It Takes Glory To Get There // Things To Remember - Pastor Phillip Pointer, Sr.

would you bow and pray with me as we ask the lord to bless our time in the word and this lord's day morning god for your grace that is indescribably amazing that has kept us and blessed us in spite of us [Music] for the grace that has once again looked beyond our faults and zeroed in on the bulls i have our need we say thank you lord appreciate them thank you for the privilege to worship and gather once again lord we need to hear from you and so we collectively simply ask you to speak because your servants are listening god i need you to pour fresh oil on my head give me clarity of thought and precision of speech use me as an instrument in your hand then grant us all what we need to hear to understand and to obey save the loss to reclaim the backslider strengthen the believer get all the glory for yourself this is our prayer in jesus name believers together said amen and amen we certainly give honor and praise to our great god who is good and good all the time and to my friend and brother pastor brian carter and it is my great joy to be with you the concord church once again and another opportunity to fellowship and worship together and grateful to be pinch hitting uh in this place where i know great preaching and teaching goes on you have a tremendous leader preacher pastor in concord you should celebrate the gift that god has graced you within the person of pastor brian carter to the leaders and members and those who are visiting friends it's good to be here today i want to hasten and ask you to join me in the old testament book of exodus in fact the concluding verses of exodus chapter 40 verses 34 through 38 exodus chapter 40 verses 34 through 38. constitutes the substance of the sermon we will share today exodus 40 beginning at verse 34 concluding at the conclusion of the chapter and book verse 38. listen to the word of the lord the english standard version says then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle and moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle the people of israel would set out but if the cloud was not taken up then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up for the cloud of the lord was on the tabernacle by day and fire was in it by night in the sight of all of the house of israel throughout all their journeys thank you for standing with me you may be seated thank you for standing with me to read the word together verse 34 says the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle verse 35 again the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle verse 36 says throughout all their journeys and again the conclusion of verse 38 says this happened throughout all their journeys i want to preach this morning from this thematic thrust it takes glory to get there it takes glory to get there missionary couple once brought some foreign pastors to the united it was a st meeting in a small town during their free time the pastors who had never been to the us wanted to go shopping and sightseeing so even though they were in a small town the missionary knew there was a chance that one or two of them would have some difficulty finding their way around they they might get lost so the missionary gave each of the visiting pastors his phone number in case of emergency or in case they needed some directions it was less than an hour after the missionary had dismissed those pastors to shop and sightsee that his phone rang and one of the pastors said i'm already lost missionary asked him said well do this lay the phone down and go to the street corner and find out the names of the two streets and come back and tell me it was a few moments later that the foreign pastor returned and reported i'm at the corner of walk and don't walk it's one thing to be lost it's another thing to not even know how to be found reality is left our own devices without connection to the divine without a ordering directing relationship with god all of us are easily and quickly lost while our aspirations and desires and designs in life are to get to life's best and even to god's promises the truth is without him we are lost and don't know how to be found this is the struggle and the tension of the times in which we live where everyone wants to be their own expert about what direction we are taking life what makes us happy what constitutes success and prosperity what it looks like to have a happy and flourishing relationship romantically and even among friends we want to choose our own way our own direction our own desires to lead us we are told to follow our hearts and to follow our instincts or perhaps even check in with the ancestors or the stars or the horoscope or the tarot but the reality is friends to do those things is to identify yourself simply at being at the corner of walk and don't walk lost and don't know how to be found you'll be all right when the swelling goes down the truth is you really don't know what's best for your own life the sum total of your decisions has proven that the reality is if you knew what was best for you things would be a lot better than they are right now and what we need brothers and sisters is to return to a place of dependency upon divine direction what we need friends is to remember that god alone knows the where of our journey and controls the timing of our journey that's what this text is about it culminates the exodus experience not simply the book called exodus but the experience of exodus for the people of god in fact they are on the cusp the doorstep they are on the outskirts they are in the suburbs of the promised land it it's it's desert but they're almost at god's best for their lives now mind you