Build For Glory

God’s Nearness and Our Glory-Shaped Lives

This morning we’re in our fourth week of our current series, For Glory. If you’ve not been here the past three weeks… firstly, where have you been?

A super quick overview: we’ve explored the purpose we were created for. We’ve thought about what we should be building our lives on – hint, it’s Jesus, if you didn’t know. That was a very quick summary of the second week. We also looked at what we should be building our lives with. And then last week we thought about being members of God’s household: how we’re designed to be in community and to build each other up.

I don’t know about you, but I have really loved the past few weeks. It’s been a great reminder and a great opportunity to refocus on that truth that our actions and our words – everything we do and say – are all to be used to honour and reflect God’s glory.

Today we’re actually retracing our steps a little. We’re heading back to Exodus. I seem to get Exodus when I preach quite a lot, but we’re in Exodus again today.

For a bit of context, the Israelites have found freedom from the Egyptians. They’ve started their very long journey to the Promised Land, and God has begun to give them rules and boundaries to help them learn to live a life of freedom that honours him and honours each other. But ultimately, at this point, God is separated from his people. He is so pure, he’s so powerful, that it’s not possible, or even safe, for the Israelites to just casually approach him.

They’ve already shown by this point that they’re a little bit rebellious and that they don’t always trust God. So at the moment, only Moses is able to approach God. He’s acting in that intermediary role between God and his people.

We’re heading towards Exodus 25. Up to this point, God has given lots of warnings about the consequences of the Israelites coming too close. But here we see a significant change and a window into God’s desire to be closer to his people.

So we’re in Exodus 25, verses 1 to 9:

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red, and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.’”

The first thing we need to notice here is that the tabernacle – that’s the dwelling place that God has instructed Moses to build – is to be made from offerings given by the Israelites. But it was not the Israelites’ idea. It wasn’t them trying to impress God or impress each other, to see who had the best design skills or the best construction skills. It also wasn’t the Israelites crying out in desperation to be nearer to God.

In fact, if you read around this time, the Israelites actually got a bit bored of waiting for Moses to come back from speaking to God and made a golden calf as an idol in that time. So they definitely weren’t crying out in that moment to be close to him.

This chapter of the story was firmly started by God. It was God who initiated the building of the tabernacle, and he makes his purpose really clear: he wants to dwell among his people. He says, “Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.”

This is a God who longs to be close to his people. He doesn’t want to be distant. He doesn’t want to stay away. God says, “I want to live among my people.”

While it wouldn’t be until Jesus’ death and resurrection that God’s presence could fully dwell with his people, this is a significant chapter in that overarching story we see in the Bible of God drawing closer and closer to his people. He starts by dwelling in this tent, this tabernacle. He then dwells in the temple in Jerusalem. We then see Jesus living on earth, and finally God dwelling in his people by his Spirit.

God brought the Israelites out of Egypt for a purpose. He didn’t want to just rescue them from that situation; he wanted to reside with them. He didn’t just set them free from slavery. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt so that he could dwell with them.

We’ve already heard it this morning. It was incredible how “Reckless Love” was coming into my head as I started preparing this message, and then when I looked on the set list, we were singing it this morning. I don’t do coincidences; I don’t know about you.

So maybe you’re hearing for the first time, or the second time, or the hundredth or thousandth time today, that God longs for a relationship with us so much that he was prepared to sacrifice his own Son. We’ve just sung that song about God’s overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love. We don’t earn it, we can’t deserve it, and yet God chases us down with it.

God rescued the Israelites for the same reason he offers us salvation: he offers it for relationship.

As we move on into the next few chapters of Exodus, they are full of detailed instructions that God gives Moses, along with the account of the Israelites completing the work God had instructed. And I wonder if any of you might be honest, like me, and say that at this point you’ve maybe skipped over these passages or skim-read them very quickly. I’m a person who loves details, and I know that I have definitely done that at times.

But in the midst of all the details and all the instructions, there are a few verses, almost tucked away, that really transform this building project.

So we’re heading now to Exodus 29, starting at verse 42.

Consecrated Spaces and the Presence of God

There I will meet you and speak to you there, where I will also meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory. So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar, and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

As well as being another reminder of God's desire to dwell with his people and be their God, God also tells Moses that his glory will consecrate the place they are building, setting it apart for God's presence and purpose.

As part of my life, I've spent quite a lot of time being around cathedrals and finding myself in those places. My first home was over at Southwell Minster, or Southwell – we can debate what you're going to call it another time. My dad was working there when I was born, and then I went to secondary school there and had lots of opportunities to do things like school concerts in the cathedral. My brother was a chorister as well.

Then when I headed off to uni, I went to Canterbury and again had some amazing opportunities, as part of the university orchestra, to perform in Canterbury Cathedral. I also had my graduation there, so that was a really special place. And now, in my job, I often spend my lunch breaks when I'm in the office walking around Lincoln Cathedral, because we're based just up the road from there. Some really lovely, lovely buildings.

