Follow The Promises: The Ark of the Covenant Leads the Way

Alright, today’s message is called Follow the Promises. The Ark of the Covenant always leads. The Ark of the Covenant always leads the way. What is the impossible thing that God has put in front of you? Like when you think of the thing that’s just impossible, what is it? Like is it is it the prodigal child that you just don’t know? Is it the spouse that is is hard and and not following the Lord? What addiction maybe maybe needs to be dealt with? What lie are you living that needs to come into the light? What weakness or fear seems so impossible that that you just can’t imagine ever being on the other side? What is that thing? Each one of you has a different answer to that. So don’t shout it out. That’d be a little weird, also. Joshua chapter 3 starts like this. It says, Joshua rose early in the morning, and he set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp. Okay, so you got to picture this. The Jordan River is the river that goes from the Sea of Galilee in the north and then comes down to the Dead Sea. And the Jordan River is this big, big, big river. Okay, so and the time of year that they’re coming is we know it’s the busiest, busiest, it’s the fullest, it’s the springtime when all the rains have come. So this river is overflowing its banks. It is humongous, it is very, very big all the way across. And so God has Joshua brings all the children. Remember, we got like two million plus people, two and a half million, three million people. They pack up and

they go and they sit right there by this river and they just sit there and they look at it for three days. And what do you think all those people are thinking? We are so screwed. Like a couple people can cross over in a boat, that’s fine, but millions of people cannot cross this river. We are so in, we’re in so much trouble. This is an impossible situation. And they’re like, Joshua just puts them right there and doesn’t say anything for three days. He wants them to just stare at their impossible situation. Like I asked you, what is your impossible situation? And I gave you three seconds to think about it. Joshua gives them three days. You know, they tell they teach you when you’re learning public speaking, they’re like, silence is the best speaking. And you’re like, Amen. We could have more of that. But when you when you want to make a point or you want people to really engage, you say nothing. You just let you just let the silence just kind of hang there. Okay. God and Josh through Joshua is letting the children of Israel see their utter helplessness. Let me say that again without my voice cracking. Their utter helplessness. We’ll put that one in the recording. He set them right before it. Utter helplessness. What does that mean? Utter helplessness. It’s another way to say humility. Because Joshua is gonna lead them into the promised land, they’re gonna cross this river, it’s gonna be miraculous, it’s gonna be amazing, but they cannot participate in any of that grace without humility. Because God gives grace to the humble. A million Jesus points for you, Dana. I give them to her special. God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud. And that’s the principle we learn in the New Testament and in Psalms that says the same thing. Humility, you can think about it as utter helplessness, utter hopelessness. It doesn’t mean no hope, it means no hope in self, no hope in me. All our hope is in who? In God, in Jesus. Hope in Jesus instead of self. I think I need this, I think I am that, I think this is an impossible situation, I think all kinds of stuff. It doesn’t matter what I think, because I need to place my hope in Jesus and what he says and what he does, which is his identity, not my own. Okay? All right, so how in the world do I do that? How can I hope in Jesus instead of myself? So they sent the commanders of the people, they sent them into the people, and he says, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God,

the priest and the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Verse 4 there yet there shall be a space between you and it about two thousand cubits. That’s like a thousand feet, okay? By measure. Do not come near to it, that you may know by which way you must go, for you have not passed this way before. And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. So how do I get my eyes off of myself and hoping in myself and trying hard to be a good Christian and trying hard to set myself free, and trying hard to cross the impossible river in front of me and do the impossible things God’s commanded me? How do I do that? I get my eyes off of myself and I look at, he says, the Ark of the Covenant. Look at the Ark of the Covenant. Look at the Ark. God has made a way for a solution for your problems, and it’s in the Ark of the Covenant. He’s made a solution for your impossible situation, and it’s in the Ark of the Covenant. And he says, Here, we gotta go after it, we gotta follow it. But he says, Don’t come like super near. Okay, why does he say that? Well, a couple reasons. First, he