god's intention was not to take them on that 40-year journey around mount seer that they ended up taking that was due to their own lack of faith and obedience when we come to the end of the book of exodus they are almost there and they are almost in it culminates the exodus and it teaches us what it truly means to be free listen carefully they came from egypt through the wilderness to the promised land you hear those prepositions they're all significant from a thing through a process to a promise did you hear it let's try it one more time from bondage through proving to god's best for their lives and the reason they were able to get from and through and to is because they were being led by the glory of god i need you to know friends that many of us speak of god's glory or god's power or god's manifestation in our lives in exodus kind of terms when we speak of the from of life where god has brought us from and where we used to be and what we used to do and the pains we used to have and the and the sicknesses god had to heal and the and the heartbreaks that god has had to men that's the from but the issue is when it comes to the through and the two we want to be independent and self-sufficient but listen carefully as much as you needed god to take you from your history you need god to take you through your present to your destiny your through and your two must be submitted to god's direction in order to achieve promised land living and friends this text is also opening up for us another layer of tension not just our desire for independence and self-sufficience but but it also adds a tension of timing in transition because our two biggest issues in transition is why not yet or why so soon we we tend to either be unready or impatient when god is trying to move us through and to the struggle friends for many of us is that every blessing isn't a suddenly experience yeah some things are progressive and take time and that's what this text shows us it shows us friends that if i can learn to submit my life to god's leading and timing then i can have the fullness of divine promise in my life it's it's this simple central truth that the text is going to unfold here it is god will guide us from life's worst to our best as we intentionally give our attention to his glory did you hear it let me run it one more time god will guide us from life's worst to our best when we intentionally give our attention to his glory it means then as a result of listening to this preacher today what you ought to do is be attentive and sensitive to god's leading so you can stay on on the right path according to god's ordained spiritual schedule let me say it another way stop trying to find your happiness and get in god's will stop trying to achieve your best and get to your place because when life stops becoming about you things will get better for you i'm trying to help you listen to it again if life ever stops being about you things will get better for you when you are upwardly focused you can be forwardly mobile when your focus is on god when your focus is on his will when your focus is on his plan when your focus is on his purpose when your focus is on his glory the steps of a good person are ordered by the lord and if you're ever going to get to the place your heart desires it's going to be because you turn your attention to the glory of god that's that's all i'm trying to say i'm trying to say that we got to be attentive and sensitive to god's leading and that's what happens in these handful of verses and they're going to describe for us um some characteristics of divine glory which make glory worth following yeah i'm saying that god knows better than you and god is a better leader for your life than you and i fussed at the earlier service about this and i first said saint mark church in little rock about this all the time stop being pastored by social media memes and let's get back to the truth of god's word because what you see on social media is an illusion it is a it is a falsehood it is a filtered falsehood that only brings about a negativity and a sense of longing but when we focus again on the truth of the scripture as revealed by the holy spirit we find a glory worth following that gets us to the promises god has let me let me give you these these handful of characteristics it's it's it's a filling glory not a feeling a filling glory it's a far sighted glory it's a flexible glory and it's a faithful glory i'm saying that this is the glory worth following it's filling farsighted flexible and faithful let me let me walk you through it look at it look at it why should i be attentive and sensitive to the glory of god because because the glory of god is a filling glory it it's it look at it the cloud covered the tent god has told moses to make this tabernacle this tent that they would take with them uh from from from place to place as they were moving through the wilderness to the promised land to houses they wouldn't have to build in vineyards they wouldn't have to plant god had set up a blessing in front of them if they would just follow god's directions for them so so that moses constructs this tabernacle as god intends and and and when they get finished with it the verse that precedes verse 34 ends by saying moses finished the work and here's what happens when moses is obedient to finishing the tabernacle the cloud verse 34 says covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the lord watch it filled the tabernacle that word glory is not the word that we grew up in the 90s and 2000s with the idea of glory being that word shekinah that this bright and beautiful glory no that word is actually a hebrew word which means weight or heaviness it's it's it's god throwing