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Amen, we're in Genesis chapter 25 and we're coming into the chapters where Moses is going to start collecting, I mean, excuse me, God is going to have Moses start collecting the things that are needed to make the tabernacle in the wilderness and all the furniture and you kind of just saw all the things that he's asking the children of Israel to bring as an offering. The title of the sermon tonight is After the Pattern Shown to Thee. And there's going to be a retelling of these later on also in the book of Exodus, so it's kind of like it explains to us what he's going to be asking the children of Israel to bring and then it goes over it again. So there's going to be another opportunity for me to go into stuff into a little more detail. So there might be some things that I skip through tonight just for sake of time, but I'm definitely going to try to cover a lot of this stuff, but maybe go into a little more detail the next time we come across this. But look at verse number one, the Bible reads, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, ye shall take my offering. So we have God asking Moses to bring up a special offering. Now I don't believe that this is talking about a tithe here. It's talking about a special offering. Now money is not a big thing that's talked about in our churches, and I think that's because it's not really made a big deal of in the New Testament. It's not made a big deal of, really, because it's just not one of the main focuses of the Bible period. But money is talked about, and offerings are talked about, and that is how the church functions. That is how God has always financed his institution, and how he's built buildings. How he built the tabernacle is through offerings. But to keep everything going, and the Levites being paid with their food or whatever it was, and that's how he operates in the New Testament also. We have lights on. We have a building that we're in because of the tithes and offerings that come into this building. But this is talking about not tithes, but it's talking about offering, like a special offering. So the tithe is 10%, but the offering is something that's over the tithe, and it's optional. See how it says, giveth willingly with his heart. It's not a command to give above the tithe. But is it okay to ask for an offering above the tithe? Sometimes I think it is, and there's instances in the Bible where you see that there was a need, and I think it was Josiah who was trying to repair the house of the Lord after it had been desecrated, and he just put a chest in the room and bore a hole through it, and people just drop money in it every day, and every day they had to empty it. It was so full that eventually they had to just say, okay, stop bringing stuff. We've got enough, and it just shows that when people are right with God that they're generous towards the things of God, but here also Moses will say the same thing to the children of Israel. In the book of Numbers, I believe he says, okay, we're good. Stop bringing stuff, and it's because a lot of the things that they need, it's a massive amount of things that they need. In the book of Numbers, it'll repeat how all the 12 tribes bring a certain amount of chargers, a certain amount of dishes, a certain amount of all this stuff, and you're just like, okay, we get it, but everything's in the Bible for a reason, and Moses eventually has to tell them to stop bringing stuff because they have what they need. It's not about being a decadent type where the Catholic church became so decadent that they're selling indulgences so they can build the Sistine Chapel and all this other stuff. That is not the focus in the New Testament, even though it seems to be a focus with false churches in the New Testament today, but it's not a big deal today. Just to have a building that we own would be good enough for me. That'd be nice, but we have a building. It's nice. It's warm. It's air conditioned in the summertime. It's good enough for me. I mean, I think it's great, but so you have this offering, and God says, bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart. You shall take my offering, and later on you'll see, and this is the bane of all Calvinists, where it says a free will offering. How many of you have ever seen that when you read the Bible, where it says free will offering, and Calvinists hate that verse because they don't believe in free will, but when the Bible says free will, it really means free will. You have a choice in the matter of whether you're going to do it or not, but wouldn't you say that any offering that you give to the Lord is a sacrifice? Wouldn't you say that? Because nobody just wants to give 10% back of the money that they bring in. It's not just something you want to do, but God does ask that of us to give back a portion of something he's already given us, and it's a faith thing. It's something he uses to test our faith with and to help us to depend on him for the things that we need. Now, when it's something extra above the tithe, you're already tithing, and then he's like, hey, you know, I would like to take another offering of somebody that's willingly doing it out of their heart to do it, and that also is a sacrifice. It's a sacrifice because you're already, you know, people don't just have like, you know, most people don't have just like millions of dollars. I don't think anybody in our church has just millions of dollars just laying around or hundreds of thousands of dollars just laying around that they can just, oh yeah, no problem, you know, here's 100 grand. You know, it's just not a thing, right, and so we don't, you know, anything that we give is a sacrifice, but my point is is an offering is a sacrifice to anybody that would offer it. It's not just something that you won't miss. It's not just something you couldn't do something else with, but it is something that you would do from the heart to please the Lord, and something that might be a big need. So what would be an offering that would be a big need now? Well, maybe if there was some poor church that needed help, and we scraped together some money to help that poor church out. Now look, things are getting tougher now. Groceries have doubled in prices, and now is going to be the time when our faith is tested. We've been in a time of plenty when, you know, Donald Trump was the president. He's right. It was a great economy, but now it's not. Now we're being taxed to the deadly death. We're, you know, paying five dollars a gallon practically for gas, and when gas prices go up, guess what? Food prices go up too, and any goods that you buy or sell are going to go up because, you know, in case you didn't realize this, you know, trucks run on fuel, and trucks drive all of our stuff from store to store, and if it comes in from a port, those ships run on fuel too. They're trying to put sailboat sales on them now again by going back to like medieval times or something. Like they just rediscovered sailing or something, which I think is just like madness, but I mean we're living in a world right now where things are starting to get tighter, but that doesn't mean that God's people get stingier, so I would just before you cut back in the things of God, think about, you know, that God will get us through in the hard times, and, you know, he's there for us in the easy times. He's going to be there for us in the hard times, but we have to stay faithful to him, and so, but the the free will offering is something that's for a specific need. Here the need is the need to build the things of the tabernacle, and again, it's not a command, but, you know, God looks at the heart. He looks at the reason why we do things, and he's pleased when we do things from the heart, and there's nothing wrong with the special offering. I've already kind of mentioned that, but what does he need? What's the special offering for? Well, furniture, materials, the tabernacle, the temple, and its repair later on, and then, you know, I would just say things that I was just thinking off the top of my head, love offerings for preachers, love offering for the