I tell you, I'm so excited about this one. I'm sharing some stuff that I just learned about two months ago. And I said, let me make this into a sermon because it's just so precious.
00:08:08
Speaker
When I discovered that there was a sanctuary, the Garden of Eden was a sanctuary, I said, let me lead you to that because some of you don't understand even when I say the word sanctuary, you don't know what I'm talking about. But in the Bible, we get told about the wilderness tabernacle built by a number of people, but Moses is the one who received the plans and shared them with the
00:08:38
Speaker
workmen, artists, really artists, who built this wilderness tabernacle. Jesus had said to them, let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. That's the whole point of this sanctuary thing.
00:08:58
Speaker
is God wants to be close to us. And when we get to Eden, we find it even more exciting. But that's enough for now. So he had them build the sanctuary. Now he had shown himself on Mount Sinai and he really wanted to be much more intimate than they were ready to receive.
00:09:16
Speaker
because they said, Moses, you go up the mountain talking, we don't want to hear his voice anymore, and that was sad. But Moses did and spent twice, 40 days up the mountain, you remember that part, and he received this instructions. In that sanctuary, there was the courtyard, careful linen fence around the courtyard,
00:09:45
Speaker
and then inside the courtyard there was of course the altar of burnt offering and the labor, but then you move into the holy place with various furnishings in the holy place, and then only the high priest once a year goes into the most holy place.
00:10:06
Speaker
We see this represents courtyard, the world in general, the holy places where God provides food for us. Remember the table of show bread there? And the most holy place, intimate communion with us. So for the Israelites, while they had that tabernacle,
00:10:30
Speaker
They had the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, cloud in the daytime to protect them from the hot sun, fire at night to provide light for their way, because sometimes they had to walk all night on their wilderness wandering. So that represents, we see that pillar of fire guiding them continually. We see that God provided manna for them every day, well, six days a week.
00:11:01
Speaker
That's another special story. A man for them to eat every day, and he provided water for them. And plenty of stories about water from the rock. Precious stuff God provided for them. That's holy place actions. But that most holy place, Sinai, and God's intimate communication with Moses, God really wants to connect with us.
Solomon's Temple and Jesus
00:11:30
Speaker
the Shekinah glory, that's a specialized word that points to the bright light that's shown when the presence of God was close in the temple or tabernacle as we're talking about here. In the Most Holy Place, there was an Ark of the Covenant and inside that Ark was the Ten Commandments which represents God's character.
00:11:59
Speaker
So God is here, and that is the message about presence of God is very much there. But not all the time, but some of the time, God would manifest himself with a bright light just above the mercy seat between the cherubins at this Ark of the Covenant, and that light was so bright
00:12:23
Speaker
that it would shine over the veil, the curtain, the heavy drape, it was between the holy and the most holy place. And there were times it was so bright that people had to back out of the courtyard.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah. When God needs to shine, he shines. And he wants to shine in your life and mine. So we're not just talking about stuff theoretical, longer than one, far away. We're talking about a God who wants to be intimate in our life. And I'm building on that. Well, in process of time, hundreds of years later, the tabernacle got replaced by what we call Solomon's Temple. Now, it really should be called God's Temple.
00:13:07
Speaker
But for various reasons, throughout time it has become the word for Solomon's Temple. I believe it was the most beautiful man-made structure that we've ever done. It was a phenomenal structure. A lot of marble, a lot of gold. Most of the wood that was there was covered with gold, tapestries. It was a very impressive sight.
00:13:35
Speaker
You can read much about it in 1 Kings 6. I mentioned that just in case you want to meditate on this and dwell on it. But Solomon's temple, God honored with his Shekinah glory presence, particularly at his dedication. Solomon had built a special platform
00:14:01
Speaker
six feet high, that he could stand down to bless the people and pray for them. And he knelt on that platform and prayed for the people. And God honored this dedication ceremony by sending fire from heaven to ignite the offering that was on the altar of burnt offering. That's not the only time that God sent fire from heaven. We call that holy fire. Pretty special stuff.
00:14:28
Speaker
Now, it might have looked like a lightning bolt, but it was special.
00:14:32
Speaker
God putting the fire where he needed it. And I believe that that happened at the Garden of Eden. I believe that that happened with Elijah on Mount Carmel. I believe there were a number of times that God affirmed his acceptance of the sacrifice. I believe that was even the crisis between Abel and Cain. Cain's sacrifice didn't get the fire from heaven. Abel's sacrifice did. And Cain said, that's not fair.
00:15:03
Speaker
We've been crying that it's not fair ever since and figure this out. Life's not fair. The easy answer, my brother loves this one, the fair is in August.
00:15:21
Speaker
Jesus has done what he needed to do to make it so he can be fair with us. He does not judge us according to our sins, but according to his righteousness. And that's all part of the sanctuary wrapping. But when we get it to the Garden of Eden, we discover it even predates sin.
