Sermon Central
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Motion Without Meaning Series
Contributed by Stephen Elmer on Nov 10, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: If What We See About The Lord Does Not Affect Our Hearts For The Lord, What We Do For The Lord Will Be Meaningless!
Introduction
1. Sometimes It Is Helpful To Be Reminded Of Things That We Should Already Know & Things That We Should Already Be Doing!
- How Do You Remind Yourself?
- Some Are Reminded By Writing Things Down! But This Only Works If You Remember Where You Put The Paper You Wrote The Things You Were To Remember! IE: Grocery Shopping!
- Some Are Reminded By Asking Others To Remind Them! But, Again, This Only Works If They Remember To Remind You About What You Were Supposed To Remember!
- Some Have Even Used The “String On The Finger” Method! Which I Have Never Found To Work!
- How Do You Remind Yourself About Spiritual Things?
- One Way Is To Immerse Yourself In God’s Word – This Is How God Reminds Us Of Things We Should Know & Things We Should Be Doing – He Wrote Them Down For Us! And Its Really Not Very Hard To Find A Bible, Is It? That’s Not Usually The Problem!
- Another Way Is: To Be Faithful To The Teaching & Preaching Ministries Of The Church – This Is Another Way God Has Given Us To Remind Us Of What We Should Know & What We Should Do!
2. In Hebrews 9:1-10, The Holy Spirit Is Reminding Us Here Of Some Things That We Need To Know & Do!
- The Backdrop Here Is The Old Testament System Of Worship & Service! That Which Was Given To Moses – The “First Covenant” – To Teach & Govern God’s Chosen People, The Children Of Israel!
- The Purpose Here Is To Continue To Show How Much Better & More Effective The Service Of Jesus Christ Is On Behalf Of All Of His People!
- With This Backdrop & This Purpose In Mind, Let’s Look At What We Are To Remember!
3. The Children Of Israel Were Being Reminded Of Two Things:
- 9:1 - “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary!”
- Their Place Of Worship & Service! “Ordinances Of Divine Service”
- Their Performance Of Worship & Service! “A Worldly Sanctuary!”
- And Both Of These Are Looked At In Greater Detail To Show That Where They Worshiped & Served God As Well As Why They Worshiped & Served God Was Really Not Sufficient & Not Able To Bring Their People Into The Presence Of God! Instead, The Place & Performance Of Worship & Service Were Mere Shadows Of Things To Come!
- Hebrews 10:1 - “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect!”
4. In Fact, The Priests Would Continually “Go Through The Motions” Of Their Worship & Service & It Never Brought Them Any Closer To God!
- Their Ceremonies & Sacrifices Became: “Motion Without Meaning!”
- IE: It Would Be As If I Were Trying To Interpret For Someone Who Is Deaf Without Knowing Sign Language - I Would Be Flailing By Arms & Hands Around, Trying To Get Someone To Understand, But They Would Have No Meaning!
- They Needed Reminding Of The Reasons Behind Where They Worshiped & Served God & Why They Worshiped & Served God!
- And So Do We!
5. Because, If What We See About The Lord Does Not Affect Our Hearts For The Lord, What We Do For The Lord Will Be Meaningless! (Of Little Value Or Meaning)
I. Let’s Remember Where We Ought To Worship & Serve!
- The Hebrews Were Reminded Of The Place Of Their Worship & Service: The Sanctuary Of God!
- 9:2-5 - The Tabernacle That God Described To Moses For Him To Build - The Details Are Found In Exodus 25-40!
- The Tabernacle Was A Large Tent Surrounded By An Enclosed Courtyard - The Tent Was About 45 Feet Long By 15 Feet Wide And About 15 Feet Tall - It Was Divided Into Two Sections - First Section, “The Holy Place”, 30 Feet Long - Second Section, “The Holy Of Holies”, 15 Feet Square - This Was The Place Where The Priests Would Go To Worship & Serve God!
- In Hebrews 9:2-5, The Writer Is Taking You Inside The Tabernacle So You Can See For Yourself What It Was Like & What It Was For!
- Not Everyone Was Allowed In There, So To Go Through The Veil Was A Great & Rare Privilege! And We Are All Reminded Of What Was Inside The Tabernacle! What Was In There?
- A Reminder Of God’s Fellowship With His People!
- 9:2 - “For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary!”
