The Church in the Wilderness
About this sermon
In “The Church in the Wilderness,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about the condition of the church, holiness, sacrifice and surrender. Drawing especially from Acts 7, 1 Corinthians 3, Ephesians 2, John 14, the teaching emphasizes that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on Bible prophecy while working through Acts 7. The message argues that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. It connects this with the conviction that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on holiness. The message argues that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to practice patient, truthful love in relationships and conflict.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church while working through Ephesians 2. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that a durable Christian life must be built on Christ, sound doctrine, and obedient response to Scripture. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on holiness while working through John 14. The message argues that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. It connects this with the conviction that salvation is presented as God’s work in Christ that produces a changed life and continuing faith. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on sacrifice and surrender while working through Romans 12, Matthew 21. The message argues that worship and discipleship require surrendering personal comfort, control, and self-interest to God. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on biblical love while working through Ephesians 4. The message argues that biblical love is demonstrated through truth, patience, sacrifice, and conduct toward others. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church while working through Luke 14. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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- 0:00:00
praise god everybody got their bibles this morning we need to can you help me there brother all right take your bibles go ahead and turn to acts the book of acts chapter 7 this morning acts chapter seven we're going to continue about the tabernacle there's some things that um you know this possible is very possible that we may continue this for a few weeks it just depends on what the lord says but yesterday the lord definitely wanted me to continue this because there's so many things that god was saying through the tabernacle as a matter of fact we're going to read it in just a second in acts 7 about how one of the names of the tabernacle of moses was called the tabernacle of witness the tabernacle of witness and god was saying a lot of things through his tabernacle i need to turn to acts chapter 7 myself but this is where stephen was preaching to the sanhedrin stephen had been doing hands had been laid on him by the apostles and he'd been doing miracles and uh and he was preaching boldly all over the place and um and so finally as will happen if you preach the word of god the true word the uncompromising word you will get persecuted and so they pulled stephen in front of the sanhedrin which was of course the jewish leadership of the synagogue both the sadducees and the pharisees so caiaphas and anas the high priest at that time and they pulled him before the sanhedrin and he began preaching a sermon and basically what he did was he preached to them everything that they knew already knew but then he he laid it on him that jesus was the prophet that moses said we're going to read this in just a second here moses moses said in deuteronomy that god would raise up a prophet unto israel like he did like like him that would be like moses but to everybody who would not hear that prophet would be destroyed and cut off from among the people and of course we know that jesus was that prophet how many of you know that jesus fulfilled all five aspects of the fivefold ministry did you know that the book of hebrews causing the apostle and high priest of our confession right jesus spoke of himself that no prophet is without honor except in his own house and in his own country and among his own kin so he called himself a prophet he also was an evangelist he said i came to seek and to save that which is lost he came preaching repentance so he was a true evangelist he also was a pastor he was called the shepherd of the sheep the true shepherd and bishop of our souls and of course we know he was called the great teacher so jesus fulfilled all aspects of that so the bible says that a prophet god would raise up a prophet like unto moses and if the people didn't listen to that
- 0:03:00
prophet they would be cut off and so stephen is preaching this and let's go down we'll go down let's see to verse oh we'll just go down to verse 37 and he says this is that moses which said unto the children of israel a prophet shall the lord your god raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall ye hear this is he that was in the church in the wilderness you ought to understand this is he that was in the church in the wilderness which the angel with the angel or rather which spake to him in mount sinai and with our fathers who receive the lively oracles to give unto us to whom our fathers would not obey but thrust him from them and in their hearts turn back again into egypt saying unto aaron make us gods to go before us for as for this moses which brought us out of the land of egypt we what not what has become of him and they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands then god turned and gave them gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets oh you house of israel have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness yeah you took up the tabernacle of molech and the star of your god rimfin figures which you have made to worship to worship them rather and i will carry you away beyond babylon and our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he had appointed moses speaking unto moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen now i'm going to stop right there you can keep reading but he goes on to talk about the tabernacle of moses a little bit more and then he talks about the temple of solomon and he talks about how god said it's the issue is not about temples made with hands because he said heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool but god didn't need these things you have to understand that god did not need a tabernacle in the wilderness god did not need the temple of solomon god doesn't need those things those things were for us and what god did with those things is he took those things as we saw last week and he showed us things about himself he wanted to teach us the protocol of dealing with the king you know how many of you know that if you go to see the president you don't just walk in the front door right there's a process you go through i mean even the president of the united states there's a screening process you go through your background better be clean and clear right no terrorist activity in your recent future no sin you see what i'm saying things need to be straight and then there's a protocol there's a way you go in you don't go in alone i mean there's just a lot of things that has to be done before you go even to peer before the president of the united states well god was revealing that there were certain ways to approach