around god's godness it's it's what happens when the heavenly weight settles down on earthly experiences it's it's it's what happens when god throws godness into your earthly is-ness let me say it another way it's what happens when um god shows up conspicuously and gives you insight and foresight and direction that you could not have by any other means than god's showing up and showing himself to you do you it's how you know what you know but you don't know how you know it it it's how you know that this is the opportunity that you're to take but you don't know why there's just something inside of you that gives you a sense of divine direction it is it is learning friends to listen not just when there's some bright ecstatic emotional experience but when there's a heaviness in your gut down in your soul this is what the new covenant will be uh describing when it tells us to be filled with the holy spirit what happens in the cloud in exodus chapter 40 happens to us in the spirit as new covenant believers when we put our faith and trust in the completed work of the lord jesus christ on his cross and god's glorious raising of christ from the dead we then are indwelt by this same glory and we are led by this same glory and as i yield to it as i submit to it as i listen to it as i steal and quiet my life in order to be sensitive to it there is a weight that rests on me that reminds me life isn't about me so as i move in god's timing toward god's destiny the weight is what pulls me forward to it are you hearing what i'm saying somebody will testify that there were things you wanted to do but he sat on you and that weight wouldn't let you go there were places you wanted to be right now but you ended up in church or watching church right now because the weight of glory said sometimes you wanted to cuss somebody out and god's weight sat on you and all you could say was god bless you baby there were times when you wanted to act out in your flesh move according to your emotions but something deeper something stronger something more powerful it is when god reminds you that he's in control that's the that's the feeling glory it's it's god establishing that you are his and that and that this is his this is his process and purpose coming to pass um it's it's god's house tabernacle here in the old covenant we are in the new paul says don't you know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit that same feeling in the tabernacle is the feeling that we experience in our human condition it is god reminding us we are his and we are permitted relationship by gracious invitation listen we don't invite god in to god's house we we we are invited in and included in by god's grace uh i i i got two boys um pj and elijah pj 16 elijah is 14 he'll be 15 in september and uh and and when we bought the house we live in now in little rock um we gave them the upstairs and they called it the bro cave they called it the bro cave and uh and and and we you know put the bedrooms up there and they able to do all they wanted to do put their tv and computer and entertainment stuff up there uh got them some some furniture some red recliners they used to love the city and that kind of they loved the bro cave and and you know uh i would be downstairs and then every night again just because i know they didn't like it i would just go up and sit in the brocade i would sit in the brocade and uh and they would get uncut you know they'd be trying to do what they trying to do and i'm just sitting there minding my minding their business and and and uh and and eventually it happened more than once eventually they would say uh dad why are you up here in in the brocade what what are you doing up here and i had i did it to remind them hey hey hey i pay all the bills here all of this house is my house so i can go in any room at any time because it's mine god from time to time gets in your business doesn't it doesn't he get in your text messages and and your dms and doesn't god get in your your business sometimes your financial decisions your the way you respond to offense god will get in and god will throw god's weight around to remind you he owns the whole house when he purchased your salvation with the blood of jesus christ he wants to remind you that you need to pay attention to my glory because you belong to me your time is my time your car is my car your house is my house your clothes are my clothes your relationships are my relationships and everything you do ought to be for the sake of the glory of the one who owns it all you'll be all right when the swelling goes down that's the feeling glory of god but there's the farsighted glory of god god does not just fill the tabernacle the text says text says god is also directing the the journey they they they they throughout all their journeys do you see it um whenever the cloud was taken up verse verse 36 says they moved and when the cloud would not move they stayed still it it's because god knows listen carefully when and where to move let me tell you why we're frustrated we're frustrated because we want to expedite or delay the timing of divine process it's not your job to figure it's your job to follow i'm trying to help you live are you listening um god is in charge of the where and the wind and all we have to do is not be left behind and i need you to hear me good because some of us struggle right through here again our social media pastors tell us that you'll feel it you'll know it because of how you feel and if it doesn't feel right then it ain't right that's a lie in fact i want to suggest to you that the less you feel like it the more you're probably called to it in fact you can't discern the will of god through your emotions and you don't