Pastor of Formation & Mission Benjamin Kandt continues our Exodus series from a selection of verse in Exodus 25-27. He traces the biblical narrative of bridging the gap between heaven and earth, God and humanity. This journey, grounded in Exodus 25, reveals how God invites us to partner with Him in addressing this essential human issue. Jesus desires to dwell within His people, not merely among them, and the age-old veil separating God from man was ultimately torn apart by Christ.
Pastor of Formation & Mission Benjamin Kandt continues our Exodus series from a selection of verse in Exodus 25-27. He traces the biblical narrative of bridging the gap between heaven and earth, God and humanity. This journey, grounded in Exodus 25, reveals how God invites us to partner with Him in addressing this essential human issue. Jesus desires to dwell within His people, not merely among them, and the age-old veil separating God from man was ultimately torn apart by Christ.
This isn't about product placement. I have a cold and I'm trying to make sure I don't cough while I'm up here so you can pray for me. One of the ways you know you're making contact with reality, with something that is universally true in all places in time, is when different disciplines begin naming that thing. They'll have different names for it, but they're naming the same reality. I'll give you an example. We're all keenly aware that there's something amiss, that we have a problem. The way that psychologists talk about this is they all kind of use this one word, a three-letter word, which is there's a gap. There's a gap, so psychologists will call it about this gap between expectation and experience. There's something called affective forecasting, which is when you begin to predict what things will feel like in the future, and then that shapes the way you behave and things you prefer, and even your perception in the present. Our own, aaron Angstrom, summarizes this by saying expectations alter experience. That's the gap between our expectation and our experience. That's what psychologists might call it, but in marketing it's called the want-got gap. The want-got gap is this discrepancy between what you want and what you have, or what really is, and marketers are keenly aware that you have a want-got gap. You just aren't as aware of it as they want you to be and you don't know that their product is the thing that will bridge that gap. This is how marketing works at its core. Philosophers talk about this as the gap between the ideal and the real. How do we get from reality to what is ideal, what ought to be versus what is right now? Now a life coach might talk to you about what do we do with the gap between who you are now and who you want to be. How do we bridge that gap? And you might get a plan and some procedures and a diet and an exercise and all these different things to kind of get you to who you want to be. They're dealing with that gap. Now, all of these things are ways of dealing with the same issue. That's what I want you to hear me say. Good leadership is seeing a preferred vision of the future and recognizing there's a gap between here and now and there and then and then bridging that gap and leading people across that gap right, recognizing that the gap is the problem, and then your strategy is whatever you're going to do to shrink that gap. That's what leadership looks like Now all of these different places are naming something. All these different disciplines are naming the same thing. To quote the London Underground, all of us, all the time, are minding the gap. We're conscious of it, we're keenly aware of it. All these different ways, we are minding the gap.
Ben:Now, religion has formulated this gap in its own way. Many religions will talk about it as the gap between heaven and earth, or between the gods, or God and humanity, and so this gap is a reality, even among religions. The Bible itself has a particular way of speaking about this. But even outside of the Bible, there's many religions that have a temple or a sanctuary, a holy place, which is known as the place where heaven meets earth, where humanity and divinity can kind of come together in a meaningful way, because that's the place where the veil is thin. It's a gap. Though it's a gap, sanctuaries become these places that hyperlink heaven and earth. That's really significant. So the Bible has a unique way of dressing the same thing that all these other disciplines are pointing to to address the gap between heaven and earth, between God and humanity, and we see that happening in our text this morning.
Ben:So if you have a Bible, go ahead and get it out, open it up, turn it on to Exodus 25. We're going to start in verse 8. I had three chapters to cover today, so that's why Raquel had such a her work cut out for her. Look with me at Exodus 25, verse 8. It says this and let them make me a sanctuary. This is God speaking. Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. Brothers and sisters, friends, lean in right here for a moment. I want this to be a settled conviction. I want it to become a heart axiom around which your entire life is built. God wants to be with you. That's what this says. Let them build me a sanctuary. Why? For what purpose? So that they might serve me. It doesn't say that, even though that's true, so they might worship me. It doesn't say that, even though that's true, let them build me a sanctuary so that I can be with them.