special needs of saints like the Apostle Paul would collect special offerings, and then take them to Jerusalem for the poor people in Jerusalem, and then, you know, for the things that God's specifically asking for in this chapter and other chapters after, so like there's going to be other things he's asking for, and let's just look at the first thing, the precious metals he's asking for. Verse number three, the Bible says, and this is the offering which he shall take of them gold and silver and brass. Now, these are some of the most precious metals on the planet, right? What's more precious of a metal than gold? Gold is a precious metal that's highly sought after. Nations have been destroyed and conquered for it. I mean, you think about the Spanish Armada. What were they doing in the new world? Well, they were coming over and plundering these indigenous peoples or whatever and trying to go for gold. They were like traveling all up through South America, all the way up through Mexico, into North America, looking for these giant gold cities where they could just plunder and take it all back for themselves and the glory of Spain, and so it's a precious metal. It always has been. It's talked about all throughout the Bible. Silver, there was a time when gold was so plentiful in the nation of Israel that silver was like rocks on the ground. That's how rich Solomon and the nation of Israel was at that time because God was blessing them, and then of course you have brass, brass also being a very highly sought after metal, so God's not just asking for just any old thing, copper or tin or some other kind of... He's asking for the best materials, isn't He? And so again, what are we talking about here? An offering from the heart, but not only just any old thing, the most precious things that you could give, so precious metals, and then precious materials, number two, look at verse four, it says, and blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goat's hair. So apparently goat's hair is a fine linen, or it's a precious material, but purple and scarlet and blue, those things are hard to get. Those things were expensive. For some reason I'm just, it's kind of just, I didn't really do like a deep dive on the study of all that stuff, all that stuff, but I know that it's mentioned throughout the Bible, even in the book of Revelation, the different dyed colors, very expensive to make, and of course fine linen. We know the difference between good clothing and bad clothing, don't we? They call clothes from Kmart, they used to call it Kmart fall apart or whatever, but Kmart doesn't really exist anymore, but now it's Walmart fall apart, right? And there's nothing wrong with buying clothes for your kids from places like that, because they don't have to last very long unless you have a big family, then you just pass them along to the next generation, right? So I'm sure most families do that. We did that. One pair of pants would be in a picture three years afterwards or whatever. So I mean, quality clothes for kids is a good thing if you know that that's going to last a few years or whatever. And the same thing with shoes, because kids just grow so fast. If you're buying like Nikes or something for your kid, I'm getting my kid the new Jordans, they'll last like two months, and then you're like, why did I do that? They're $100. But we know the difference between good materials and bad materials. And the older you get, the more you start to realize this. The more you start to realize it's nice to have a comfortable pair of shoes that's durable and it's going to last. It's nice to have a pair of work boots that's really comfortable, and yet is going to protect your feet and last a long time because they're not cheap. If you go and buy a pair of work boots from Walmart that cost you like 60 bucks or something, and then the difference between them and a pair of Danners, what do you think is going to last longer? The pair of Danners is going to last longer. It's more expensive, better made. Of course, everything's pretty much made in Malaysia and China and things like that now. But I mean, nice pairs of... What's better, leather or pleather? I mean, pleather is just fake leather, but leather, they made pleather because it's cheaper to make and it looks like leather, but the real deal is leather. The best material you can make shoes out of is what? Leather shoes, right? So you got the precious materials. You got the blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, and goat's hair. So, and then you have verse five, it says, and ram skins dyed red, and badger skins, and shittem wood. So these are some unique things that God's asking for. Jack, can I get your help real quick for me? Is it okay, mom? On the bench right there, I got that sheepskin right there and that badger on top of it. Will you bring it to me, please? Thank you. Appreciate that. All right. So I thought I'd make it a little more fun. So I mean, they're asking for skins. This is a sheepskin, and it's been tanned. It's got the leather skin or whatever, and so they're asking for goat skins or whatever. I think they asked for ram skin, so that'd be like a ram skin basically, and then the badger skin. Now, the badgers that they're talking about don't look like this badger necessarily. There's different types of badgers in the world. This is a honey badger. Who's ever heard of a honey badger before? Okay. They're one of my favorite animals. They're really cool animals. They're small, but they're tough, but most animals in this family of animals, I forget what they call them, but wolverines are part of this family, and they're the biggest of the badger type family. But the honey badger, they're a lot smaller than a wolverine, but they'll take on packs of lions, and they're crazy, man. They'll attack cobras and chase them up trees and bite their heads off and eat them. If a cobra sting bites them, they'll fall asleep for a little while, and then they'll wake up and continue to eat the cobra. They're immune to a lot of... If we got bit by a cobra, the video I saw where a honey badger, the cobra got it, but he killed the cobra before it fell asleep, and it's just laying there like a dog when it's rolled over, and then just wakes up and just eats the cobra. It's like a 12-foot long cobra or something. It's huge, and these animals are pretty unique in the world. They're small, but they're very ferocious. Even wolverines, they're small in comparison to bears and other type animals, but they're vicious. I mean, there's a reason why they say, quit badgering me. Stop badgering me, because badgers, they'll just keep coming. They're very tenacious. You're like, well, why would God ask for a badger skin? Well, I just want to mention this real quick before I keep talking about the badgers, but also oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and sweet incense. God's asking for precious materials, and one of those precious materials is a badger skin. The reason why I want to focus on this for just a little bit, and if I don't get to the rest of the chapter, then oh well, but I want to talk about this because I was told, and I've seen where people attack the King James over this badger issue. They'll say that it was not badgers because badgers did not live in the Middle East at that time. They didn't live in Canaan. Well, number one, they weren't in Canaan yet when God's asking for these things, and number two, that's just not true. They did live there. Now, they weren't honey badgers, okay? They were European badgers, and you're like, well, how do you know that? Well, just look it up right now on the internet if you want to, if you don't believe me. What lives in the area of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula and even in Saudi Arabia, which is where they were at this particular time, they're called Euro-Asian badgers, and they look different than this badger here. They're bigger. They're kind of more flat and wider, but they do live in that area. So, but this is what the modern liberal Bible corrupters will say. They'll find anything to attack the King James over, and they'll just try to deny and