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Give Me Oil in My Lamp (Exodus 27:20-21)
15 Plays5 days ago
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Prayer
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message.
Church Information & Ministry Introduction
00:00:22
Speaker
If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now, take your copy of God's timeless Word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Exodus Message: The Tabernacle Lampstand
00:00:45
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace. I'm so glad you're listening today. want to share with you from the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. You have to turn way back in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 27, verses 20 and 21.
00:01:00
Speaker
Here's what it says. You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure, beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn.
00:01:15
Speaker
In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord.
00:01:26
Speaker
It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel.
00:01:36
Speaker
After the Lord gave Moses specific instructions as to the construction of the tabernacle, God then shifted to specific guidance for the responsibilities of the service of the priests in and around the tabernacle.
00:01:52
Speaker
I would like for us to break into this section of the book of Exodus at Exodus 27, 20 and 21, where the Lord is giving the priests the specific instructions specifics regarding the oil for the lampstand.
00:02:09
Speaker
Details on the making of the lampstand for the tabernacle can be found earlier in Exodus 25, verses 31 to 40. But why should we study the Old Testament lampstand in Hebrew called the menorah?
00:02:26
Speaker
Well, Jesus declared in John 8, 12, that he is the light of the world. But he also claimed that followers of Christ should let their light shine as the light of the world in Matthew 5, 14, 15, and 16. The seven churches addressed in Revelation chapters 2 and 3,
00:02:50
Speaker
are compared to lampstands. You can see that in Revelation 1, verses 12 to 20. So let's face it, anyone who follows Christ is like a living lamp for Christ, wherever they go.
00:03:05
Speaker
Every true New Testament church is a lampstand to their community, wherever it is. It doesn't matter which country or which county and so forth.
00:03:17
Speaker
So that's why I feel like that Exodus 27, 20, and 21 is,
00:03:22
Speaker
it has something to say to us today as we want to shine brightly for the Lord Jesus Christ with the light of truth that he has brought into our lives. And so I just want to share a few things that I think may apply to the Christian life in ways that you may not have considered before when you may have just blown by these particular two verses.
00:03:48
Speaker
So let's start with the first verse, verse 20. And let me share the first principle that stood out to me. He says, you shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light that a lamp may be regularly set up to burn.
00:04:10
Speaker
So let's consider first the command regarding the provision of oil for the for the lamp. Now, to whom was he speaking?
00:04:21
Speaker
It says that Moses was giving a command, right? But to whom was he speaking? Was he addressing the priests or was he addressing the people?
00:04:32
Speaker
Ah, let's see what it says again. You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light. Ah, right.
00:04:44
Speaker
So this is something that was intended for everybody. Think about how once we trust Christ, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who enters our lives and who lives with us. That's why we're told in verses like Ephesians 5.18 that we should be filled with the Spirit. We shouldn't be drunk with wine, it says, which is in in excess, but rather we should be filled with the Spirit of God. Do you know that that too is a command?
00:05:16
Speaker
It's no wonder because there are certain emblems in scripture that God chose. And there's something about the emblem that is significant in terms of understanding the Holy Spirit.
00:05:30
Speaker
Do you know that the Holy Spirit, for example, is considered in one place like fire, in another like wind, in another like a dove, right?
00:05:41
Speaker
But in this passage, I think it would be no stretch of the passage whatsoever, based on other related verses, to say that the oil that was going to go into this lamp, if you come into the New Testament, then it would be representative of the Holy Spirit that empowers the light, that empowers our life,
00:06:04
Speaker
as we live for Jesus Christ in the real world. And so I was just thinking, all of us have this command regarding the provision of oil for the lamp.
00:06:16
Speaker
Let's say that your local church is, well, like Revelation 2 and 3, it's like a lampstand for your community. So every member of the church that is truly born again and knows Christ, they have the Holy Spirit living within them.
00:06:34
Speaker
So there's something that you can contribute with just the gifting, the personality, with exactly who God has made you to be. The Holy Spirit will empower you so that you will also help your church to be a brighter light in the community than they would without you.
00:06:58
Speaker
Isn't that sort of a sobering thing to think about? And so it's no wonder that he would command them, make sure you bring enough oil so that this lamp never goes out.
00:07:10
Speaker
So I would say that to us as individual believers as well. that we should allow God's Holy Spirit to fill us, to empower us. It means sort of, let's say, to control us. I think that when it talks about the filling of the Spirit, it's talking about the control of our lives. Am I filled or am I controlled by God's Spirit or by the flesh, the old sin nature?
00:07:39
Speaker
We have to every day decide I want God to be in charge of my life today. Well, let's move to the second thing. The second thing I noticed was this certain kind of oil that they were supposed to bring. it It was olive oil, but notice beyond just saying, bring olive oil for the lamp so that the the lampstand can burn brightly, he says, bring pure, beaten olive oil for the light.