Ben:This is the desire, the aim, the purpose of God is to dwell with man, and that's what we're seeing happening in this text. God himself is inviting his people to join him in solving this fundamental problem of human existence, this gap between heaven and earth, between God and humanity. And so I want to look at this together under one point and three sub points. The one point is building a dwelling for God. That's what we're doing here, that's what we're seeing here, and it shows up in three ways First, the tabernacle. Second, jesus. Third, the church. So let's look at the tabernacle together and I'm going to give you kind of a heads up here.
Ben:This sermon might feel a little different. This is why this is what you could call a redemptive historical sermon, and what I mean by that is the Bible is a story from Genesis to Revelation, from beginning to end, and I'm just taking a theme here in Exodus 25. I'm picking it up and I'm going to trace it all the way to the end of the Bible. So this is going to feel a little bit different. You're going to have to lean in in maybe a different way. But what I want you to see is that the only way to understand the Old Testament is in light of the New Testament and vice versa. And so they live in this harmonious relationship, the Old and the New, the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament. They live together and we're going to see this.
Ben:But before we go kind of macro level with the big story, I want to go into Exodus and see where are we. Well, if you've been with us, exodus one through 18, god is getting his people out of Egypt and to Mount Sinai. 19, through the rest of the book and even into Leviticus and Numbers, the people of God are just at Mount Sinai. That's where they are, and so in 19, they're there. 20 is the 10 commandments. 21 through 24 is a bunch of case laws, and then the covenant is confirmed and now we find ourselves here in chapter 25.
Ben:This is a theme in the story of Exodus, because 25 is the beginning of the end of the book. 25 is when God begins to tell his people how he's actually going to be with them and dwell among them, in their midst. 25 through 40 is broken down like this 25 through 31 is the instructions for the tabernacle. 20, excuse me 35 through 40 is the construction of the tabernacle, and then you have a little whoopsy right in the middle called the golden calf. Things go bad. We'll get there soon. That's 32 through 34. But this is important for you to see if you're tracking with me. 25, today's chapter to the end of the book of Exodus is all about these instructions to build a place for God to dwell. This is a really big deal in the book of Exodus. So here's my question you might be wondering it yourself If every word of scripture is God-breathed which it is and if the Holy Spirit does not waste his breath which he doesn't, why would you spend 12 chapters on intricate instructions about building a tent?
Ben:This seems like a waste of papyrus right, like what are we doing here. We have to lean in and see. It's significant because, more than anything else, it is God's presence that distinguishes his people. Now, there's lots of laws in the Torah and the Old Testament. There's lots of laws about their moral life, their cultural distinctions, the food they can eat, the dress they can wear, lots of laws about those. But all of those could be easily appropriated by other cultures. And so it's not externalities, it's not anything Israel can control, that makes them a distinct people among all the peoples of planet earth.
Ben:The distinctiveness about the people of God is God's presence in their midst. That's why the Spirit of God does not waste his breath giving 12 chapters of detailed instructions about how that could actually happen. And so we come back to Exodus 25, verse 8, where he says and let them make me a sanctuary so that I may dwell in their midst Now, because God is relationally healthy. He knows that the gap is not his fault, but it is his responsibility. Okay, there's been a rupture in his relationship and he's going to own that rupture and do what he can to repair that rupture. That's what's happening here. He didn't do it, he didn't cause it, but he's going to take responsibility for fixing it.
Ben:God is going to bridge the gap, because how you deal with your gap is your religion, even if you're secular, how you deal with that gap that I talked about is what your religion is made up of, and so most religions have a temple or a sanctuary, a place where this could be solved. The reason why is because, if there is a God, there is a gap, and we all know that. We feel it acutely, we know we don't live up. We live with an innate sense that we fall short, that something has gone wrong. Why do we sense this gap across all cultures, in all places and times? Because it's real, because we're making contact with reality, and so the significance of this is that the gap between God and humanity has to be dealt with somehow, and how you deal with that gap is your religion, and so any religion worth its salt is going to give you helpful instruction on how to deal with that gap. Let me give you an example of how that doesn't look.