says, because that Ark of the Covenant is holy, that is the very presence of God. So he’s holy, and right now these people they’re not holy, so you need to have a respect for God. Also, if they all like crowded in among the ark, the second thing is you have two and a half million people, everyone couldn’t see the ark. So he says, Everyone stay back a little bit. It’s like one of those uh concerts where they crush everybody. It’s kind of sad, but it’s like, man, kind of scary. He’s like, Don’t make my ark, don’t make my presence like a concert. And then he says, What is your job? Your job is to look at the ark, keep your eyes on it, make sure everyone keeps their eyes on it, and then sanctify yourself. What does that mean? If you want to see God do wonders, if you want to see God’s power in your life and God work in your life, you gotta sanctify yourself. What does that mean? It means set yourself aside, apart from common things, the way the world works, the what the world thinks about, what I naturally think about, and instead focus on the Lord, on holy things. Set your mind on things above. The ark is the only way these people can enter into the promised land, is by following the ark. Only God can accomplish this for them. The river is impossible to cross. And this is what God calls them to

do. Follow his lead and keep your eyes on him. Like if there’s a lizard over here, but the ark’s over here, don’t get distracted by the lizard. Right? I’m sure there was lots of lizards in the desert. Verse 6 then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. So Joshua is leading these people in faith. And what have we learned so far? The big thing about this book is that Joshua is a picture, he represents Jesus. And Joshua here, he’s leading them by faith. He’s leading them in faith. This isn’t like a slavish, law-based, performance-based relationship with God where he’s like, you must do this, you must do this, and here’s the rules to follow. You gotta fight and you gotta try and you gotta win it yourself. No, it has nothing to do with that. This is a relationship with God where he’s like a father and a leader, and he’s giving them the victory, but he says, I want your hearts, I want your attention, I want your love. And that’s what’s so different than religion. Religion says, here’s what you do, do it, or you’re a loser. And God says, forget all that. Keep your eyes on me. I will lift you up, I will carry you because I love you and I value you, and Jesus is just that good. This is a life that we’re learning about, the promised land of trusting in Jesus, and that’s called faith. And we’re trusting in his ability and his power, but it has nothing to do with you. Your children are gonna return to the Lord not because of you. Your miracle may happen, but it’s not gonna be because of you. It’s the grace of God that accomplishes all these things. Why do we fail when we try to do things for God? Because when we try in our own effort, what we do is we’re pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. You ever heard that one? I never understood that one until I moved to Texas, really. I see it all the time. I go down the street, people are just pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. At the beach. It’s not how Jesus works. I gotta give it my all, we hear. But God says, I gave my all for you. I’m asking for your faith and your trust. All of your heart, I’ll take. I give to you, I’m the father, you’re the child, I give for you, he says. Your all doesn’t win this battle. And that’s humility. That’s where we get the humility, that’s how you walk in humility, knowing that your all doesn’t win it. And this is so freeing when we finally get it through our thick skulls that God wants to give the victory. He’s already decided to give it to you, he’s already given you this grace. So we’re gonna pause our verse-by-verse study and we’re gonna now do a deep dive. You guys like the deep dives? I like the deep dives. So we’re gonna do a deep dive on what is this ark because you really gotta understand it, because we’re gonna see this ark is gonna be like, I mean, smiting fools all over the place. So we’re we gotta see what is going on with this ark and why it’s so crazy. But so here we’re gonna deep dive. The ark is a symbol of God’s presence. Back then it was the literal God’s presence with his people, it’s God with us. Or remember what we studied Christmas Eve? Emmanuel. And Jesus, his name was gonna be Emmanuel, which means God with us. Well, Merry Christmas! It’s God with us. The ark is a picture of baby Jesus, you could say, God with us. It’s a it’s an image of Jesus, and Jesus