just destroy your faith with something as simple as a badger skin, okay? Now, the modern versions, they'll say the King James won on this, and they'll say badgers don't live in Canaan. They'll point this out, and they'll say this kind of stuff, but they do actually live there. It's a fact of history that they've lived there, and they'll say, well, how would the people in the 1611, how would they know what a badger was? And just let me tell you this, okay? When I was in England, the last time I was there, we stayed with the taverners, Pastor Taverner and his wife, and they had started keeping chickens at this new place that they're at, and they were telling me the story about how two badgers attacked their chicken coop in the middle of the night, and they killed Henny. They murdered one of their chickens called Henny, and the last thing that they saw, this horrific scene, is one of the badgers walking off with Henny in their mouth, and Mrs. Taverner's beating them with brooms and trying to get them to stop, but killed all the chickens except for one, and guess what they were? They were badgers, and how did they know they were badgers? Because they know what they look like. You know why they know what they look like? Because they're the European badger, the same exact badger that's found in this type of area where God was asking them to get the badger skins, okay? They look exactly the same, so how would these guys in 1611 know what badgers were? Well, they knew exactly what they were because they were the exact same kind of badger that lived in that same place, and they still live there today in both places, so that's just, you know, these people, they come up with the dumbest things to try to disprove the King James Bible, but I want to read, so let's, I want to read you the modern versions of what they've changed this to. They'll even corrupt the most nonsensical verses in the Bible. Like, I kind of just have this feeling that any place we really go in a chapter in the Bible, they're going to change something, and just for a dumb reason. Now, Exodus 25, verse 4 and 5, and then NIV says, blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and fine linen, goat hair, ram skins, dyed red, and another type of durable leather, acacia wood. So, they even changed the wood to acacia wood, but another type of durable leather, and this isn't the only version that changes it to that. Another type of durable leather. They don't want to call it badger skin just because they want to disagree with the King James. Now, Exodus 24, verse 4 and 5, the new living translation, the NLT, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goat hair for cloth, tanned ram skins, and fine goat skin leather, acacia wood. So, now it's just two goats. Now, it's goat skin leather. It's not badger. Look, this is a badger. Do you know what a goat looks like? They don't look like badgers, okay? Now, the American Standard Version, verse 4 says, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goat's hair, and ram skins, dyed red, and seal skins, and acacia wood. Are you kidding me? The King James translators didn't know the difference between a seal and a badger. Have you ever, who's ever been to the place where you feed the seals at like seaside? Who's ever seen a badger? Are they alike? No, they're not. One's annoying, and the other one's scary, okay? Seal or really annoying. But, anyway, who was just at the coast? Was it Tony and all those seal were on the dock? Yeah, punk and everybody trying to keep them off the dock. But, yeah, so seal skins, they changed it to seal skins. Now, I'm going to show you from the HCSB, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and linen, and goat hair, ram skins, dyed red, and manatee skins, acacia wood. So you know what a manatee is? They must have. Apparently, you know, and then they'll say like, yeah, there's no way they could have got that many badger skins to make the skins for the tabernacle. Oh, but they got enough manatee skins? They just went manatee fishing in the Dead Sea or something? Ridiculous. The new American Standard, the 1995 update, blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, and goat hair, ram skins, dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, porpoise skins. So now you got the, you know, dolphins and porpoise look pretty much the same. They're pretty close. There is a difference, but they're pretty close. You know what? Then they call the weird noises, right? A dolphin does not look like a badger, folks. It's not the same animal, okay? They're skins. Now you might say, well, back in antiquity, they made porpoise skin shoes. Go try to buy a pair of porpoise skin shoes right now. Look it up on eBay. You're not going to be able to find them. But you are going to be able to find leather shoes places. And so, I mean, why would God use badger skin? Why would he use, why would he even use that? Hold on. I forgot the message. I've got to get the message in. Tanned rams, skins, dolphin skins, acacia wood. So, I mean, we got multiple animals here. You wonder why people don't believe the word of God anymore? Because they want to put all this confusion and make us be confused about what kind of animal skins did God put up there? Were they dolphins? Was the tabernacle wrapped in dolphins? Was the tabernacle wrapped in porpoise skins? Was the tabernacle a big giant manatee? No, it was badger skins. I think that's what the, I think the Bible, the King James is right, obviously. The ESV has it as more goat skins. It's like they just, they want to disagree with the King James every time. And that's why you need to throw those false Bible versions in the trash can. I think the King James translators knew what a badger was. In fact, I know they do. And just, you know, maybe that happened to the taverners' poor chickens, just so I could use that as a sermon illustration later on, as a fact of knowing that badgers live in England. Because I would have really not known. I would have never gone back to that story in my mind and remembered that there are badgers in England. And in fact, when I looked up what type of badgers were in England, it was the exact same badgers as there are down where the children of Israel are at this time in this story right here. So, I don't think that's a coincidence, folks. But, so 3500 years ago, there was badgers down there where God's asking for them to be brought as an opera. Now, God's just going to ask for something that doesn't exist there. So, I already told that story. But, you know, and just some things about honey badgers, or just badgers in general. They're predatory animals, okay? They do eat pretty much anything they can find for the most part. But they eat a lot of bugs. They're highly intelligent. They're tenacious. They're rough. They're tough. And their skin is very hard to puncture. Have you ever seen a video where lions are attacking a honey badger before? Well, they're, or hyenas, they're biting it, and they can't pierce the skin with their teeth. They're really hard to kill. They're really hard to puncture their skin. So, do you think that maybe God used badger skins because they're tough and hard to puncture? Because if you're going to make a tabernacle and you're going to put leather skins around it so that it's protected for hundreds of years, wouldn't you use the toughest type of leather that you could find? I mean, maybe God knew what he was doing when he picked badger skins as the outside of the tabernacle. So, you know, and I already talked about how they eat snakes and all kinds of other things. But, you know, they also are fearless in their, you know, the honey badger itself. They're called a honey badger because they're fearless in the fact that they'll go into any nest, no matter how many bees are in there, and they will go after that honey, and they'll eat all the honey out of it, being stung thousands and thousands of times. You know why they can withstand that? Because their skin is really tough. And their fur is really, you know, they actually, people use badger skin for like shaving, you know, to put on the like shaving cream and stuff, and