Ben:There's a prayer from I get it from a book by an Exodus or an Old Testament scholar. She wrote a book on Exodus, her name is Carmen Joy Ames and Ames, excuse me and she has this ancient prayer that's written in Akkadian, which is the language of ancient Babylon, and this prayer comes from around the same time and place as the Exodus. Okay, so that's important, and this is how this prayer quote to any God, as it's titled, is described, and you can hear the depiction of the humans wrestling with the gap as they pray this prayer Quote may my Lord's angry heart be reconciled. May the God I do not know be reconciled. May the goddess I do not know be reconciled. Just cover your bases, god or goddess. May the God, whoever he is, be reconciled. May the goddess, whoever she is, be reconciled.
Ben:Oh my Lord, how many are my wrongs? Great are my sins, oh my God, how many are my wrongs? Great are my sins, oh my God. As many are my wrongs? Great are my sins. Oh God, whoever you are, many are my wrongs, great are my sins. Oh God, as whoever you are, many are my wrongs, great are my sins. I do not know what wrong I've done. I love this. I do not know what sin I've committed. I do not know abomination I've perpetrated. I do not know what taboo I have violated.
Ben:And of prayer, some of you are like that sounds like my dating life, to be honest, like a little too much. She's like I don't know what to do here. She doesn't really communicate, he doesn't really tell it clear to me. But this is funny in some ways, except for this is an actual prayer by real humans wrestling with the gap between heaven and earth and they have no instruction, no direction on how to bridge that gap. Not so with Israel. It is good news that God has spoken Like. Do you hear the anguish?
Ben:Humans are fundamentally religious, even when we don't know who the God is, that we're religious towards or what we've done to wrong that God. There's a fundamental religious nature. But God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, takes initiative, moves towards, chooses, establishes his people as his people and then makes it really clear what it looks like to live as his people. That's a gift. You take a big sigh of relief when you read the book of Exodus. Not only is this God who this God says this God is, but this God clearly defines what it looks like to live in relationship with this God, this God of the Exodus. And so Yahweh, the name of this God, has made a provision for the gap. We heard it in the scripture reading Exodus 25, 21 says this and you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you there. Here it is, I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, there, on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel, god gives Moses a meeting place at his throne, which God gives this exhilarating name the mercy seat. It's institutionalized at the heart of the people of God. A mercy seat. That's what God calls his throne a mercy seat.
Ben:Why does this matter so much? Well, it matters because every other version of dealing with the gap is about human merit, except for the God of the Bible. It's about divine mercy. It's coming with all of our failures, all of our faults, all of our brokenness, all of our sense that this gap is real and coming not to a place of judgment but to a place of mercy. That's fundamental about biblical religion over and against any other pagan or secular religion. And so this is significant, because the gap between God and man, between heaven and earth, is not bridged by anything that we do, but by what God does for us.
Ben:Now this is. There's something hidden here and maybe you caught it, maybe you picked up on it in the scripture reading. But let me just read these texts back to back to back, and you'll hear the refrain Exodus 25.9 says Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, so you shall make it. Exodus 25.40, see that you make them after the pattern for them which is being shown you on the mountain. Exodus 26.30, you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain. Exodus 27.8, as it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.
Ben:Okay, we get it build according to the blueprints. Like what's the big deal? Why is this so belabored? Why is this so stressed? Have you ever done a residential build or a renovation or something. You know that you as the inhabitant, you get to shape the blueprints. You get to say, actually I want this there and that here, and some of you who are in the construction side of things say yeah, and it drives us crazy. And so God himself is the one who gets to determine the place where he's gonna dwell and he's really explicit and clear about how he wants things to be, and we'll see why that is in a moment.