is God. So this part, this ark is gonna be a picture of God for us because Jesus reveals God to men. We studied that on Wednesday night. Because he is God who became a man, right? And so when Israel is gonna be walking through the desert or going to battle or facing a storm or lost or confused or have any other need, they could just look to the ark and God is with them, and they could know they can ask for help and receive help directly from God. Now, are they gonna do it? Sometimes when Joshua is a good guy. Where do you look when you need help? Let me try that with my voice breaking. Where do you look when you need help? The ark shows us that God is available and he’s on our side. That’s what it showed them, and it’s what shows us. God was for them, not against them. They they could look at the ark and know that they were team, team God, team Jesus, team Yahweh back then. They were unified with God, just like we can know that you have been unified with Jesus. If you’ve asked, believed Jesus, believed in Jesus, and asked him, you are one with him. He’s on your team. So as we study this ark and its connection and its meaning for the person of Jesus, it it matters to you and to your life as we’re doing this deep dive. Because Jesus is the ark, the ark is Jesus, and this is all has to do with you, not just the people back then. All right, then the ark is cool because God loves to focus our attention on his beloved son. Anytime in the Bible, you’re like, hmm, I wonder what that means. Guess what it probably means? Something about Jesus. God loves his son, and he wrote this entire Bible for us to seek out how is this representative of who Jesus is or what Jesus does. So this is why the ark matters. It’s a picture, like I said, of the person of Jesus. So the ark was in this thing called the tabernacle, which was a tent that God explained and taught them how to build this tent. And it had all these other pieces of furniture, and they all represent the different works that Jesus would eventually do. And for them, you know, it was important, but they didn’t understand all of it. We can understand it all because we can look back and see, oh, that’s about Jesus. He’s the bread of life, he’s the light. And we can see all those things about what he did. But the ark is not about what Jesus does, it’s about who Jesus is. It’s his very person. And so God taught them how to build the ark first before he taught them how to build every anything else in the tabernacle. Because he wants you to know who Jesus is first before you even know what he did. His person. Even the names of the Ark of the Covenant are a picture, tell us about Jesus. Look at this. First is called the Ark of the Testimony. That means the Word of God. It’s the Ark of the Word. What’s Jesus’ other name in the book of John? He was the Word. So if you want to hear what God’s saying to you, listen to Jesus. The Ark is called the Ark of the Testimony. It’s called the Ark of the Covenant, which means the agreement. Jesus is the one who gives us the new covenant of grace, a new agreement where God says, I will be everything for you and do everything for you. You give me faith. You put your trust in me and I’ll do it for you. That’s grace. It says, the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. That’s another name. Just like Jesus rules the world and will eventually rule the world again. That’s his identity. It’s called the Ark of God because Jesus was God. It’s called the Ark of the Lord God because Jesus is your God. He’s your Lord. He’s not just God, but He’s your Lord. Another name is the Ark, the Holy Ark. Because guess what? Jesus is holy. He’s different. He’s set apart from the world. And then the last one is called the Ark of Your Strength. These are all in the Bible. The Ark because Jesus is your strength. He provides his strength. He gives his strength to you. So you’re seeing how everything in the ark is all about Jesus. Now I’m going to read to you from Exodus chapter 25,

when God tells them how to make the ark. And he says this, and you shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half shall be its width, and a cubit and a half its height. It’s a box, basically. And you shall overlay it with pure gold. Inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a moulding of gold all around. And you shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in his four corners. Two wings shall be rings shall be on one side and two on the other side. And then you shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them, and the poles shall be in the rings of the ark, and uh they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put the ark of the testimony, and you shall put into the ark of the testimony, which I shall give you some other stuff we’re gonna talk about in a second. Okay, so it’s it’s not even really that hard to see how the ark is an image of Jesus, okay? So do you do you know there’s two other arcs in the Bible? Right? There’s Noah’s Ark, and that was a picture of salvation, right? Noah was hid in the ark while God’s judgment came to the earth, but Noah was saved from judgment because he put his trust in the Lord, and so he was saved in an ark. Huh, amazing. And then Moses, little baby Moses, was put in an ark and floated down the Nile. It was actually the word is literally ark right there, and the crocodiles didn’t get him, and then Pharaoh and he was saved in that. So they both arcs always picture and symbolize salvation. Then we see here that it’s made of two materials. You