probably for other stuff, probably for brushes and things like that. But, you know, their fur is pretty rough, and their leather, their skin is really, really tough. So, you know, like what's my point about bringing all this stuff up? Well, you know, the word of God's at stake. Maybe you've never even heard about that controversy, but I'd heard this controversy before when I was reading through this and just kind of studying it the other night, last night. I was just like, what about this badger stuff? So, I just kind of started looking into it, and I was just like, these bozos, these lying clowns, like they just love to just put doubt in people's minds about God's word. So, think about this, though. Before the temple was the, so we're talking about the tabernacle here. The tabernacle was meant to be a mobile worship station, basically, where God's presence would be. When they'd set it up, and they'd set the ark of the covenant, they had the Levites move everything. All that stuff had to be moved with purpose. Specific people had to move it. There were specific things that had to be made on the furniture for them to move it. Everything was supposed to be wrapped in gold, basically, and overlaid with gold. And the materials, why such expensive, and why would God ask for the most expensive and durable materials? So it would last. So it would last. God is a great master builder, and he knows what he's doing, and he's going to use the best materials. You know the thing about gold? It doesn't rust. And this wood, the Bible calls it shidom wood. Maybe they're just offended at the word shidom. I don't know. But acacia wood. Well, shidom wood's a coast word or something. I really don't know much about the wood itself. It obviously had to have grown down there. But it probably had something to do with how durable it was, maybe how it didn't rot. Maybe it was just the best wood in the area that was going to get the job done. I read some stuff about it, but obviously not everything on the internet you find is true. So you just have to go with some of the stuff, or not go with it. But who cares? All I know is that God, why are they changing that word? They're changing it for a reason. They're changing badger to porpoise. Not the same animal. But God knew what he was doing. He picked stuff that wasn't going to rust. He picked leather that wasn't going to puncture easily. And who's had tents? Who's moved tents? Who's punctured tents? Maybe if you would have had a badger skinned tent, it might have been a little bit better. It wouldn't have punctured so easily. The tents that you get at Walmart aren't as good as the ones that this one, as good as this one was. I mean, you're probably making less repairs. Maybe it could be punctured, but it'd probably be less things that could puncture this type of tabernacle than other leather that could have been used. And I believe that the leather was probably really expensive. So Ezekiel chapter 16, this is one of the most harshest chapters in the Bible. If you want to turn there really quickly though, Ezekiel chapter 16 in verse number 10, the Bible says, I clothed thee also with broided work, and shod thee with badger skin. What does the word shod mean? It's talking about shoes, isn't it? I shod thee with badger skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silk. So it sounds like he put nice durable leather shoes on, right? So, and then you notice that the rest of the stuff that he's talking about is also quality items. God's talking about, you know, the nice things that he's done for his people. And one of those things is putting some nice badger skin shoes on, some really nice leather shoes. So it's not just that, you know, people will just say, well, that's just a weird item to put on the tabernacle. It's an unclean animal or whatever. Well, no, it's an expensive item. It's a quality item. And he even says, he even makes that point in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 10, that that type of shoe, that type of leather, is a quality and durable shoe. Turn to 2 Kings chapter 1 verse 8. Now, you think about what the tabernacle is supposed to be. It's supposed to be a mobile tabernacle where the presence of God would come to them, and they were worshiping. They would do their offerings. They'd do their sacrifices. But it also could be rolled up and moved and moved to a different place. In fact, it did move for 40 years. It moved throughout the Sinai wilderness. And then, when God allowed them to take the Promised Land that was moved in to Shiloh, and Shiloh was the home base of basically where God had his name called. And then, where did it go? Then it went to Jerusalem. And then, God allowed the temple to be built in Mount Moriah or whatever. But think about this. Elijah was a rough man on the move, and he was girt and leather. Didn't he wear leather? He was a rough man. He was a hairy man, wasn't he? Kind of like a badger. He talked to people gruff. He was gruff, and he was mobile, and he was in the he'd go out in the desert. And one of the things when Obadiah was like, the Spirit of God is going to just take you away and move you to someplace else, and then the king's going to have my head or whatever. I feel like that the tabernacle is kind of a picture of kind of bringing the gospel. And sometimes, the fact that this badger skin is kind of a picture of that rough, hairy, leathery type thing going through the wilderness and preaching the gospel, that leather kind of representing the toughness that you'd have to have in that type of situation. But it says in second Kings 1a, it says, and they answered him, he was a hairy man and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. So instantly, when describing who Elijah was, he says he was hairy. He had a leather girdle, so he had a leather belt. And then he knew immediately that it was Elijah. Elijah was always on the move in the wilderness, and the Spirit moving him all around. John the Baptist was also a rough man on the move, girt and leather. And he was also, if they would receive it, Elijah come back, right? Obviously, he wasn't a reincarnation of Elijah. We don't believe that, but in Matthew chapter 3 verse 4, it says, and the same John had his raiment of camel's hair. So what kind of hair was that? Camel's hair. And so he was girt with leather too, wasn't he? And a leathering girdle about his loins, and his meat was locust and wild honey. So what do the badgers eat? They eat bugs, and they eat wild honey. And their leathery skin is really tough, and their hair is really coarse and rough, right? So I don't know, maybe the badgers, the picture of the not smooth preacher, the rough preacher, the preacher out in the wilderness, they call it the church in the wilderness. The tabernacle and the people that were out there, the church in the wilderness. And good leather work boots are what are needed, like I said, for construction. But think about this, for soul winning, good, nice, comfortable shoes are needed. And you know what? I have a nice pair of leather shoes that I use to go soul winning in, and I buy the same kind every time, because I want to wear the most comfortable shoes I can that are leather that last a long time. And beat the brakes off of them until I can get another pair. Maybe I need to look into some badger skin ones and see how long those last. But I mean, there's some pictures here. There's some really great correlations here with the badger and the man of God that just wants to get out there and preach what the Bible says, whether it's hairy or whether it's not. But God's presence is anywhere where we go and preach today, because where's his tabernacle? His tabernacle is with men now. So in the New Testament, his tabernacle is with us. So just think about that picture. So there's not some temple where it's stationary in one place. There's not a tabernacle out in the wilderness. We are the tabernacles, each of us, and we carry God around with us in our hearts. So the tabernacle of the wilderness was built to last the time of the sojourning of the children of Israel in the wilderness. It was built specifically for that, but think