Ben:But it takes until the New Testament, where we get much more than a hint about what's hidden here and in the book of Hebrews, one of the most important books in the whole Bible, to understand the Bible. In Hebrews, chapter eight, verse five, it says this that the tabernacle, this tent that Moses was to build, serves as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. The author of Hebrews says, for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God and then quotes our text and says quote see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. This is really important. This really matters. The tent has a template and the template is heaven. Build it like you see in heaven. Build it like it really is, because the tent is just merely a copy and a shadow of the reality. You see what God's doing here he's bringing heaven to earth in this tent, in this tabernacle. Now, this language about a copy and a shadow is significant.
Ben:Before I became a pastor, I was a high school teacher and in my high school, well, first of all I was broke and my walls were just barren white. It was like this weird eggshell color. It was just, it was really awful, and so I was like I just need to get some color on the walls here. So I bought posters and, because I have taste in class, I bought posters of Van Gogh's works, and so there were like 20 bucks for three of these posters and I got a little like plastic framing things to put around it. And this is what hung on my walls. I had a bunch of them like Starry Night, of course. I mean everybody has Starry Night, right. I had the Almond Blossom one. Some of you know the terrace at night with the cafe or whatever it's called it was. I mean it was my best shot and the reality was is they suffice? I mean these copies worked. They brought some color and some beauty into my classroom.
Ben:But here's the thing I've talked to people who've seen the actual Van Gogh artworks and they say one of the things you have to know about it is when you get close you can't help but see all of the texture and the brush strokes. And there's such a beauty in the three dimensionality of these works of art that truly are remarkable. Guess what you didn't see on my posters? The brush strokes, right, like you don't see this because it's just a copy. Now it's a legit copy. You'd know that this is the painting it's copied after. But until you see that, when you see the real thing, you realize how far short the copy really falls. That's the point of the author of Hebrews. If you look at the tent, the tabernacle, but you fail to see that it's meant to model after, it's a replica of heaven. When you see that, you see how this thing could only be anything but temporary. It can't be the reality, it can't be the thing. We're waiting for the thing. But the author of Hebrews says not just a copy, but also a shadow.
Ben:I live off of Semeron, which is the flight path for MCO, which is one of the most busy airports in America, and so I'll be playing with my kids in the yard sometime and a giant shadow will just kind of come over our heads and I'll do one of these Sometimes, if I'm not, I'm like pterodactyls coming to get sailor or something. I'm not really sure what's happening. And then I go oh yeah, yeah, and I look up and I see the airplane and then maybe Augie and I will talk about it or something like that. In that moment what's happening is the shadow, which is not the real thing. If an actual airplane hit me it would be really bad. But this is the shadow of the airplane.
Ben:But a shadow cannot exist without the reality, with the object that portrays the shadow, the tent, the tabernacle, this dwelling place of God with humanity, was never meant to be anything more than a replica, a copy, a shadow of the reality. Why? Because the reality is a throne room with angels and God sitting on a throne being worshiped night and day. It's the thing we were made for, it's the thing we seek at, seek night. It's the very pinnacle of human existence is to be before that throne, and everything we've experienced here has just been a copy and a shadow. But we long, we ache for that reality, and so the author of Hebrews makes it clear that this reality came. This reality was among us.
Ben:There's a story, there's a plot twist as Moses is building this tabernacle, this tent, according to a plan and a pattern, something he could have never foreseen actually happens. It's this incredible plot twist that's better than Sirius Black being Harry's uncle. It's better than Bruce Willis being dead the whole time. Like it's an incredible twist in the story. And this is the twist. The pattern is a person. The pattern in heaven is actually a person, and that person came to be with us. Point two Jesus.
Ben:John 1, verse 14 says this the word became flesh and dwelt, literally tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only son, the son of the Father, full of grace and truth. Do you see what this means for the gap? What this means for the gap is that, unlike marketers who bridge the gap through their product, unlike psychologists who counsel you through expectation management, unlike coaches who are a personal trainer who's going to put you on a strict plan to bridge the gap, god lowered heaven to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. God took responsibility for the gap and did something about it himself. This is good news, this is great news. And so we come to Jesus as the dwelling of God in our midst and we see that all of this longing we have, all of this awareness of the gap, all of this ache for the ideal, for this preferred future for heaven to meet earth, all of that it has a face, it has a name, and his name is Jesus. God has an address on earth. It's Jesus.