have the wood, which is very earthy, right? And then you have gold, which in the Bible is a symbol of God. It’s a picture of God. So what does that show us? It shows us Jesus, this whole ark, everything about it was these two materials. Jesus was a man, but he was also God. Remember, we talked about that? All right, I’m gonna give away some major Jesus points here. On Christmas Eve, we I gave you a big word about what it what the word is that says Jesus was God and man, fully 100% God and fully 100% man. Anyone can name or remember that word. John, you you remembered? Oh, you didn’t remember? Okay, here’s your big word. The did you know Simon? Nope. Nope. Minus 20 Jesus points. He’s got a lot to say. Spare it, don’t worry. Just kidding. The hypostatic union. The hypostatic union. That’s a big theological term that means God Jesus was fully God, golden, but fully man, the wood. Okay, it’s pretty cool, right? Now, there was some stuff placed inside the ark. First, when Moses came down with the two tablets of the law, he smashed them because he saw all the people dancing naked around idols, and he’s like, You guys are terrible. And so he smashed them. You guys are gonna break this law. And then so what’d they do? They took those and they put those broken pieces in the ark. Okay? So the law was in the ark. I don’t know, was it the broken ones they put in? They might have put the second ones in. I’m not sure. I can’t remember if they put the broken ones or the fixed ones afterwards. But anyway, the law was in the ark. Well, what does that have to do with Jesus? The law was wrong. The law was in Jesus’ heart. How do we know? Well, Psalm 40, verse 8 is messianic, and it says, I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is in my heart. So this is what’s this telling us about Jesus? Jesus was never just acting good.

He was never just imitating the law. He had the law in his heart. The law, all the Ten Commandments, all the rules, they were just a description of who Jesus was and what he would do. If God ever became a man, this is how he would act. Look at the Ten Commandments. He wouldn’t lie. He would honor God, he would rest in the Lord. All the different Ten Commandments, that’s what Jesus is and what he does. And Jesus didn’t have to try, he had it in his heart. And guess what? Now that we’re in the new covenant and Jesus lives in our heart, guess who else has the law in their heart? Wabam! You guys do. You don’t have to try to be a better person. You just allow Jesus to live through you, and you have his righteousness. You have his life. It’s the saving life of Christ. This is the most important part of your development as a Christian is to realize, stop trying to be a better person and start letting Jesus live through you. Keep your eyes on the Ark of the Covenant, right? Secondly, we see about this ark that they always put blood on the mercy seat. They put blood on the lid. So every year and all kinds of times, they would put, they’d kill a lamb and sprinkle the blood on this. And what does that tell us about Jesus? Well, it foreshadows the blood of Jesus that would be the price paid for our new covenant, our new relationship with Him, the real covenant that’s to come that we have now. Now I’m gonna read to you some verses from the book of Hebrews that help us understand why this is so important for us and different than what they actually had in the ark with sprinkling blood. Because you guys have blood sprinkled on you too, but it’s not real blood, it’s the blood of Jesus, which is real blood, but it’s spiritual. Okay, you guys understand? Spiritual. Okay. It says in Hebrews chapter 10, it says, For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, could not, with these same sacrifices which they continually offer year after year, make those who approach perfect. For then they would not have ceased to be offered. For worshippers, once purified, would have no more consciousness of their sin. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. What’s that saying? It’s saying, okay, if you lived back in this time, the only way you could be forgiven is the blood of bulls and goats sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant. Okay, and it was just a temporary kind of covering over your sin. That’s your relationship with God, was based on that blood. But what would happen is you would commit the sin again, or you would remember it, and it never really took that sin away. But there’s a better thing today. The blood of Jesus, which actually removes the sin, actually takes it away. So look at verse 11. Verse 11 says, And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which could never take away sin. So you see the problem. Okay, the problem is they only covered sin, they couldn’t take it away. Then verse 12, but this man, that’s Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, what’s that? Jesus dying on the cross, his blood, he uh forever, he sat down at the right hand of God. So he’s not doing any more sacrificing. And from that time, he’s waiting till his enemies are made his footstool, for by one offering he’s perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Wow, it’s so much different. Do you guys ever think, man, I’ve really screwed up this month, this day, this year, I’m on the naughty list. I need to be forgiven again by God. Stop doing that. Okay? Let’s pretend Butch wrecked my car. I said, Butch, I see you driving all over the island all the time. I trust you. So here’s the keys to my car. Have fun. And he takes it out on a joyride, goes to Bonita Flats, wrecks my car. It was a Neil guy who jumped. No other nefarious reason. And Butch is like, Oh, I’m so