00:15:43
Speaker
Of course, the Solomon's Temple had a courtyard. It had a holy place. It had a most holy place. But if you are remembering some of the story of Israel, that temple got destroyed, utterly, terribly, awfully destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's armies. They burned it.
00:16:10
Speaker
and the gold melted and they stole the gold and it was awful. Why? Because the people whom it was built for had dishonored it. And when you start studying how they trashed the temple, we get horrified because this was a god place and they're treating it
00:16:39
Speaker
is a place to worship demons. It got that bad. Really, really sad. Ezekiel, story after story, and God had to say, folks, you have forfeited this beautiful place, and it got destroyed. Well, 70 years in Babylon, the Israelites got the discipline that they needed. And eventually, some of them, a remnant returned, and they rebuilt the temple.
00:17:09
Speaker
I'm moving through history quickly and many of you, this is a review, but some of you may be new and I just will struggle with that. You may have questions later, but they rebuilt the temple. It took a while. It took some processes and there was some struggles, but they got it rebuilt.
00:17:30
Speaker
And the old men who remembered Solomon's Temple cried because it didn't hold a patch on that Solomon's Temple. They'd done the best they could with what they had, but it did not begin to shine with the glory of Solomon's Temple. Solomon's Temple, the materials had been largely amassed by David
00:17:55
Speaker
collecting all the stuff, making sure the plans were all drawn. And so Solomon comes in with his wisdom and his executive ability. He got even more stuff. Remember the story of contracting with Hiram King of Tyre and bringing lots and lots of timbers? That temple, it may have also been the most expensive building this world has ever known. But it was beautiful. And so what these
00:18:25
Speaker
returned prisoners, captives, slaves of Nebuchadnezzar. When they get back here, when Dreyus and Cyrus had freed them, they did the best they could. But it just, it was not so nice. And it never had the Shekinah glory in it. And in fact, something that we don't always think about, it never had the Ark of the Covenant in it.
00:18:55
Speaker
because the Ark of the Covenant had been taken by Jeremiah and friends from Solomon's Temple before it was trashed. Well, no, before it was destroyed. It had already been disrespected. But he had taken it and it was hidden in a cave. And we don't know where that is. I think God's got his hand over it and his hidden it. It's not for us to see at this time. So that,
00:19:23
Speaker
The special center part, there was an emptiness in this temple, but there wasn't. Because when Jesus came, Jesus came to this post-exilic temple, it had been rebuilt by Herod and it was better than it had been when it was first built, but it's still nothing like Solomon's Temple.
00:19:48
Speaker
But Jesus physically came to this temple, providing a special level of the intimacy. I mean, Jesus is the son of God. And he came first as a 40-day-old boy.
00:20:05
Speaker
brought to the temple for his dedication, and the priest missed the significance, but Simeon didn't, and Annan, they understood, and they praised God for this opportunity to see God in human flesh. They understood the Messiah has come. He's back here again when he's 12 years old, and he sees the Passover sacrifice, and he realizes, that's me. At 12, he understood who he was,
00:20:37
Speaker
the Lamb of God. He knew he was to be sacrificed for us, and he accepted that. Of course, he took a couple extra days at the temple. No wonder his parents, they did not realize what a gift they'd been given, and they were hurt when they realized he wasn't with them, and they were also scared because they realized they had neglected their responsibility. I don't know if you have ever.
00:21:07
Speaker
Left something behind. You blind ones have probably been left behind more than once. Now what am I going to do?
Becoming Living Sanctuaries
00:21:19
Speaker
But I feel for the parents.
00:21:23
Speaker
A friend of mine, he was head elder in my church. When he was a boy, about eight years old, they had been at church and had prayer meeting, and he had gone to sleep on the front pew. When they went home, there were a handful of children. They got home and they discovered when they're tucking them into bed that, oh, Robert's not here. So they went back and found him still sleeping. They brought him home. Everything was fine, but one story.
00:21:50
Speaker
And it's reminiscent of the story of Jesus being left behind. But Jesus came to this one. All right, we sang the song about baby sanctuary. It's an appropriate prayer, a prayer we can pray every day. God wants us to be a place where he dwells. He wants to live in us. Holy spirit power.
00:22:18
Speaker
former rain and laddering, power in our life. God wants to be there. He provides place. I haven't reviewed all these things, but he gives us an opportunity to live for him. He provides food. Every bite of food you eat, every drop of water that comes into your body is purchased at the cost of Calgary.
00:22:41
Speaker
We have communion table over here. Most churches, the architecture, we have it right here in the front in the middle, but they bring it over here for communion service. But it's off to the side for now. But that's holy place. That's acknowledging that God provides our daily food. And if you call it manna, you're not wrong.