And then there are also all those other cathedrals that I've visited on holiday. Anyone find a nice coffee shop in a cathedral? It's always good, isn't it? Coffee and a good scone is always great. And they are usually amazing buildings. They're beautiful, they're impressive – their size, their architecture, their beauty. And I imagine that a whole heap of blood, sweat and tears must have gone into building them. There’s some really incredible craftsmanship and skill, especially when you think about what machinery wasn’t available at the time they were built.

You can really get a kind of “wow” moment, and maybe you even feel closer to God in those moments. But it's not the design, it's not the materials, and it's not how much effort went into that building that makes it holy. That is completely down to God's presence being in that space.

God had asked the Israelites to give high-quality and beautiful materials for the tabernacle and its furnishings, but ultimately they were just ordinary materials. It was a tent made of fabric and wood and metal, like many other tents would have been made from. And if any of you love going camping, you've probably got a tent in your garage somewhere that is also made of fabric and metal.

When we join the story again in Exodus 40, the tabernacle has been built. It's been set up following God's instructions, and it's ready for God to move in:

“Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

This was the moment the tabernacle built by the Israelites stopped being ordinary. When God's presence, God's glory, filled that space, everything changed. The tabernacle was God's dwelling place. It belonged to him, and that meant it had to be treated differently.

We're getting ready at the moment to move into our own building. Hopefully it's going to happen really soon. I’m very excited, and I know that we're all really excited about what the future holds. No doubt there's already been plenty of conversations about things like what painting is going to need to be done, whether we need to buy new tech, what the kids’ spaces are going to look like, and probably a whole heap of other things as well.

We really want to make that building the best we can. We want people to feel welcome there. We want people to look forward to being in our church building. And I really believe that is what God wants us to do with that space. He wants us to have that building. He wants us to use that building, enjoy that building, and see people meet with him in that building.

But this is also a great reminder that it is God, and God only, who will consecrate that space. We can't manufacture holiness. Only God's presence creates it. That’s true whether it's within the tabernacle, whether it's in the building that we're going to have soon, or whether it's in our own lives.

That also doesn’t mean that we can just sit back and relax. It’s not that God has a magic wand that just fixes everything and makes everything easy. He calls us, he invites us, he even commands us to play our part – just like he asked the Israelites to bring the materials for the tabernacle, and then he instructed them about how to build it. God might ask quite a lot of us in pursuit of his glory being seen and known, but it's really liberating to remind ourselves that God is in control. Our role is simply to respond to what he asks of us.

While God's heart and desire was definitely to dwell amongst his people and be their God, his presence also had a purpose. We see that if we carry on into the next few verses of Exodus 40:

“In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out – until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.”

Once God's presence arrived, it didn’t just fill the tabernacle, it led the Israelites as well. When the cloud moved, the Israelites moved. And if the cloud stayed put, the Israelites did the same. The tabernacle became this place of direction and guidance for the whole community.

We will all be praying that our new building is going to be a place where God's presence is seen and known, and we really hope and pray it’s going to become a beacon of hope and love for our town. But we also know that God's presence isn't confined to a tabernacle, or any kind of building, anymore. Isn't that incredible? Isn't that amazing, that God is now dwelling with us?

There are no barriers that separate God from fully dwelling with us now. Thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus that bridged the gap once and for all, we are God's temple, with his Spirit – God living within us. Our God, who created the world, who longed so much to be in relationship with us that he sacrificed his own Son, now dwells with us and in us. Wow.

But if that “wow” moment doesn't then impact your life – if it doesn't change your life or challenge your life, if it doesn't guide your life or transform your life – can we honestly say we've really grasped this truth, and that we truly believe God's presence is within us?

God's glory isn't passive. His Spirit doesn't dwell in us just to give us that warm and fuzzy, cozy feeling that makes us sit back and relax and think, “Isn't it really nice that God's in my life?” Just as the Israelites moved when the cloud moved, having the presence of God within us needs to make us live differently. It should move us. It should shape us. It should lead us to live lives that reflect God's glory to those around us.

That won't always feel easy or convenient. In fact, you may have had experiences like me where you get that feeling of, “Oh, really, God? Really? Is that what you're asking?” That’s usually a sign of God's Spirit stirring me to do something.

The impact of God dwelling within us should almost overflow out of us. It should be that we can't help our actions and our words being a reflection of God's glory. It should affect how we make our decisions, how we love people, how we serve people, how we represent God in our world.

Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount about letting your light shine before others so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Our actions have power to reveal God's glory to those around us – even before, or without, an opportunity to directly share the gospel.

Living as Vessels of God’s Presence

Some of you know that I spend my weeks working for an amazing charity called Safe Families and Home for Good. Our vision is that no family feels alone and every child has a home where they can flourish.

Practically, we do this by equipping and supporting volunteers to come alongside families who are facing all kinds of challenges. Often these families don’t have a strong support network around them, or sometimes any support network at all. Our incredible volunteers walk some of the journey with them, being there as a friend and, we hope, helping to see some positive changes in that family’s life.