Ben:God moved into the neighborhood in Jesus, and since Jesus is the tabernacle, just like Moses building that tabernacle, jesus built his life according to the pattern that he saw in heaven. This is why the secret of Jesus' life and ministry is that he would spend time with his father to hear from him about what he should say and do in life. That's the secret sauce right there. And so another way to say this is in John 5, 19,. Jesus said that his life was guided by one great principle I only do what I see the Father doing. Quote whatever the Father does, that the Son does. Likewise, you see, because Jesus knew the best way to live is to see it in heaven and copy it on earth.
Ben:Heaven is the place where God's will is done perfectly, and so the very core of the prayer that Jesus gave his disciples to pray is your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do you see this? The fundamental logic of all that Jesus came to do is to bring heaven to earth by God's will being done here just like it's done there, and he embodied it in his own life. Jesus showed us that this great ideal for human existence is realized in Jesus' life.
Ben:Contrary to marketers, what we all want Jesus got in constant communion with his Father, not through some product, and then he puts it on offer to all of us, because Jesus showed us what a human life patterned after heaven looks like, which is why the cross is shocking. The cross is shocking, it's scandalous. How is it possible that somebody who lives as the hyperlink to heaven could experience such hell on earth? How Well, if we go back to Exodus 26, there's some hints here that help us understand this. You see, moses was instructed to place a veil between what was called the Holy of Holies I like the other version, the sanctum sanctorum in Latin and everything else. There was a veil and it separated God. It actually institutionalized the gap in biblical religion. That's actually a big deal. Why so God could tear it down? Because it was only temporary. It was just a copy and a shadow of what he would do through his son Jesus. This is how the author of Hebrews puts it Hebrews 9-11,.
Ben:When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then, through the greater and more perfect tent or tabernacle the one not made with hands, that is, not of this creation Jesus entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more three sweeter words in the Bible there are not how much more will the blood of Christ who, through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Put simply, the veil between God and man that was institutionalizing the gap at the center of Jewish religion heaven and earth that veil was lifted up in order to be torn down in the body of Jesus Christ. That's what the cross is. It was just a copy and a shadow of Jesus's body, the true temple, the true tabernacle, which was torn on the cross so that we could enter through it into the presence of God, so heaven and earth could be one, so God and man could be reunited. This is what the cross does for us. Jesus himself is the meeting place of heaven and earth, because on the cross he bridges the gap once and for all. Now, bulls and goats were just a copy, they were just a shadow of reality. The blood of the Son of God is the only thing that could bring the realms of heaven and earth together in a way that was forever inseparable, ever again. And yet we find ourselves with another plot twist, because God says let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. But it wasn't enough for him to just live in a tent among his people. He didn't just want to be with his people. The desire of God is to be within his people, not just among them, but in them. And so in 1 Peter 2, which was our words of assurance today, you heard this as you come to Jesus Now listen, I'm gonna get nerdy on you for a moment. That is in the present tense in Greek, which means it's an ongoing verb as you come and keep on coming to Jesus. A living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, here it is. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house To be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So, god's, we're building a dwelling for God to be with his people, first in the Tabernacle, second in Jesus, but third here and now as the church. This is who we are.
Ben:There are three great celebrations in Scripture when God, by his spirit, moves into a new residence on earth. The first big one is in Leviticus 9. In Leviticus 9, this Tabernacle we're talking about in Exodus gets finished, completed, and God's presence comes and dwells in the Tabernacle. There's glory where God appears to all of his people and he burns up these sacrifices that they make to him. It's a big celebration. The second one is is when David then turns what was a tent into an actual building. He builds a real edifice, a temple that's gonna be permanent, or so he maybe thought. I don't know what David thought In 2 Chronicles 7, 1 through 3, when God's presence came to dwell in the temple. The glory of the Lord fills the temple and fire comes down from heaven there and consumes the sacrifices. You see the pattern. The third great celebration was in Acts 2.