have time to wait on your emotions to catch up with god's instructions you gotta move forward in what god has called you to do even when your emotions feel uneasy and unready you're in good company jesus didn't feel like going to the cross in the garden of gethsemane he asked the father if it's possible let this cup pass from me three times he prayed to find another solution to the salvation work he was called to and born to listen friends your emotional condition has nothing to do with your divine calling and though it doesn't feel good right now you got to get out of your feelings and get in the flow because god can see farther than you can see and god knows that if you can ever get over the emotional hurdle of obedience you will walk into the fullness of the glorious blessing he has predetermined for your life let me say it another way um um let me talk about my children again when we were living in in dc used to you used to live in pastor in the dc area i i'll take my my daughter gabby with me to the grocery store and i never forget in one particular occasion um i'm i'm leading uh and and she wants to push the cart and so as we're moving gabby is just excited about pushing so gabby pushes and every time i stop she hits me on the back of my heels you know apparent you've been there yeah hits me on the back of my heels and so and so um and so i i figured out because i'm smart i figured out how not to get hit i i've reached back and and put my hand on the front of the cart gabby's gab is pushing um and and and she would push and hit me on the back of the heels and then then other times i'd be walking ahead of her and she'd be 30 feet behind me because she's still looking at something on the shelf put my hand on the cart and and here's here's what i learned how to do um because because she wanted to push when she wanted to push uh so so here's what i learned to do i learned how to how to when it was time to move i pulled the cart forward and when i was trying to stop i pushed the cart so she couldn't push it if she wanted to i'm i'm i'm daddy i'm i'm bigger i'm stronger so so so when she wanted to push but it wasn't time to push i held the car still and when it was time to push but she didn't want to push i pulled the cart forward can i tell you that's what god is doing in your life god knows that you're trying to move at your pace but your pace is not the best place for your promise so what god has done in your life some of us know what it is for god to pull us out of some things and to pull us into some things and pull us out of jobs that we wanted to stay on and pull us out of relationships we wanted to stay in and pull us out of business deals we thought we're going to be lucrative and then there are times when i'm raring to go and i'm ready to move and god has my cart on a standstill god won't let me move god i'm tired of it but you're going to stay here god they're getting on my nerves but you got to stay here god i want to fuss but you got to stay here can i tell you why i had the grocery list in my hand i knew what we needed and where it was and though she was participating she could not be in control i'm telling you god's got stuff on the list that you don't even know about blessings on the list that you don't know about friendships on the list that you don't know about doors on the list that you don't know about and he's pushing and pulling to get you to move at the right pace because it's farsighted he can see but what you can't see but then that glory i gotta go i'm over my time that that glory is a flexible glory as well watch me you ready watch me um it's a cloud by day and it's fire at night now this that's not just some cute little this is this is a necessity because the desert was hot willingness was hot during the day and and without without shade they could suffer heat stroke but it was also freezing cold at night and and without something to warm them they could suffer frostbite hypothermia so god in his flexibility uh was what they needed in the day and then watch me adjusted his manifestation to be what they needed at night i see you don't know where to shout let's try it one more time um at daytime it was hot so they needed shade but at nighttime a cloud doesn't do you any good they needed something to keep them warm i wish you hear me when it got cold at night and i'm talking to somebody here and i'm suggesting to you that the reason you ought to be attentive and sensitive to the glory of god is because different conditions require different manifestations and god knows what you need now i wish you were hearing me because what you needed yesterday is not necessarily what you'll need today and what you need today is not always what you're going to need tomorrow so god adjusted god's self to the conditions that they could not handle can i help you with it it's because you lack the capacity to adjust so quickly and to move and be so nimble that god says i got you i'm gonna cover you with clouds when necessary and warm you with fire when that is called for can i talk to somebody here and suggest that sometimes you need that big booming boisterous god to step up stand up and make noise in your life and then other times you need god to whisper in the secret places of your quiet time sometimes you need god to fling doors open and to kick down walls and then other times you need god to lock you out of some stuff you want to get in that you wish you could have access to sometimes you need god to raise up people around you to support you to encourage you to remind you of who you are and what you're called to be but then other times you need god to bring you some enemies and some haters and some folk to snicker and laugh and to doubt