00:23:06
Speaker
There was a kind of miracle when it was made in Sinai, as Israelites wandered. There is a miracle that food grows and comes to you. God provides it. And for us to acknowledge God's gift each time we eat, that's minimal. Okay. Oh, and the most holy place where God wants to have communion with us,
00:23:35
Speaker
Be sure you have your daily time in the world. Don't think that Pastor Fred can feed you enough. You need to be feeding on the word personally. So with that introduction about the sanctuary, let's look at Eden. I'm turning now to Genesis chapter two.
00:23:58
Speaker
Looking in verse 4, this is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Before any plant of the field was in the earth, before any herb of the field had grown, I think that's row crops, the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth,
00:24:21
Speaker
And there was no man to till the ground. We didn't have to work our gardens in that time. Yes, Adam and Eve had responsibility in tending the Garden of Eden, but none of it included hoeing. Now, I enjoy hoeing and I do it quite well, but there was a difference.
00:24:42
Speaker
God gave it as a blessing, but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's chapter three. A mist, verse six, went up from the ground and watered the whole face of the ground. Kind of sounds like dew. This was before rain had started to fall. Chapter six, we had to get to chapter six before we discover rain.
00:25:04
Speaker
from mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. Verse seven, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. And we've looked at that before. We recognize special, special, special provision by God for us. Then verse eight, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. You catch that word east? Garden was in the east. There's something special about
00:25:34
Speaker
When the garden was in the east and when you went into the garden, you went west. There's some symbolism here that traces throughout scripture. There's something special and holy about traveling west in contrast to worshiping the sun in the east. That gets rather rich in time.
00:26:00
Speaker
But Lord God planted a garden in Eden as the Garden of Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river went out of Eden to water the garden and from there it parted and became four river heads.
00:26:27
Speaker
Okay, I believe the world is the courtyard, whereas the garden is the holy place. And Adam and Eve were invited to live in the garden, and I believe their descendants were to be building gardens alongside that and make the whole earth eventually a garden where the presence of God could come close to his people.
00:26:57
Speaker
but the most holy place, especially mentions this tree of life in the midst of the garden. And then we get to the point in chapter 3 that Jesus would come on a daily basis to the garden to commune with Adam and Eve. He enjoyed talking with his kids. This was an important part. I believe God was
00:27:28
Speaker
I'll use the specialized word, discipling them. Now we need to get to the why. And this just catches my breath. You see, every temple that's been built has its holy place and most holy place. And inside that temple, very hard and center in that temple was an image. You read quite a bit about it in Acts chapter 19.
00:27:56
Speaker
when it's talking about Diana of the Ephesians. Now, they thought that that was a very beautiful statue, but in reality what it was, apparently a meteorite had dropped from heaven and they looked at it and they started worshipping it as a god.
00:28:11
Speaker
And as they looked at it, they tried to figure out what it looked like and decided it looked like a woman that had a dozen breasts. Now, I don't know why they would think a dozen looks better than two, but that was their perspective on this thing. And remember, it's a lump of burnt rock that has come from the sky that they're worshipping.
00:28:33
Speaker
but they have then started making, Acts 19, they've been making copies out of silver and they've been selling them for big bucks and people are worshipping the copies. In the center of each temple was an image.
00:28:52
Speaker
and that image was to represent the God. Are you following me? In the center of the Garden of Eden, God had placed Adam, Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, let us make man in our image. You catch that word?
00:29:13
Speaker
God's image is put into you and I, and now we are to be representing him. Doesn't that give you chills? God wants us to look like him. I'm coming up short, folk. But I'm looking at him and asking him because he promises by beholding we become changed. So as I spend time in the word, meditating on him, sharing him with others,
00:29:40
Speaker
He promises me that I will begin to reflect and yes, even radiate his image, his likeness, his character. God wants to do that for each one of us.
Closing Blessings
00:29:55
Speaker
Adam's responsibility in the Garden of Eden with his wife and his son was to represent God, imitate his God. God is eager.
00:30:11
Speaker
desperate to restore this communion, Jesus died to reconnect us to heaven. There's no excuse for us to be slow, ambulatory, careless about connecting with this God who's already burst heaven open and warped the universe so that he can rescue us from this pitocin that we dug for ourselves. Let's pray, gracious Lord.
00:30:42
Speaker
Make me a sanctuary. Cleanse me. Make me holy. I want you to dwell in my life. I can't give up the sins that have been afflicting me. I'm inviting you to come in and push them out. Cleanse me for your righteousness. Cleanse me for your glory.
00:31:05
Speaker
Lord, we've gathered here at blind camp. It's a time to draw closer to you. We know that you're involved in every aspect of our activities, whether we're eating or biking or observing or even chatting. Help us to be a time of drawing closer to you and recognizing your provision for our needs. We rest in you and we praise you in Jesus' holy name. Amen.
00:31:58
Speaker
Well folks, this completes another edition of...
00:32:06
Speaker
Gaining demos and other interests On Joseph Weekland's Harmonica Player Podcasts!
00:32:40
Speaker
Well, folks, till next time, take care and God bless. See ya.