about this. Our tabernacles are built to last a specific amount of time too, aren't they? You know, three score and ten is the years of our life, and by reason of strength, maybe four score years. Some people even live longer than that, but we have a certain finite amount of time, just like the tabernacle in the wilderness had a certain finite amount of time. Think about that. I mean, the comparisons are there. So I just found that really interesting, and I think that, you know, the Bible says badgers! Badger skins. It doesn't say porpoise skins. It doesn't say dolphins. It doesn't say manatees. It doesn't say goats. Obviously goats was part of it, but don't count out the badger skins. You know, again, go look up, just look up a European badger, and you'll see what I'm talking about. It does look a little different than this, but it's still a badger, and isn't it funny? It's the same exact badger that lives in England right now. I mean, you can't make that up. So the correct translations, badger skins. The King James is right. Number three tonight, the precious jewels and stones. So more of the same type of precious things here, and I just want to make a note here real quick also that in the Old Testament, carnal things were more of an emphasis than they are in the New Testament. So, you know, it says onyx stones, verse seven, and stones to be set in the ephod and the breastplate, and you can tell the carnal churches in the New Testament compared to, you know, in the New Testament, you'll see like, you know, these big high-born churches, like, you know, even in Scotland and England and things like that, and the Catholic Church, all this high-born stuff, all this high church stuff where you got like diamonds and rubies and giant cathedrals and huge palaces and all this stuff, and that's just not emphasized in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God's building was beautiful, and the things that He had made were beautiful, and those things were emphasized, but they're pictures, you know. They're not something that God emphasized in the New Testament at all. Like, people's houses were in churches. Multiple people's houses were in churches, and it doesn't say to build them and make them a cathedral or something. So our service to God, though, you know, when you think about these passages, you know, God said to bring me these offerings, and our service to God is going to cost us something, though. It's, you know, salvation doesn't cost us anything, but our service to God does cost us something, and you're like, well, that sounds weird. You know, we're already serving, but it's going to cost us to serve Him. Yeah, it is. You know, that's what sacrifice is. You know, everybody else gets to go home and kick their feet up and watch TV or whatever they're doing, but most Christians, you know, their day isn't done yet. People with big families, their day isn't done yet. People that live worldly lifestyles, their day is done. They get to go have fun. They get to be entertained in whatever they want to do, and look, I'm not saying that Christian life isn't fun, but to serve God, you have to do that on purpose. You have to set aside time. You have to make time for God, too. You can't just be a selfish person that's living for yourself. Jesus didn't live for Himself. He lived serving others, and He expects us as Christians to live serving others also, and so, you know, when you start, you know, punching people in the money, though, people start to get upset, and that's why, you know, and look, I've been in the IFB longer than anybody in this room that I can think of. I've been a Baptist since 2001, all right? Really since 2000, but the first church service I ever went to was in 2000. I think it was in 2001, so that's how long. Who's been in the Baptist church longer than that in here? Okay, brother Alex. Dang it. He got me. I forgot he's old. No, I'm just kidding. You too, brother? I wasn't saved, but I've been in the Baptist church my whole life. Was it Calvinist? Yeah. Doesn't count. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, but I mean, yeah, I mean, it counts. Okay, but, you know, so you guys can identify with me then. How many sermons on money have you heard in your life? Many sermons. Like, when they take up the offering, did you ever have to hear a sermon about money when they bring up the offering plates? Like, you know, yeah, and the constant building funds, and we're going to do a fund for this, and like, look, I've heard it, and I hate it, and it's annoying. I went to a church, and like literally, you don't know whether you're going to get a 20-minute sermonette or not. Sometimes it'd be a little bit less, but sometimes it'd be a 20-minute sermonette on why giving is so important. It's just like, dude, we get it. We understand it, all right? And I think maybe that's why people hate hearing sermons about tithing and giving and things like that, and the other thing is that the love of money is the root of all evil, and I think that sometimes that is people's Achilles heel, whether they'll admit that or not, that they want to keep their money for themselves, and I get it, but I've sat through a lot of sermons and a lot of mini-sermons about tithing, and I went to church, you know, lots of times where there was lots of tithing sermons, and I've gone to conferences where they're just talking about how much you need to give to help these missionaries and stuff. When we do missions, we're just like, hey, let's go, and then we go, so it's not saving up. It's not giving each missionary $50 a month so they can travel all around the country multiple times until they get their $5,000, $6,000 a month that they need to support to go. Then they can learn the language. Then they can get into language school. Then they can start sending us letters where they might have gotten someone saved one time that year. I mean, what a waste. What a waste of money. When we can just go on one missions trip and get like 900 people saved or something, and then that's more than they'll get saved their whole career out on the mission field where they're getting paid all this money. We might spend a lot of money on that missions trip, but we have a lot of fun. We eat good food, and then we have great stories to tell, get a lot of people saved. Things happen that are great, and we do exploits and get into adventures. It's just completely different. It's bizarre to me how the missions has just been so failed in this world. The reason why I'm talking about this is because the money, they hit you in the money with that too. It's like the tithe 10%. You're not right with God unless you're tithing. Then they're like, we got the building fund. We got this fund. We got camp coming up. Can you sponsor a kid? Can you do this? We got camp this year. We got the men's retreat. We got the ladies retreat. We got this and that. We got VBS. It's just like they're just digging in your pocket for more and more and more and more. Then it's like, it's missions week. Let's do a faith promise. How much can you give for faith promise? Then it's just like these missionaries that aren't doing anything. You're at 20%, and you're paying 20-25% in taxes, so it's like half your paycheck. It's like half paycheck giving. That's extreme. That's why people get so sick about people talking about money in church. I get it, but that is not what we teach here. That is not what we preach here. Obviously, yeah, sometimes we do have to come out the pocket for our plane tickets or our hotel fees or whatever. We're crazy. We use our own vacation time and our own savings to go on a missions trip to go get people saved. Who does that? This colt here. I love this church. I don't care what anybody says. You go jump in the lake. Go read your ESV someplace. I think that everybody kind of feels this way sometimes, though, that you want to do more. And doing more doesn't always mean giving more money. Doing more can mean giving more time. I was talking about people helping Brother Sean, and people have volunteered to help him, and that is sacrificial giving. I'm not even going to name the people that said they're