sorry, I wrecked your car, and I’m like, it’s okay. I have insurance, it’s alright. I forgive you. It’s paid for, right? And then Butch, we’re supposed to have coffee the next day. And I say, Hey, you ready for coffee? And I’m I’m waiting, you know, at karma. And I’m like, working on my computer a little bit, and Butch is five minutes late, butch is ten minutes late, and I’m like, Where’s Butch? So I give you a call. And and I’m like, where are you at, Butch? We have a meeting. I want a relationship with you. And Butch is like, I just feel so bad. I don’t deserve to be in your presence. I I I can’t come and meet with you today. Will you please forgive me? And I’d be like, Butch, I already told you I forgive you. It’s done, it’s over. Stop being a weirdo. Come have coffee with me. I like you. She’s like, stop being a weirdo. Sorry, I like teasing you, butch. You’re just right, you’re right here. So the next day it happens again. And he’s like, he thinks he’s being like super godly by saying, God forgive me all the time, having this pious attitude. And really, he’s just being a weirdo because the forgiveness has already happened. He’s not believing in the word which has been spoken, the word of forgiveness that’s been given to him. He’s not believing in grace, he’s not living by grace, he’s not walking by grace, he’s walking in law. He wants to feel forgiven, or he wants some other proof that he’s forgiven besides the word of God. You will never get another better proof than Jesus saying, Here’s my blood. Is that good enough for you? Yes, it is. It’s good enough for God. So guess what? It’s good enough for you. What does all this mean? You’ve asked Jesus to forgive you. You are forgiven. For what? For everything. Past, present, future. God knew what he was signing up for you. All your sins are forgiven. Well, don’t I have to have like confess everything to the Lord? Don’t I have to go to don’t I have to to what if I do something and I die without confessing it? And does that mean I’m going to hell? Never. No. The Bible says you are 100% forgiven the moment you enter into this relationship with God through the blood of Jesus. This is so vital and so important for your peace in your life. The blood of Jesus speaks that to you. All right, so look at verse in Hebrews again, same chapter, chapter 10, verse 19. He says, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Butch coming right into me and saying, We’re gonna have coffee. I’m not worried about yesterday because you’re not worried about yesterday. Let’s have some coffee. Woo! That’s boldly entering the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart of full assurance, having of faith, having our hearts sprinkled. What’s that talking about? What happened to the Ark of the Covenant? What would they do? They sprinkled it with blood. What sprinkled in our life? Our hearts are sprinkled with his blood. Your heart can have confidence in your relationship with God because you go to church all the time. No, because you do good things, no, because you give money, no, because you help old ladies across the street, no, because of the blood of Jesus. That’s it. Our hearts sprinkled uh from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The blood of Jesus is so good that it even cleanses your entire physical body is now set aside for God’s purposes. You are sanctified. So live like you’re sanctified. Everything about you is beautiful in God’s sight. You’ve been made pure, so live like that. Okay, well, we also see that it had four golden rings on the sides. You ever you wonder what that may symbolize? I have an idea. I think this has got to represent the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I think God knew that there would be four gospels, and I think that’s those are the rings that carry the message of Jesus to us. It’s so amazing. We have other symbols in the Bible that talk about the four gospels. We have the angels that are before the throne of God in Revelation and in the book of Ezekiel. You have angels, and these angels in in uh Revelation it shows four different angels, and each angel has a different face. One is

