The Secret of His Tabernacle
About this sermon
In “The Secret of His Tabernacle,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about holiness, prayer, the condition of the church. Drawing especially from Psalm 27, Matthew 24, John 14, Acts 2, the teaching emphasizes that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on David’s example while working through Psalm 27, Matthew 24. The message argues that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that the believer must answer fear with trust in God, sober judgment, and faithful action. 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 worship and discipleship require surrendering personal comfort, control, and self-interest to God. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on the authority of Scripture while working through Acts 2, Psalm 1. The message argues that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. It connects this with the conviction that unresolved offense can become bitterness, while forgiveness releases judgment to God and protects the heart. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on holiness while working through Hebrews 9. The message argues that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. 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.
Odle focuses on the glory of God while working through Exodus 25, Acts 9. The message argues that God’s glory exposes sin, deepens reverence, and changes those who seek His presence. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on Saul’s example. The message argues that Saul’s decline illustrates the danger of insecurity, partial obedience, and resistance to correction. 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.
Odle focuses on the glory of God while working through Exodus 25, Exodus 24, Exodus 40. The message argues that God’s glory exposes sin, deepens reverence, and changes those who seek His presence. It connects this with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
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
what do you ever think about that do you ever think about the way life was before you know the devil will try to make you think about some of the fun in the world you know something steve hill said this week he'll he'll always remind you of some of the fun he doesn't remind you when you woke up so depressed and in darkness that you didn't want to live he doesn't remind you of hanging over the toilet you'd never drink again [Music] he didn't remind you when you wrecked your car [Music] or when your paycheck went to pay all those speeding people now he didn't have to remind you of those things but he'll remind you of all that other stuff it's good to be remembered isn't it you remember hey i don't want to be like that anymore i can tell you right now this this guy does not want to go back to that old guy i was not at all somebody ought to say amen right there all right you may be seated hallelujah thank you jesus awesome okay thank you lord hold on it's going to take us a little second here to get straightened out up here i'm wondering why i'm looking at nemo but [Music] i'm looking at nemo [Laughter] praise the lord we do have some prayer requests we're going to take care of that at the end don't let me forget that um because i want to get into this i want you to take your bibles this morning and i want you to turn first of all to psalm 27 psalm 27 it's going to take me just a second here to get set up psalm 27. now there's so much here but this has kind of been on my mind for some time probably one of the best studies that i did as a young christian was a book by kevin j connor entitled the tabernacle of moses if you've never studied the tabernacle of moses and understood everything that god was trying to say there i want to tell you it is a study that will enrich your life um we're going to have some some illustrations up here today to kind of help you but what i want to talk to you about today is about the secret of his tabernacle
- 0:03:01
and this is something that we need to learn because the ultimate goal of god is to dwell among his people do you understand that that's his ultimate goal that's what he wanted that's what he did when he created us he wanted us to want to be able to dwell with his people and you know i've talked to you some about the glory of god and the presence of god and all these things but we're going to see some things i want you to see as we go through this about the tabernacle of moses everything that god did in the old testament were types and shadows of spiritual things in heaven and of things that he was trying to teach us the tabernacle of moses and of course solomon's temple and of course david's uh tabernacle before that they all had different aspects and different things about them but this one right here is probably the key it's the foundation to so many things there's so many things in this tabernacle about jesus long before jesus ever came a matter of fact jesus spoke about this and he declared himself to be each part of this as we'll get into it in just a second but i want to read this in psalm 27 are you there you're there and guess who's not psalm 27 let me find it here yes i tell you to turn there and then i'm slow and see i want to tell you this is i guess you might say too that the tabernacle one of the reasons god did this is to show us the path to the glory of god to the power of god to the presence of god that this that really the church longs for but the world longs for just as much the world wants to know god's real i mean we uh witness it on the job you know one of the things uh one of the guys said one time was you know if if i just saw something if i just experienced something if i just had an encounter i'd believe well we've got to get the glory of god to manifest not just in the church but in the world and this thing right here this tabernacle there's a secret the secret to get there is in here is in this tabernacle of moses psalm 27 we're going to start reading in verse 1. he says here david says the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i fear the lord is the strength of my life of whom shall i be afraid when the wicked even my enemies and my foes come upon me they eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell though a host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear the war should rise against me and this will i be confident one thing i have i desired of the lord that i may seek after that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple
- 0:06:01
for in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me and he shall set me upon a rock now i'm going to quit reading right here just because i want to show you some things he goes on to talk about prayer and god telling him to seek prayer but he says one thing have i desired and i think this is where a lot of people miss some things he says one thing have i desired and that will i seek after that i may dwell in the house of the lord forever well does that mean you go to church every day of your life 24 7 and you never leave no that's not what that means david was referring to the secret of his tabernacle and that's why he went on down to say in the time of trouble now how many of you know that a time of trouble is about to come on the world that jesus said has never the world is never seen the great tribulation is upon us it is around the corner the birth pains and the sorrows the great sorrows leading up to the coming of jesus are beginning right now he said jesus said in in matthew 24 he said the the beginning of sorrows would be terrible earthquakes and earthquakes increasing in diverse places he would said there were going to be diseases and there were going to be wars and rumors of wars and david says here it's interesting he said if war rises against me where am i going to put my trust where am i going to put where when if you know the whole world comes against me who is my shield why will i not be afraid because he said i'm going to one thing i want to do is i want to dwell in the house of the lord forever well again this thing is both this tabernacle in the wilderness of moses the spirit it was a physical place but god told moses to make it after the pattern of what he saw in heaven so this thing is both in heaven literally and then moses made it exactly everything according to the way god showed him when he was up on the mountain and these things are pictures of spiritual things that you and i are to dwell in and experience now so i want to say this you and i can dwell in the house of the lord forever if we want to as long as we do things his way that was one of the keys that god was showing israel if you want to be with me and you want me to be with you and you want me to dwell in the midst of your camp just like this that you see in this picture if you want me to be with you then here's the way you do it and god gave them a prescribed way if you notice that there's a fence all the way around that thing and there was only one way in right there in the front in front of what's called the brazen altar and we're going to look at that in that interesting god said if you're going to approach me there's a fence around this way to get to my glory to get to my presence to get to knowing me intimately and powerfully he said there's a one way though you've got to enter this door right here one way see god's not confused the world's confused
- 0:09:01
satan has done his job deceiving the whole world and confusing the world and making them think that there are thousands of ways to get to god thousands of ways to know the creator or or this powerful entity no god showed us long time ago that if you want to approach me it's my way and it's one way and he gives a progression here and we're going to look at it go to the next one and we'll go to the next one and look at this i just want to show you kind of the basic setup here of the tabernacle you see that it had a it had a wall or a fence all the way around about it and there was one way to enter in well as soon as you entered in to the court it was called the outer court once you entered into the court the first thing you ran into was the object there called the brazen altar it was made of brass and it was a place where they actually god lit the fire on it to start it off with but that is the place that they offered the blood sacrifices and then burnt them with fire this place is when you walked in and here's a beautiful picture when you walked in the door your the first picture that you get of the way to god is a bloody mess bloody mess a place of death where animals were sacrificed and their blood was was spilled out and poured upon the altar and then they were laid upon the altar and burned now this is a picture of jesus said did he not say in in the gospels i am the door john 14 6 he said i am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but by me he was declaring this pretty clearly but he said that unless the son of man was lifted up and that meant nailed it to a cross unless the son of man unless jesus shed his blood you could not proceed any further so let me just say this you don't go anywhere in the kingdom of god until you are born again and until you understand that nothing can wash away your sins but the blood of jesus and you have to fully accept the cross in everything that it means or you go no further let me tell you something right now what we have is a lot of people in the church world who have stepped inside the door they've seen that brazen altar where these animals are being sacrificed where this blood has been shed they see the cross they see the demands of the cross and they turn around and walk back out and say that they believe in it but they don't want to really embrace it this was a it was a terrible terrible mess right there matter of fact if you saw the pictures of it it was just you know awful and they literally would burn the fat of the animal on this brazen altar and you know some of that smells okay and some of it does it because they would burn other parts too um but the next thing after you came and brought your sacrifice the priest would
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