We also journey with people who are exploring fostering and adoption, so that when, sadly, there are times when children and young people can’t stay with their birth families, there are people ready and willing to offer them a place of love and safety. Alongside that, we work to highlight issues around the care system and to influence policy within government.

We do all of this believing that the church is central to this vision. Many of our volunteers, and nearly all of our staff across the country, are Christians. Faith is one of the foundations of our values. But our vision isn’t to go in with the primary aim of intentionally sharing Jesus in every situation. Rather, we believe that acting because of our faith—acting because the Spirit dwells within us—is a way of letting our light shine before others. It reflects God’s glory to those we work with: the families we’re supporting, the children we’re walking with, the social workers we’re connected to, and even MPs in Parliament.

Then, like a light that can’t be hidden, God’s presence just starts to seep into people’s lives. Maybe it’s through a family starting to go to a toddler group that’s run by a church, simply to find community. Maybe it’s through a foster parent being asked why they do what they do—why they care. Through care and through welcome, people begin to experience something of God. God’s character becomes visible through the way they live.

This isn’t just me taking advantage of being up here this morning to plug the charity I work for—although please do come and ask me if you’re interested in finding out more; I will very gladly talk to you later. I hope it’s a helpful way of showing that God doesn’t come to dwell in us just to be there. He comes to bring change: to see our lives transformed, and to see other people’s lives transformed too.

God’s presence has to shape, mould, and impact how we live, so that our lives reflect him and his glory to the world around us.

The Indwelling Presence and Glory of God

The tabernacle shows us something really beautiful about God. He longed to be with his people. He longed to dwell among them, and he longed to lead them. His presence transformed the tabernacle from something ordinary into something holy.

And now, through his Spirit, he dwells within us – to be in relationship with us, to lead us, to set us apart, and to make us holy for his glory. Because when God dwells with his people, his glory is not just seen in a building. It’s seen in the lives of those who carry him. When God’s presence fills his people, his glory becomes visible through their lives.

So the question isn’t simply, “Do we believe God is present?” The question is, “Are we allowing his presence to shape the way we live? Are we living in a way that reflects God’s glory to those around us?” That’s not simple or easy, is it? As I’ve been preparing to speak this morning, it’s definitely made me think that there are parts of my life that don’t always reflect that I believe God’s Spirit dwells within me.

Our new building is going to be amazing. It’s going to be really significant. And our lives are incredibly important as well—otherwise, why would God want to come and dwell with us in the first place? But what are we doing to make sure we are using both the bricks and mortar that we’re going to have soon, and our words and our actions, to point people towards God and not just to a building or to ourselves?

As we bring things to a close, and as the band comes back up in a moment, we’re going to sing again; we’re going to worship again. As we take a few minutes to pause and reflect, maybe these next few minutes will be a time and space that lead you to experience a new, or a fresh, “wow” moment of God’s reckless love—that he chased you down because he longs to be in relationship with you that much. He sacrificed his own Son. He’s chosen you. You are set apart for his glory, and his Spirit dwells within you when you’ve chosen to say yes to that invitation.

Or maybe, in the next few minutes, you might be up for praying what could be a bit of a dangerous prayer: “God, show me where I can reflect your glory or make your glory known through my life.” Maybe that’s going to be within your family, in your workplace, among your neighbours. Maybe it’s going to be people that you meet during your week. Maybe it’s part of our church. Maybe it’s even in a place that God hasn’t taken you to yet. As I said, that’s quite a dangerous prayer to pray—but maybe you’re up for it this morning.

Have we allowed God’s presence to mould and shape all parts of our lives? Or are there some parts that we’re perhaps holding onto, still leading ourselves? God desires to dwell with us. His presence makes things holy, and his presence leads his people. So how do we need to respond to that today?

Shall we pray before we worship?

Father God, I thank you. How incredible it is that you come to dwell in us, that you long to be in relationship with us, that your love chases us down. I pray that we won’t forget that you instigated this, that you wanted to dwell among your people.

I pray this morning that, for some of us or all of us, you will reveal a fresh revelation of your presence and love to us. That you will speak into our hearts so that we know we are significant, we are loved, and that we can share your glory with those around us. I thank you that you don’t come to live with us to leave our lives as ordinary. I thank you that you come to change our lives and change the lives of those around us.

I pray now that you will open our hearts and our eyes to hearing from you. Where is it that we can be your hands and feet in the coming days and weeks and months? Where will we have opportunities to share your glory? How can we reflect you to those around us?

God, I pray that you will give us courage and boldness. Where you want us to speak into people’s lives and show your glory, may we not step back from that. Remind us that we can see you in all that we do, that you walk beside us.

Don’t let us leave the same this morning, Lord. Open our eyes and our hearts to carrying your glory. May your Spirit speak to us about the opportunities you have for us ahead.

Amen.