00:08:12
Speaker
What does he mean by that? Well, it's this whole idea of being crushed. yeah It's the whole idea that in order to present to God the highest quality of olive oil, then it's gonna be the kind that all of the substance, the fatty substance that normally makes up an olive, all of that is completely crushed so that all that's left is just the oil, just that fine liquid, pure.
00:08:45
Speaker
And you know why? Because if you don't bring the pure, beaten, crushed, pressed olive oil, then it's not gonna be the highest quality. And so what will happen?
00:08:58
Speaker
It's going to smoke. It's going to smoke and it won't burn as brightly as it would if it were crushed, beaten, pressed olive oil.
00:09:10
Speaker
Have you ever considered, for example, in the New Testament, where Jesus prayed right before he went to the cross? you know, it was a very difficult time for him emotionally. He knew what was coming.
00:09:23
Speaker
He knew that he would suffer. He knew that he would die on that cross for our sins. But where did he pray? It was a place called the Garden of Gethsemane.
00:09:35
Speaker
Do you know what Gethsemane means? guesssemite means the olive press. Some have said that that area had many olive trees. And so it's no wonder that just ah along the course of time, that since there were so many olive trees there, they also designed and constructed an olive press where olives could be crushed and pressed and mashed so that they would be turned into the olive oil that could be used by lanterns and so forth.
00:10:12
Speaker
So I just thought to myself, wow, this is really amazing that God is asking for that. Perhaps, Sometimes that's why God allows a Christian, a believer, a follower of Christ to go through a difficult time.
Trials and Christian Witness
00:10:29
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Maybe you have lots of questions. Why, if God truly loves you, why are you being pressed? Why are you being squeezed by all of these things that are surrounding you in your life?
00:10:42
Speaker
I wonder if there's a possibility that in the midst of you being squeezed, people are gonna see the light even brighter than they would have if all would have been going great. Let's say your life is just wonderful.
00:10:58
Speaker
There's not one hard, difficult situation in your life. If that's true, thank the Lord and give Him glory and just don't forget Him. Praise Him and thank Him for that.
00:11:10
Speaker
But what happens many times, at least in my life, we can forget God when everything is going well. And we can sort of assume that we can make it through life without ever even being a light for him.
00:11:24
Speaker
And so what God does is he allows something really hard to come into our lives and it crushes us. It breaks us.
00:11:35
Speaker
It breaks it down until what people can see they can see the light burning so brightly now because the purest form, the purest form is now what we're using to fuel the light of our Christian faith in that neighborhood or in that family.
00:11:58
Speaker
But there's something else significant that's here in verse 20 that I wanted to throw in as well. He says at the last part of verse 20 that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn.
00:12:13
Speaker
Why does he say that? Why doesn't he just say, just set the lamp there and it will always be right there in that one spot? I'll tell you why.
00:12:25
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Because the tabernacle
The Tabernacle and Temple's Symbolism
00:12:27
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was quite different from the temple. You see, the temple was stationary. When they built the temple in Jerusalem,
00:12:36
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It didn't move. It was stationary. But the tabernacle was very different. The tabernacle was God's design for a people who would be, well, on a journey, a long journey, because they were leaving Egypt.
00:12:53
Speaker
They were still in the wilderness at the time that Moses was being given the pattern for the tabernacle. The tabernacle means the dwelling place. This is where the people were going to be able to meet with God. This is where God would dwell and allow them to see just a little glimpse of his presence in their midst.
00:13:15
Speaker
But just think about how life rarely is static and stationary. Life moves, doesn't it? It doesn't seem to stay the same. So when there are changes in location of the place for illumination throughout life, he's saying, that's okay.
00:13:34
Speaker
Wherever you are in life, if your job changes, if your your place of residence changes, if your family changes, if things you know change in your health or whatever, wherever you are,
00:13:49
Speaker
Let the light shine there. You know, brighten the corner where you are is a song that they used to sing many years ago.
00:13:59
Speaker
But I think its message is still so relevant that wherever we are, wherever the Lord leads us, we should continue to say, okay, God, help me to be like a a moving lamp for you that whatever happens, help me always set up to burn for you so that people can see Christ in me.
00:14:24
Speaker
Are you following what I'm saying? I hope so. Well, the other thing I noticed is beginning in verse 21, right at the start, he says, in the tent of meeting, that was a nickname, by the way, for the tabernacle, but in the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony,
00:14:45
Speaker
Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. So let's think about that whole idea of, you know, just outside the veil. Do you know that the tabernacle was made of two places?