lion. And each one of those speaks of different part of God’s character. Well, each one of those also speaks of a different way that Jesus is described in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew shows him as a king, which is a lion. Mark shows him as a servant, which is an ox. Luke shows him as a man, which is a man, and John shows him as God, which is an eagle. And so in Revelation, you they all have these different faces, and then in Ezekiel, you see one angel has four faces on different sides, and each one of those same things, the lion, the eagle, are all he’s got different faces. Each one of them just pointing to the same thing. So what was inside the ark? This is really cool, guys. Three things. You gotta get this. We have to know this. It’s very important. So wake up. All right. Three things were that will show you the way that Jesus provides for his people. And they knew these things were in the ark. Check it out. There was the two stat tablets of the stone without the law, right? We remember we already kind of talked about that. Secondly, there was the golden pot of manna. That’s gonna teach us of grace. So the law teaches that Jesus fulfills the law for us. The golden pot of manna is gonna teach us a little bit about grace, and then we see Aaron’s rod that budded and produced life. I’ll tell you about that in just a minute. Okay, so first in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 4, it says, uh, the ark had the golden censor uh of the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, which are inside is the the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the tablets of the covenant. So first we’ll look at the the the law. It says in Matthew 5.17 that Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And in Romans 5.19, it says, By one man’s obedience, many shall be made righteous. Okay? Is God gonna measure you by how well you kept the Ten Commandments? If you’re a Christian, the answer is no. He’s gonna measure, and that’s good news. Woohoo! He’s gonna measure you by how well Jesus kept the Ten Commandments. That is gangster. That is awesome. That is a great deal. I’m so thrilled that I am not gonna be measured because I have failed more times than I can count to keep those Ten Commandments. But mine is forgiven. Now, if you’re an unbeliever, you still have to be judged by those Ten Commandments, and that’s sad. But Jesus came to fulfill that requirement, and he’s fulfilled it for everyone who puts their faith and trust in him. And you can’t add to what he did, you don’t live better than he did, just receive what he did, and it gets credited to your account. This is the absolute sufficiency of the life of Jesus for our life. It’s amazing. All right, secondly, we got the golden pot of manna. This is incredible. What is manna? Right, it was it was bread from heaven, it was angel food, and the word manna literally means what is it? So I I made a joke. What is manna? What this what this points to is that God provides for every need of his people. When the people were starving, they’re like, give us food, and God’s like, here’s manna. It’s a picture of God providing what you need for life. He provides. And guess what’s that is? That is grace. He fulfills what we need. It’s a gift of grace. Now, a couple of cool things. In in Exodus 16, we just learned that this is a pot, but in Hebrews chapter 9, it says it was a golden pot. What does that teach us? Because the Old Testament doesn’t see everything about Jesus, but the New Testament interprets it all for us and helps us see. The Old Testament couldn’t see that it would be God Himself that would meet our needs. It just said a man would come and be born. But here we see it’s definitely God, and that’s why it’s a golden pot. All right. And we see in John chapter 1, verse 14, the word became flesh, the word Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us.

We beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So this golden pot filled with manna, which is spiritual food, this is where we see we get grace and truth. That’s what feeds us. The word of God is truth, and God gives us his grace. So feed on him. That’s what looking at the ark, you have to understand all this stuff. You have to know that you’re looking at Jesus who gives you grace. Jesus who for who isn’t gonna measure you by the Ten Commandments because He did it for you and He gives you grace. All right, now we’re Aaron’s rod that budgeted. Okay, dude, get ready, because this story will blow your mind. Okay, so in number 16, Korah and his friends, I’m just gonna tell you the story quickly, they challenge the authority of Aaron in this story. And basically they were questioning who was qualified to be the priest of the nation. And they’re like, you guys suck as priests, and so we want to be priests. And who had the right to represent people to God? They were they were char they were uh questioning that, who could do a good enough job for the nation, and they didn’t think Moses and Aaron were qualified. So after a couple tragic judgments, God chooses to speak very clearly about who is his chosen priest. So what does he do? He has them lay out twelve sticks, and one of the sticks it’s a stick, and it just starts producing fruit. It starts growing. They wrote Aaron’s name on that stick, and overnight that dead stick produced life. Flowers grew on it, the buds, and it even produced almonds. Because it was an almond stick. Okay, so what