going to do it, but God's going to reward those people. I think that's a great thing. That's exactly what I'm talking about tonight, and that's what God's looking for. When he's looking for a sacrifice, he's looking for someone that wants to do something extra, and there's nothing wrong with doing extra. Can you do the bare minimum and still be right with God? Yeah, but the bare minimum isn't wrong. That's the zero mark, right? However many times you're supposed to go soloing, however many times you're supposed to read your Bible or whatever, you got this benchmark that's zero, right? But anything you do above that is extra, isn't it? So anything you give over the tithe ever is extra. It's already sacrifice, but it's sacrifice off of something that God's already given you. And then when you give more, then that's extra sacrifice. When you give more of your time, it's not like everybody just has a bunch of free time all the time. Most men in here work really hard, work long extra hours so they can provide for a whole household, and this is not how the world functions. The world functions now that you can't really run a household with just one person bringing home the bacon. It takes two. That's what they'll tell you, but if men would just work a little harder, do a couple push-ups or something, quit drinking the soy milk and work some extra hours to bring home the bacon, then you could do it too. God will provide a way. He said what to do in the book. He gave us a pattern of what to do in our lives and how to live our lives as a Christian, and you know what? If you do it, He's going to make it happen for you. And so can you give sacrificially and still make it? Yes, you can. Can you be the sole provider of your home? Yes, you can. Can you do extra for the Lord? Yes, you can. Now can you do everything you always want to do? Maybe not, but you know what? God is looking for people that want to do a little extra. Why did He say this at the beginning of the chapter? Why did He say, hey, I want some men that are of a willing heart to give? Because God wants to give you opportunities to do more. He's like, here's the standard, but I want to give you an opportunity. Let's do some more. Can you give more? Will you do more? And again, I'm not just talking about money. I'm just talking about everything that would be a sacrifice. Your time is a sacrifice. Your talents are a sacrifice. Your financial abilities are a sacrifice. Your stuff, giving away your stuff, is a sacrifice. So number four, it's talking about the sanctuary in verse eight. It says, and let them make me a sanctuary. It's like, God's not saying, could God make the sanctuary? Could God build it better than we could? Yeah, why doesn't He just do it then? Because He wants to give us the opportunity to serve Him. It says, and let them make me a sanctuary. Not only let them give the offering, but hey, let them make it too. You know, it's like, that doesn't seem fair. No, look, it is fair. You're unequal. God's not unequal. God is always equal. God is always going to do what's right, and He knows what we need. We need purpose in our life. We don't need a porpoise. We need purpose. Okay, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. He wants to dwell among us, and He wants us to want His presence. And when you come together to do the work, then it means more to you than if He just did everything for us all the time. He already did all the salvation, all that was needed for salvation for us, but He wants us to be involved in the work. He wants us to work together. We're, you know, you're God's husbandmen. You know, we're co-laborers with God. He wants us to work with Him. He's not cracking the whip on us. This is willingly. This is things that He wants us to do willingly. So, it's just really interesting. He's asking for the offering for people that are willingly doing it, and then He's asking them to make it too. And then later on, you'll see that He finds people that have that special spirit of the Lord that allows them to be able to make the things that He's asking them to make, because the things He's asking to make in this chapter, if anybody else was thinking this, I mean, I was thinking about this. The candle with the six or the three sides, and so it's like the menorah looking thing, right? The candlestick. He said to make that with one beat and work. How are you going to do that? I mean, that doesn't make sense in my mind of how you would do that, but that's what He's asking. So, He has to have someone that especially is able to do that. So, I mean, God just, you know, He's asking us to do things. All we have to do is be willing to do it, right? And, of course, we don't work for our salvation, but God wants us to work for Him. Ephesians 2 10 says, For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus on two good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So, we are created in Christ Jesus on two good works. We're His workmanship. So, He worked and made us able to be saved. He did all that work, but He wants us to work with Him and for Him. So, and I already mentioned about the New Testament, we're the sanctuary, but look at Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. The Bible says in verse 20, And when He was demanded of the Pharisees in the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, Lo here or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. What do you mean by that? I think He means that the kingdom of God is within you. That's what I think He meant by it. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16. 1 Corinthians 3 16. And earlier in the sermon I preached this morning, and I think it was in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, that really clearly laid out how we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that we are His temple, that He operates within. 1 Corinthians 3 16 says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? So, we're bought with a price. We're gods. We belong to God. He redeemed us with His precious blood, and He does want us to work for Him and with Him, and God wants the patterns of our life to be how He wants it, not how we want it, and this is the struggle of the human existence is that as saved people, we still have the flesh, and we still want to kind of live life how we want to live it sometimes, and sometimes we want to break away. You know that that hymn where it says, Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, and that's true because sometimes I think everybody feels that way, and obviously those are intrusive thoughts and things that we don't really, you know, I mean I'm sure everybody gets this where you have a thought like, I don't know, just a stupid thought about leaving or just whatever, and it's just, you know, it's a foolish thought, and then you're like, what am I talking about? What am I thinking about? Like, that's just how sinful we are, you know, that we just think about stupid things like that sometimes. Look at verse nine. It says back in our text, it says, according to all that I show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. So, you know, you have everything is down to the details, and, you know, this kind of just shows me also that God, you know, God is a God of order, you know, and even in the New Testament, he is a God of order. Now, he doesn't really get really specific about some things, like he doesn't tell, there's not a chapter in 1 Corinthians where it says, here's the order of service of your church, but he does say, let all things be done decently and in order. So, I mean, he gives us leeway. He's not like some micromanager on certain things. There are certain things he doesn't care about, but there are things that he does care about, and he does want like the Lord's Supper. In 1 Corinthians 11, he explains to us, this is how it was received of the Lord Jesus. This is how you should receive it of me. This is how it needs to be done. And, you know, but he doesn't say, but he also doesn't get super crazy with the details either with that. Like, we use a certain kind of cup. Does it say that we have to use a certain kind of cup? Does