Ben:What we call Pentecost 50 days after Jesus was crucified, the fire and the glory of God descend on living sacrifices. You see the difference there? And the Holy Spirit takes up residence in a new temple, the very bodies of God's people. This is unbelievable. And so, just as Jesus was the hyperlink between heaven and earth before Pentecost, those of us, the church, who are filled with the spirit of Jesus, we are now the new locus and focus of God's dwelling with humanity. If you want to find God, find this collection of ragtag disciples of Jesus that we call the church. That's where he's promised his presence until the new heavens and the new earth. That's what we're doing this morning, y'all. And he, dillard, has this whole article. This is a joke about how you should wear a hard hat to worship.
Ben:If you really knew what was happening in this room right now. The apostle Paul puts it like this in 1 Corinthians 14, if any unbeliever or outsider enters, he may declare quote God is really among you, oh Lord. Would it be so among us? Wouldn't it be amazing if you invite your neighbor through that whole sketchy like, hey, you want to get breakfast. And you're like, yeah, sure, let's get breakfast. How about Sunday morning at 10.15,? And you send him this address and they show up and you're like, where's the breakfast? You're like, here's a bagel, get in the seat. When you do that and they sit down, something happens in our midst. Where they go, surely God is among you people. What if that was so? That's the promise on offer to us.
Ben:The church, the people of God filled with the spirit of God here gathered, is the people of God, but it's not just here, it's as your scent is the people of God as well. This is so significant because, just as Moses received the pattern of the heavenly tabernacle to imitate in the earthly tabernacle, so we receive the pattern in Jesus. Jesus is the pattern from heaven to earth of what it looks like for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and we imitate, model our lives after that pattern. This is what we call discipleship. That's why it's such a big deal. And it's not just a New Testament thing. Here's an Old Testament theology.
Ben:Discipleship is tabernacle building. That's what we're about here at New City. Why? Because it's a whole Bible way of viewing what the church is calling really is. You are helping one another to be built up as living stones into the spiritual place for God to dwell, how, as you come to Jesus and say, follow me as I follow Jesus. And so we are being built up into this place for God to dwell, so that God's heavenly will is done through our earthly lives. That's the portrait, that's the picture of what disciple making looks like.
Ben:Now, disciples of Jesus, filled with the spirit of Jesus, are, individually and collectively, places where heaven and earth meet. Let that sink in for a moment. You, by yourself, full of the Holy Spirit, us gathered. We gathered together as the people of God, full of the Holy Spirit, is the new tabernacle of heaven on earth, of God with humanity. That's a really, really big deal. And so heavenizing earth is the calling of humanity. It has been since Genesis 2, when we were made as the dust of earth but filled with the breath of heaven. Ever since then, the job, the task in all of your vocations and all of your callings, wherever God sends you, is to heavenize earth, where you find yourself.
Ben:Some of you all are thinking, hey, listen, that's too much to ask of me, like I'm too weak for that. Well, let me give you some encouragement. 2 Corinthians 12,. Paul uses tabernacle language to say that it is your very weakness where God's presence likes to dwell the most, where he brings his glory, where he brings his power. This is tabernacle language Paul is using to say if your body is the temple which it is, maybe your weakness is the holy of holies. That's encouraging for us. I felt weak getting up this morning. I felt weak getting into this pulpit because I've had this cold and I'm like Lord. This promise has to be true, or else what else am I gonna do? I know you all have tasks in your daily week that you feel, that you feel your inadequacy for the task ahead. Lean into the promise that your weakness is the place where his presence dwells, where his power is made perfect.
Ben:Let me give you a couple examples of what this has looked like for me when I was a teacher, as I said a minute ago, I talked on this team, and maybe you don't have this where you are, but in Orange County Public Schools, gossip was a real problem in the workplace. Some of you are like no, no, no, I don't even know what that's about. Okay, so I would go to lunch, and if somebody from our team there's 10 of us wasn't at lunch, it was. I mean, it was like open season on that person. Let's figure out how much trash we can talk in the 55 minutes till we get back to our kids. Like that was the. That was the hobby of our team. So what do I do there?