you and god knows what you need and when you need it and the problem with us is that we misidentify divine activity because we think god is always doing the same thing the same way all the time but can i suggest to you my brother and sister that god knowing what you need and you trusting god means whatever it looks like right now it must be what you need right now so rather than curse your crisis and lament your struggle and sing the blues and say woe is me learn how to celebrate and appreciate the manifestation of divine privilege that you are in right now he knows what you need and if you're broke is cause you need it right now and if you're struggling it's cause you need it right now and if you're hurting it's cause you need it right now and if you're frustrated it's cause you need it right now and if you're tired it's cause you need to rest right now and he's saying i know what you need and all things are working together for good to those who love the lord i gotta go uh um i've gotta go i gotta go i gotta go last last condition last characteristic is the faithful glory of god i'm way over my time it's the faithful glory of god watch it again verse 36 throughout all their journeys watch again verse 38 throughout all their journeys that that is that is god knows that they could not take a single step in the right direction without his direction [Applause] no that was good i'm gonna try it one more time no that was good that was real good let's try it again you ready god knows they could not take a single step in the right direction without his direction so here's what god does i like it because what we know outside of exodus is that they get disobedient um that they they they get faithless um that they challenge moses leadership and they begin to complain and murmur and they end up on a wilderness treadmill track for 40 years until a new generation has to enter the promised land but exodus closes by saying predictively what we will know to happen historically god doesn't change even though they are fickle and faithless throughout all their journeys um i try to teach mark when i slow down that's the good stuff you ready let's try it one more time they are raggedy but god hangs in there with them anyway i just need two folk to testify that what god demonstrates in exodus is what you have experienced in your life and that is this that god kept on filling god kept on being farsighted god kept on being flexible in faithful ways even though you have acted out and acted up and been hard-headed and been obstinate and even though you've been disobedient and even though you've tried to move what he said don't move and even though you didn't move when he said to move god did not leave you god did not forsake you he did not turn his back on you but rather god continued to hang in there with you to walk with you to guide you to protect you to fight your battles to handle your enemies to heal your body to take care of your children to pay your bills because even when you've been faithless god is still faithful just i gotta go i gotta go i gotta go um i gotta go but sometimes y'all sometimes i disobey siri y'all know siri siri siri i sometimes i tell siri to tell me where to go and then when siri tells me how to get to where i'm trying to go i disobey siri i was i was i was driving with my family from little rock to houston um and uh siri told me to get off the highway and take a side route that i knew would be longer and out of the way and so i said siri uh no i'm not gonna get off the highway and take this side route and i stayed and it wasn't maybe three to five miles ahead of where siri said go this way now don't don't go don't stay on the highway with me maybe three five miles there was a a truck that had turned over on the highway and i was sitting in traffic unnecessarily because i took my own way i was wrong and it took too long and and i i discovered i discovered that that that what siri sees and what i see are two different things siri comes through my device but she's not in my device siri is in space in the satellite and siri from up there could see down there what i couldn't see from here does that make sense to you because syria is higher she could see farther and she knew better let's try it one more time because siri was higher she could see farther and she knew better and if i had just put my pride aside and not if i had learned to not be determined to go my own way i could have circumvented the traffic and saved the time and gotten there sooner and i'm talking to somebody here and i know you're smart and i know you've been to school and i know you make two or three dollars now and i know you think you have your life together but there's someone higher than siri there is a savior who sits higher and who can see farther and because that savior who sits higher also sees farther he can see some things that you cannot see and your grandmama is whispering in my ear and she told me to tell you to sing that old hymn that you forgot i am weak and i need thy strength and power to help me over my weakest hour let me through the darkness that i face to see lead me oh lord lead me help me tread in paths of righteousness be my aid when satan and sin oppress i'm putting all my trust in thee lead me oh lord lead me i like this last verse i am lost if you take your hand from me i am blind without your light to see lord just always let thy servant be lead me oh lord lead me is there anybody get concord that will say he's a mighty good leader say yes say it say it [Music] i know he's all right you

Channel: Concord Church

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Length: 38min 47sec (2327 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 19 2021