it say what brand of grape juice we're supposed to use? Welch's or, you know, Safeway brand? It doesn't say that. It doesn't say, you know, it doesn't give us a specific recipe on the unleavened bread. It doesn't say that you can't have it packaged that's been freeze dried since 1955 when Jack Heil's church made it or whatever. It doesn't say that. We just do fresh bread because it's, you know, it's fresh. It tastes better, I guess. I don't know. It's not, you know, I personally don't like eating chalk. So, but, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like, God will get down to the details in some things. The things are very important that we do a certain way, but then there's some things in the New Testament that just really aren't that big of a deal. The order of service. Well, how many songs are you gonna do? Well, it's kind of up to me. It's kind of up to how you want to do it, but when he's talking about these things, these are very specific. Look at verse 10. He's talking about the ark, number five. And they shall make an ark of shittim wood. Two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. So, it gives us the clear dimensions of how big this is supposed to be, right? And a cubit is like the length from your elbow to the tip of your finger. My cubit is probably not the standard 18-inch Egyptian cubit, but that's the general length. So, if it's a cubit and a half, you can kind of not mind cubit, obviously. Probably more like a brother Robert cubit, or maybe... Who's six foot tall in here? Brando. Yeah, so maybe like Brandon's cubit or something. But anyway, so it gives the specific dimensions. There's no leeway there. And then it says, and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold. Doesn't say it was silver. Pure gold. Within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. So, real specific here. And then it says a crown of gold about it. So, I think that's interesting. I mean, what is this picturing? Well, this is where the presence of God comes. This ark is to be put into the holiest place. And the staves go into it. And it's got the four rings on each corner. And those staves stay in it all the time. That's how they pick it up. And inside of it is all the things that God tells them to put into it. And on the top of it is the two cherubims, you know, facing each other with their wings covering the mercy seat. The mercy seat is placed on top of the ark. And, you know, the ark is not talking about Noah's ark. It's just, you know, like a box, basically, is what it's describing here. But it is very specific. But then it says a crown of gold round about. You know, and God is a great king, isn't he? And the Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But God the Father is also, you know, a great king. So, it says, and thou shalt cast the four rings of gold for it and put them on the four corners thereof. And the two rings shall be in the one side of it and the two rings on the other side of it. And thou shall make staves of shittim wood and overlay them with gold. Now shall put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark and the ark may be born with them. And, you know, obviously, maybe I'm just going a little too spiritual into this. But I'm trying to maybe, I don't know, it's just, it's interesting to me. So, you know, you got the four corners, but you got the four corners of the earth. And the Lord wants, you know, the knowledge of him to go into the four corners of the earth. This is a mobile, this is a mobile ark, isn't it? It's supposed to be moved from place to place. And, you know, the children of Israel are sojourners in the land, that's not the land that they're going to eventually inherit. The land that they're, everybody's supposed to inherit at one time is going to be the new Jerusalem. And that's where everybody, but the four corners of the earth are going to be, you know, someone from each corner of the earth is going to be taken up in the rapture when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and will inherit all things. So, but, I don't know. Anyway, in the mercy seat, of course, is the seat where, you know, Christ places his blood after his resurrection. He goes into heaven to the real mercy seat. Because, remember, this is a pattern. This is a pattern of the things that are already in heaven, the thing, the better thing, the things that are actually in heaven. And these are being shown to Moses and as a picture for us and for the children of Israel of these things. And then, of course, you have it being carried by wood, which I think is interesting also. Gold, I mean, wood is, I mean, why not metal, why not pieces of metal overlaid with gold? Why is it wood? Well, I mean, Jesus Christ the King was, you know, you have the picture of him being laid on wood as Isaac with Abraham. And then this ark is resting on, you know, it's borne by the wood. So the gospel message that goes to the four corners of the world is what? Is the cross. You know, we're supposed to preach the cross. And I don't know, maybe, like I said, maybe I'm going a little too deep with that. But I just think it's interesting. Maybe it's coincidental, but, huh? Yeah, the four corners. Oh, interesting. So yeah, and it's also borne by who? Men. Men carry those things. And who preaches the gospel? Obviously, men and women. But you know what I mean. The priests of the Lord are the ones, there's only the Levites were allowed to carry these things. Joe Blow off the street wasn't allowed to just come and touch these things that were sacred. And, you know, so picturing that just some rando can't just go get people saved, right? Look at verse 15 says, and the staves shall be in the rings of the ark, and they shall not be taken from it. Which, you know, there is no gospel without the cross, right? And if you take out the cross, you're taking away the truth of the gospel. But that's what phonies will do. They'll take away the truth of the gospel and preach a false gospel. But you can't, you know, you can't take the wood out of the story. You can't take the cross out of the story of the gospel. The King of Kings, you know, he can't be separated from his true identity. And what is his true identity? Well, as the Savior, he will always be identified with the cross and the precious blood that he shed on it to save us, right? Verse 16, And thou shall put into it the ark, the testimony which I shall give thee. And notice it says the testimony that I shall give thee. See, a lot of people say, I want to just testify. You know, people want to get up. I had this lady, you know, want to come and testify in front of our church. And she got mad because I wouldn't let her do it. And then I think she came here, and then she was like mad because I didn't like sodomites, and maybe she was one or something. I don't know. But anyway, she wanted to testify her testimony. But you know what? Whose testimony is it really? God, it's his testimony. You know, we test, we don't go, when we go to people's doors, we don't go, I just want to testify what I did or how I turned from all my sins. No, I want to testify what Jesus did for you so that you could be saved. This is your testimony. It's God. And so it's the same thing with this. It's like, thou shall not put into the ark, you know, thou shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. It's his testimony. It's the ark of his testimony, not our testimony. You know, God is the one that made the covenant between the children of Israel, and they just said, yes, we'll do it. Right? Remember last chapter? Verse 17, And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold, two cubits and a half, shall be the length thereof, and the cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, and beat work, shalt thou make them, and two ends of the mercy seat, and one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Even if the mercy seat shall you make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. I think that's really interesting how he makes sure to say it's his testimony there. And there I will meet thee with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, and