00:14:58
Speaker
You had the holy place where the priests would do their work, but then you had the most holy place. And that was a very sacred area. In that area was where the Ark of the Covenant was. Inside the Ark of the Covenant was the Ten Commandments, the stone tablets. And that was sometimes referred to as the testimony.
00:15:23
Speaker
And so what he's saying is just outside the ah the holy the most holy place where that veil is that protects the holy place from the most holy place, I want you to set that lamp stand up right there to light the way so that people know how to get into God's presence.
00:15:47
Speaker
There's something significant in the New Testament that took place whenever the veil in the temple, it says that there was a big veil in the temple. I think it was a couple of feet in in thickness. This is huge. I mean, it's it's massive health how long it was, how tall it was. But just to think, when Jesus died on that cross, God did something.
00:16:11
Speaker
It says that the the veil of the temple was torn from the top all the way to the bottom. What do you think that God was trying to say when Jesus died on that cross and that took place, that that ripping of the veil of the temple?
00:16:30
Speaker
I'll tell you what God was saying. I want a personal relationship with you. You're my creation. I've created you to have fellowship with me. And so our sin kept us from being able to go in where he is. He's so holy. So in our brokenness, we can't just go into God's holy presence like that.
00:16:52
Speaker
But something happened when Jesus, who offered to the Father a perfect sinless sacrifice of his own body, he had perfectly obeyed the Father. When he died, it's like God said, that's all that's necessary now.
00:17:10
Speaker
Now man in his brokenness can come through the perfect sacrifice of my son, and he can come into the most holy place. Now in Hebrews, we're told that God's throne through Christ is called the throne of grace.
00:17:30
Speaker
Isn't it amazing? And so what should we be doing? with our talents and our time and our abilities and all of our connections and relationships?
00:17:41
Speaker
Well, we should be clarifying. We should be guiding people to the pathway to Christ. So all of those who don't know Christ, all of those who are still in spiritual darkness, we're like a light.
00:17:55
Speaker
And so we should be saying to them, here it is, This is the one way to enter into the presence of God. This is the one way through Christ that you can have fellowship with your creator.
00:18:10
Speaker
It is through Christ. And so that's why when I read the words in the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, I envision all of us collectively as Christians, as churches, saying to a lost world that's still looking and searching for the way, what's missing in their lives? They don't know.
00:18:36
Speaker
And so we have to clarify it. We have to put the light there. We have to guide them and say, this is the way. This is the way. Come this way. And you will see the God who created you, how greatly he loves you, that he made a way for you to have fellowship with him. It's through the blood of Christ that we can be reconciled to the Father.
00:19:02
Speaker
That's the fourth principle, is the clarification of guidance along the pathway to Christ for the lost. Well, let's move to the fifth principle that I see represented in these verses. This one is more for leaders, leaders that are in your church, leaders in my church.
00:19:22
Speaker
It's for me, for my life.
Leadership and Spiritual Vitality
00:19:25
Speaker
And that is, verse 21 says, whose responsibility was it? Whose responsibility at that time did Moses say, this is your responsibility to make sure that the menorah, this lampstand, never goes out?
00:19:41
Speaker
Whose responsibility was that? Well, continual attention to the priority among leaders for the lighting of the lamp.
00:19:53
Speaker
Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. You see what I'm saying? What I'm saying is that God has designed leaders to be in each local church who will say the most important priority we have is to make sure that this church continues to burn brightly for Jesus.
00:20:18
Speaker
And so it's going to take work. I mean, they were supposed to tendned tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. And notice that he does include that in there before the Lord.
00:20:32
Speaker
You know, everyone who has a ministry, everyone who has an influence and a responsibility, every one of us who follow Christ, we can influence somebody.
00:20:43
Speaker
And so we should say, I want to support my local church. I want to serve in my local church and help them so that my local church will always continue be a burning witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, that we will always have strength and not weakness at our church, that we will always stay ah open.
00:21:07
Speaker
Do you know that all across the United States, I think it was something last I read, it was like 830 something churches across the United States close their doors every year.
00:21:20
Speaker
Isn't that sad that that many churches would say, you know what? We just simply can't stay open anymore. Why is that? I believe that that responsibility is the responsibility of those in leadership. They should continually give attention to the priority of making sure that the lampstand, that church, those people in that church, that they stay lit up with the fire of God, that they stay full of that holy oil, the Holy Spirit, that they stay full of God's word.
00:21:58
Speaker
so that they can burn brightly ah in their community. Well, let me give you the last principle that stood out to me, because this one is very passionate on my heart.
00:22:10
Speaker
And that is, he says, it shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel.
00:22:22
Speaker
You know, the first word that stood out to me when I was really running this back through my mind as I was having my own personal quiet time, the first word that stood out to me was the word forever.