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him and we went through that um we went through the tabernacle last week and we talked about how you go through the door to the brazen altar first where the the sacrifices were done and that represented of course the blood of jesus the sacrifice of jesus and how you there's one way in and the first thing you're going to encounter is what looks like a slaughterhouse i mean it's just all over the place blood everywhere and burning flesh of those animals on that altar because god wanted you to see that sin the wages of sin is death something has to die something has to be killed and it's either going to be us or a substitute now thank god that jesus became the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world amen but i'll tell you the the people also had to learn something and i i know we went through last week how you go in the next thing was the the laver the brazen laver that had the water and the priest had to wash and how i talked to you about how that represented baptism uh in water and baptism of the holy spirit and the washing of water by the word a sanctifying process that even after you're saved after you're washed in the blood of jesus there's still some things that god wants you to clean up and want you to take care of in your own life so that you get you know so that you're holy and prepared to move in and then as we moved into the tabernacle we see on the right side the table of showbread which i explained to you represented the ministry of the word of god studying the word of god breaking the word of god down it was also the place where there was the only place in the old covenant where there was bread and wine together there were strong and it says strong wine and that was not to be the priest didn't drink it but they poured it out as a drink offering to the lord so that's a picture of our communion with god intimacy with with jesus in in communion and the bread and the wine and then the candlestick on the left there i told you has had seven it's interesting has seven um bowls or seven branches on the candlestick and of course it's candlestick or lampstand in the bible but it's really a lamp stand but it had bowls on top of it with oil in them and wicks and it was the priest's responsibility every day to make sure that those bowls were full of oil and that the lamps didn't go out and that that represents the ministry of the holy spirit and us making sure that in our daily lives we stay full of the holy spirit we keep ourselves full of oil remember the the parable of the ten virgins i did all the way back in opelika you know the what does it say all ten of them had oil in their vessels but some got extra and some five let the oil run out and others did not and uh the five that did not let the oil run out in the fire go out in their hearts they're the ones that made it the ones that let the oil go out and the light go out they didn't make it and so very important that that speaks of the holy spirit that speaks of being led by the spirit i mean letting god lead you in the word letting god speak to you
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letting him lead your life so we talked about how in this area you know you moved forward to the altar of incense which incense represents prayer this is in revelation in other places uh that talks about prayer that the the incense is the prayers of the saints and the worship of god is both worship and prayer going up to god and and we talked about how in this place the ultimate goal of this place was to get to the holy of holies and the holy of holies was the place where god's manifest glory was there and it's where in this age that only the high priest could go into once a year and offer the blood on the day of atonement and then god would would through that if he accepted it if god accepted it they did things his way then the nation would be pardoned for their national sins and this was a the most important day of the year for israel because if this day didn't go well the rest of the year didn't go well for them and so you see the picture of the high priest before the glory of god and and really i'm refreshing a little bit about last week because i want you to understand what god was saying and he said this to me very clearly last week he said the way into the glory of god and to get the glory of god into the world is that you must have those spiritual disciplines in your life you must have yourself make sure that your sins are washed away that there's no sin confessed merry-go-round going on in your life you know some people think the blood of jesus is going to wash them no matter you know that that they can just keep doing stuff no there's there can't be this sin confess merry go around repentance means you actually stop doing something it doesn't mean you keep confessing something do it again confess it again do it again confess it again you're in a habitual pattern there you might be confessing it but you're still in a habitual pattern so god wants us to deal with that then he wants us to be baptized and we're still going to have a baptismal service sometime somewhere if i have to buy a big horse trough or something i don't know what we're going to do but we've got to do a baptismal service and then you know we're teaching on getting people baptized in the holy spirit but folks i just want to tell you if this church if you want the church to move into the glory of god and you want to move into the glory of god the spiritual disciplines of being in the word of being in prayer of being in in fellowship with the holy spirit and making sure you're full of the holy spirit and being led by the spirit and these things are not optional this is part of the christian life this is part of the taking up your cross and following after god and the reason christians and churches never find the glory of god in the power of god in their life is because somewhere in some part of this there this tabernacle these examples something's lacking in their in their personal lives and god wants us to get it all amen but now what i want to focus on this morning is another aspect that's you that you see in this tabernacle and that's what stephen called the tabernacle in the wilderness right here in acts chapter 7 when he said it
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