from between the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the testimony, and all things which I give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. So the purpose of making the ark is to make a place where he can meet with the children of Israel. And he says above the mercy seat, above where the cherubims are. So and what's the mercy seat? Well, God gives sinners mercy, doesn't he? And so anybody that's saved is going to get mercy because nobody deserves it. So everybody deserves mercy. Everybody's going to get mercy. Nobody deserves mercy. And there's some people that are going to be without mercy, right? Number six, the table for the showbread says in verse 23, thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood. Two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit in the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereunto a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of an handbreath round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about. And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof. So again, you kind of have a similar design, but this is a table that you put the bread on. Okay. And of course, you have the wood, and then you have the gold covering the wood. So obviously, what was given to Jesus by the wise men? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And one of the things that he said the offerings are is those special items of the good night. Yeah, the incense. So gold is what a king is related to his kingship, and of course, the crown and things like that. So you can see a picture of Christ even in this. And of course, he's the bread of life, and the bread of life gives us life, the word of God, right? So it says in verse 27, over against the border shall the rings be for the places of the staves to bear the table, and thou shalt make the staves of Shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table may be borne with them. So even the table was not just allowed to be picked up like a regular table. It had rings that you had to put the wood in there, and carry that also. And so number seven, the dishes and spoons, thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and the spoons thereof, and the covers thereof, and the bowls thereof, to cover with all of pure gold, shalt thou make them, and thou shalt set up the table, the showbread, before me always. So obviously, picturing the word of God and picturing the Bible. I mean, the Bible is always going to be, it always has been, it always will be the word of God. And that's a very important symbol in this tabernacle here. And number eight, you have the golden lampstand. So, and there's a lot of pictures in this. I'm not going to be able to get to all that because we're out of time here. But I'll explain that in more detail when we get to that point. But it just kind of explains it. Verse 31 to 34 explains what it is. You know, it's six branches, and it has the one that comes up. And it's basically, it's the menorah. You know, when you see that Jewish menorah or whatever, that is kind of what it's picturing there. And then, you know, it talks about all the knops and the branches. But the knops and their branches shall be of the same, all shall be one beaten work of pure gold. That's the part that would be difficult. You know, you're forming this thing out of one piece of gold, basically. And then it's a lamp that you're supposed to light all the time. And it doesn't say that in this chapter, but it does talk about it later on. And then you think about the seven spirits of God that it talks about in the book of Isaiah. And then you got the seven churches in the New Testament that it talks about, which kind of correlate with this, too. But obviously, I believe that it does picture the church. It pictures the Holy Spirit in the church. And that's why that, you know, if you think about it, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And I think there's a reason why that that lamp was never supposed to go out. You know, it's symbolic, but it did go out. There was times that it did go out, but it was never supposed to be put out ever. And it was allowed to go out sometimes, and it wasn't supposed to be so. But verse 38 says, and the tongs thereof and the snuff dishes thereof shall be of pure gold. I mean, basically everything was just covered with gold. And there were very special things. And that's why it was a special offering. It wasn't just some normal deal that they, you know, that you would cover with the tithe or whatever. So, you know, verse 40 says, and look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount. So, I mean, I kind of already gave a lot of application to this, but I'll just leave us with this one last verse. Let's just look up one last verse and we'll be done. Romans chapter 12 verse 1. I'll just say this also that it's just so important for us to do things how God says. Every aspect of our life would be so much better if we just lived by the pattern that showed us in the Bible, how our families are supposed to be, how our work life is supposed to be, how, you know, our spiritual life is supposed to be. If we would just conform ourselves to that pattern. There's a reason why God gives us a pattern. There's a reason why God gives us the Bible. And it's so that we can have a better life on this earth. You know, He wants us to enjoy our life here. And the more we resist the pattern that He showed us or the old path wherein is the good way. You know, He's not doing this to capture us and imprison us so that we can never have fun. He's doing it so we can be more free in reality. So we can operate in this world and do better in our life. But look at Romans 12 one, it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And it's a really great verse. I mean, he wants us to, you know, Paul's just saying, like, it's reasonable. It's a reasonable thing to ask that we would present our bodies a living sacrifice. And so that just includes basically everything in our lives. And he wants us to be holy and acceptable unto God. You know, we don't just bring our leftovers to them. You know, they didn't bring the blind, you know, the blind lambs, the three legged lambs, the the ones with black spots and dark spots on it, the ugliest ones with the grizzled horns and all this other stuff. He said to bring the best of the best. And so when it's like, if you're thinking about this verse, it's for the New Testament, like he wants us to bring our best. So when we do something in this church, do your best, whatever your task is, whatever your goal is, let's do our best with whatever it is that we do. You know, however we help, however we serve the Lord. Let's remember that we're doing it for Him, you know, not doing it for me, not doing it necessarily for your neighbor. But, you know, think of it as that you're doing it for the Lord. So put everything that you can into it. And, you know, sometimes there's seasons in our life where we can just do more. Well, when we have that unction, that feeling of, hey, I want to do more. Well, don't just ignore that feeling. Do it, you know, and you'll be blessed for it, and God will bless you for it. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this great chapter in the Bible, Lord, and let's pray that you just help us to, Lord, to have times in our lives, Lord, where we don't just meet the benchmarks, but Lord, that we go above and beyond in our service towards you. I pray that you'd help us, Lord, to have health and have grace, Lord, and that we would focus our lives and our pattern after the things that you have in the book for us, Lord. And I pray that, you know, even during this holiday season that we wouldn't lose focus on you, Lord, that we would actually hone in our focus on you and not just about the things that we can get and presence and things like that. Obviously, none of that's necessarily wrong, but I just pray that we would remember the person who allows us to have those things and that, Lord, we would be thankful for them. And we love you, Lord, and we pray that you just take us home safely tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.