Passing the Torch of Faith
00:22:34
Speaker
I wrote it in my journal and I thought, man, forever, forever is a long time, right? So what he's saying is, man, I want this to keep going on forever.
00:22:47
Speaker
And then he said something that really touched my heart. He said, i want it to happen. I want everybody to keep observing this throughout their generations by the people of Israel.
00:23:05
Speaker
Throughout their, here it comes, generations. You know what I've discovered? I've discovered that generations, they don't always do everything the same exact way.
00:23:18
Speaker
And so what older generations have to learn to do is they have to learn to take the torch, to carry the torch to the next generation so that there will be a permanence of the gospel legacy.
00:23:34
Speaker
So in other words, the generation that is in leadership should always be taking the torch to those who are not in leadership, who are younger, but who someday, one day they will be the leaders.
00:23:49
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they will carry forth that torch out there into the darkness. And so what we have to say is, oh Lord, help me not push them away. Help me welcome them.
00:24:02
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Help me equip them. Help me inspire and motivate them. Oh, listen, friend, we should constantly be carrying the torch and let them see you carry the torch. You know, it does say the word observe here. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel. So do the children, do the students, do the young adults, do they see Do they see you living for Christ? I think we are to let our light shine before all men. And definitely that would include
00:24:42
Speaker
all generations. So why don't we say, Lord, put a guard over my mouth against speaking negative, critical comments only toward younger generations.
00:24:56
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Lord, help me to speak words that would inspire them and call them forth so that they too would say, when I grow up, I want to serve in that church.
00:25:08
Speaker
I want to be a teacher. I want to lead in worship. I want to work with children. I want to work with you know the teenagers. I want to live for God. I want to raise my family to put Christ in the center of our lives. That's what I'm talking about. It's where the light never goes out.
00:25:28
Speaker
You know why? Because each generation, just like in the Olympics, They keep on passing the torch to the next generation and they'll run and then they'll remember how they received the light. They received that torch from you and your generation. And so they're gonna say now that my generation is nearing the end of our race, I want to also pass the torch to this new generation that'll come up after them.
00:26:00
Speaker
That's the whole idea. That's why The Apostle Paul, when he was talking to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2, he was telling him, i want you to keep passing along.
00:26:15
Speaker
the teachings, the principles, the truths that i've that I've lived before you, that I've shown you and given you and entrusted to you. i want you to entrust those things to other men who are faithful so that they too will entrust them to others beyond them who also will be faithful. you see the idea? Do you see how God always wants the light of the gospel, the light of Jesus Christ?
Encouragement and Closing Prayer
00:26:43
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He is.
00:26:45
Speaker
the light of the world. That's what he said, you know, in John chapter eight, verse 12. But don't forget what he also said in Matthew 5, 14, 15, and 16. He said, I'm the of the But then he said, I'm but then he said you are also the light of the world because Christ lives within us. He's placed his Holy Spirit within us. So we need to stay filled with that Holy Spirit. We need to stay surrendered to Jesus Christ saying, Lord, I want you to please be in control of my life today.
00:27:21
Speaker
I want to be faithful in my day. I want to do everything I can to remain on fire for Jesus Christ today. so that I can light the the torch, the candle, the lamp of others who are coming to me for guidance, who are coming to me for counsel, who are looking to me for an example.
00:27:44
Speaker
So friend, let me tell you, why don't we together join our hands across this whole region and say, Lord, help us to light up the darkness.
00:27:55
Speaker
There's a lot of darkness out there, no doubt about it, but our God, is a God of light and he can light up darkness. So let's remember passages like Exodus 27 verses 20 and 21, even though it was written to you know all of these people in days gone by in Moses' day,
00:28:18
Speaker
But how about in our day? Why don't we do something very similar and say, I'm gonna be a light for Jesus. So I just encourage you to not only sing that song, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, but let's also live that song.
00:28:36
Speaker
Why don't we close in prayer to together today? Lord, I thank you so much for passages like this. They can encourage us and they can equip us. We've learned today some principles that I think are found throughout the whole Bible, not just in these two verses, but this is something that would apply to us in so many different ways.
00:28:58
Speaker
So ah help us, Father, to use the the opportunities you've given to us, to use the gifts, the talents, the abilities, the skills that you've entrusted to each one of us, so that we can also be a testimony for Jesus Christ, that we would say to others, I want you to also run the race that you're called to run. I want you to join with me as we take the light across the dark world.
00:29:25
Speaker
So thank you, Father, for bringing us the light in your son, Jesus Christ. We love you. We praise you. We thank you for loving us first. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, listen, you have a great week.
00:29:39
Speaker
Thank you again for listening. God bless you.
00:29:52
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.