is that? Something dead becoming alive. You ever heard of that before? Man, Jesus is all over this. I didn’t know this stick was a picture of Jesus, and it’s in the Ark of the Covenant. So resurrection is something dead becoming alive, and resurrection is key to understanding who is qualified to represent God and the people of God to each other. Only someone who has been resurrected can represent God to people and people to God. Resurrection is the key. And this is probably one of the scriptures that I think Jesus taught his disciples as they were going down, walking down the road to Emmaus, and he was teaching them all the Old Testament scriptures that proved that the Messiah had to rise from the dead. I think one of them was Aaron’s rod that rose from the dead, that that budded. Just a cool little thing. So these three things were inside the ark. The law was fulfilled, grace and resurrection. All of it is a picture of Jesus. So where are you gonna turn when you need to measure up? Are you gonna turn to yourself? Oh, I better, I better go to church, I better read my Bible. Good things. But if you’re doing it to measure up, you’re looking at yourself. Or are you gonna look to the Ark of the Covenant? Are you gonna look to Jesus and his covenant to you? Because he measured up. That’s the law, that’s the Ten Commandments in the Ark. He does it for you. When you need power in your life to serve God or to overcome temptation or to rest, where are you gonna get that grace, which is the power? Are you gonna get it from yourself? God, look what I did. Are you gonna give me grace now? No, that’s earning. Grace is a free gift. So we have to say, I’m gonna look to Jesus, I’m gonna trust in Jesus, and that’s how I get his grace. And then where are you gonna go? Where are you gonna turn when you’re dead inside? When you feel like your relationship with God is

dead, when you feel like I am a dead man walking, I have no life in me. I feel like crap. I feel like I can’t go on anymore. Where do you turn? To yourself or to the Ark of the Covenant, to Jesus. He, the saving life of Christ, is yours. He says, I give you my life when you’re sad, when you’re hurting, when you’re when you’re um anything that’s death related. Look to me and I replace it with life. Wait upon the Lord, and you will see his resurrection life in you, for you, through you. May we only turn to him. Just simply look to Jesus in faith. That’s what that’s what we had to understand this before we took one more step into the into the uh Jordan River. Right? Because that Jordan River is right there. But if you take a step, you’re just gonna break a foot doing that. Would you trust in the Lord and keep your eyes on him? And you’ll walk through on dry land, which we’ll see next week. We’re done. There’s an impossible task in front of you, I’m sure. There’s miracles that you need to see. And his name’s gonna come up and he’s gonna sing another song for us. I want you to think, maybe you can just close your eyes. And just think about what is the crazy thing that you you’re yearning for God to do. Is there is there someone that you are desperate for God to save? You’re desperate for God to bring them back to his grace. Is there is there an addiction that you are struggling through? Is there something that is just so much pain that you don’t know how to take a step forward? Lift your eyes to Jesus. He is the provider, he is the giver of grace, he is the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ark of the Covenant always leads the way. Father, we we turn to you and and God, I I just I know that we’re all very busy and we all have pains and hurts and church hurts and family hurts and life hurts and sickness hurts and all of it. God, it’s too much to handle, and we are just gonna throw it on you. And God, if anyone here wants to make this decision, a new decision to to believe on Jesus and to call upon you and uh to ask that their sin would be washed away forever and enter into a new relationship with you, God. I pray that right now, in this moment, while they’re hearing some music, God, that your Holy Spirit would move in their heart to truly call upon you from the heart. And if there’s anyone that wants to ask Jesus to save you even now and forgive you of all your sins, just raise your hand. And I’d like to pray with you. And it’s fine if you already have a relationship with God, don’t feel any pressure, but God is working in in our hearts and in our lives to call us to trust in Him. Father, we put our hope and trust in Jesus alone. Help us to learn how to walk in your spirit, not in our own sufficiency. Help us to keep our eyes on you and on your grace. Jesus, help us to sing with all our hearts to glorify you and to live our lives as a song that praises your name. I pray your love would flow from our lips and that we would pour out our hearts as praise to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

God bless you guys, God keep you, God keep you safe, and help you to know that Jesus is with you and in you, and He loves you so much. God bless you. Have a good week.