Ben:A disciple of Jesus, filled with his spirit, trying to pattern my life after the heavenly will of God in this earthly existence of mine. What does that look like? It looks like me not participating in gossip in the workplace because God explicitly says no and so his no needs to be my no, and so, very practically, what I would do is I would just not join in, and you might be like you didn't correct anybody. No, I wasn't bold, I truly didn't have the courage. Like hey, I don't think we should talk about Joe like that. I just didn't do it.
Ben:But what I would do if it came to me is I would find something admirable in Joe. Sorry, if your name's Joe, it's not about you. I promise I'd be like you know what I like about Joe, though. His lesson plans are so dope Like he just crushes it right, and I would just find something that I could change the topic of conversation, and it felt like a scratch and a record right, like everybody felt it in the room. Like what, are you holier than now? It's like, no, I'm not, but I just don't want to join in this and sometimes I would just change the subject altogether, like, so how about Christmas? You're like it's not even Halloween yet, dude. How, we got a green and blue and or green red box up here talking about Christmas already. So I say all this to say why? Why would you put yourself into that situation? Why would you do what I'm calling, what God's calling you to do? Why? Because truth and grace reign in heaven. Let's let them reign on earth, in our homes, in our workplace, among our neighbors. That's the calling, that's the purpose, that's what heavenizing earth looks like. Purposelessness is an epidemic in our generation. Why, how? Among Christians, this is the call. What an incredible task. I'll give you another illustration.
Ben:In college I worked at Tropical Smoothie Cafe and we had a transition in management that didn't go well because nobody liked the new manager at all. She was pretty awful, and so one day I was kind of getting the sense and everybody was talking about how awful she was. So I just went into her office one day. I said, hey, I'm gonna tell you something. You can rely on me. I'm gonna work really hard and you can trust that I will have your best interests in mind. But listen, because I served Jesus through this job, not you. He's the real smoothie king. Now I didn't say hey, listen, I didn't say that last part, but I did say I did say Colossians, and I said listen, I'm serving Jesus through this work. And she was weirded out by it, as you would be right. It's like this is a secular workplace. Why are you talking about Jesus here? It's like, well, because he's the reason I'm gonna work hard. You could be a garbage manager, I'm still gonna serve really well here.
Ben:That's what it looks like to heavenize earth in your workplace. That's the invitation Be the dwelling place of God among your neighbors, wherever you find yourself. This is such a vision for why our lives matter. Bob Sorge wrote a book called Secrets of the Secret Place, and he says this quote those who make decisions based on observable data become thermometers of society, but those who decide based on what they see in God become thermostats of society. They shape their world by bringing heavenly initiatives into earthly spheres. That's the invitation Be a thermostat, not just a thermometer of your, of this cultural moment, of your workplace, of your home, of your neighborhood, wherever you live and work and learn and play.
Ben:And so what are we doing here? We're building small sanctuaries, homes, workplaces, circles, communities where God will dwell. And so what sets God's people apart, there and then, but also here and now, is his presence with us. Not our morality, although that's important, not our codes of culture, although those things are important, but God in our midst. And so Jesus brought heaven down to earth in the incarnation. The spirit brings heaven down to earth in Pentecost, and now we bring heaven to the ends of the earth in the mission to go make it disciples of all nations. Let's at least take up the calling to make disciples at the end of our streets. That's the vision of what we're here in Orlando to do, and it's all under the guise of this promise, which is full consummation will come when there is no more temple anymore, because the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The whole earth will be renewed and will be a place of worship. It will be a temple for the living God and his people to dwell. We get to work towards that end here and now, with the sure promise that God will make it a reality.
Ben:Let's pray, father, we praise you. We praise you that you've given us such a calling, that you've raised us up for such a time as this, that we might obey all that you, jesus, commanded us by doing the Father's will in every sphere and sector of society. God, help us. We can't do this unless we have your spirit with us and within us. Fill us Now we open our hearts and our lives to you. Holy Spirit, take what you will, it's yours. Just leave us yourself and we will have enough. Since Jesus's name, we pray Amen.