Jevon Martin: I'm ready. Hey, good afternoon, Waterway Church. Today it is Wednesday, May 27th. At least that's what it is now, while we're recording. My name is Jesse. This is Javon. Hey. And we are here talking to you today. ⁓ kind of taking a little bit of a different course. I know we've done like two podcasts already, so we wanted to really mix up our pattern. ⁓ but today, instead of having a strictly old testament passage for you, wanted to think about two days from this last weekend. ⁓ Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, and Monday was, as you know, Memorial Day. And so we were thinking about that. That actually ties in with a lot of stuff that's going on in the Old Testament as we're thinking about how all these ideas lead up to Jesus Christ and ⁓ and the gospel that we see in the New Testament. So ⁓ Javon, we were talking about Memorial Day is kind of a national holiday to remember those who died in the armed services, those who died at war. ⁓ but It's called Memorial Day. Right. Right. There's a memory piece to that. ⁓ what is it? You were doing some deep dive stuff with the old testament with some memory stuff, how often God says, Remember, remember, remember. What ⁓ what do you find there? I see a lot of bookmarks in that box. Yeah, there are. ⁓ so so as we talk about pulling up Deuteronomy eight, and here you know, there's ⁓ the Ten Commandments are given, there's just commandments and instructions about the law that Moses is. is given to the people. And in Romans or Romans, excuse me. That's later today. Deuteronomy chapter 8, ⁓ verse 1, it says, be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years to humble and test you in order that ⁓ in order to know what was in your heart. And then he gives a bunch of ⁓ other things about observing commands, observing the law. Then on verse 11, he says, Be careful that you do not forget. The Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws, and his decrees that I'm giving you today. Then verse 19, going on down again. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Just the strong emphasis as the law is being laid out about how the people are to remember God. Remember, don't forget, don't forget, don't forget. Don't forget. Uh-huh. And you think about too, as as we think about the law and all the Things that that were given to the people of Israel. It was given for them to remember usually specific events that occurred that God did for them. Even just Passover, right? Remembering the Passover. There was a strong emphasis for them to remember what God had done. And then additionally, on top of that, ⁓ thinking about There were moments where God also told them to like build monuments to put things up and say remember what what God has done. So ⁓ going here to Joshua chapter four. Wow, I flipped there on one turn. That's that's some real serious Bible scholar work right there. Right there. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ sorry. They teach you that in seminaries, like turning right to the Bible passage. Ultimate ultimate sword drill. Third year stuff, yeah. ⁓ chapter four, Joshua chapter four, verse ⁓ six. Sorry, ⁓ starting at verse four. Chapter four, verse four. So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. So they crossed crossing the Jordan bridge ⁓ the Jordan River. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of tribes of the Israelites to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, What does what do these stones mean? Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. ⁓ When it when it crossed the Jordan, the arcs of the the waters of the Jordan were cut off. Those stones are to be memorial to the people of Israel forever. So they were called to build these monuments, these set up these stones to remember what God had done in this particular instance so that they could tell their children about how God led them through the Jordan River. And there's also these ideas of constructing these Ebenezer stones, these re reminders of what God has done. That's that's really interesting because just last night I was I was going to a funeral up at the McCann. And right along Route 222, just above where Little Britain Road splits off, right above the tea house, for those of you who are locals, there is ⁓ there is a stone. It's about four or five feet high, right on the side of the road at the driveway to the Hess Farm. I know this is getting like really deep in local stuff, but ⁓ it talks about different folks, generals and and important folks who lived in that area, and that thing was put up like a hundred years ago, and it's just there beside the road. I had dreamed. Past that my entire life and never read any of it till about a year ago. I was on a bike ride and stopped there and and read it. so those things happen sometimes, right? Sort of in our local communities. I noticed that in a lot of our churches, especially kind of our Mennonite and Anabaptist churches, seems like there's some reluctance to to build an altar, right? You know, or to like stack up the stones to remember. Do you feel like I i is that because we don't wanna have a remembrance? Is that a reaction against maybe w we don't wanna build a monument or an id idol kind of thing? W why do you think Why do you think we don't tend to build those kinds of little monuments or reminders quite so much either here at Waterway or or in our kind of churches? I think we do have to remember church history, right? And as we're talking, the you know, Catholic church has all kinds of idols or icons, excuse me, the word that they would use. Icons set up where they worship these idols. And in the past I I know people who would have accused the Catholic Church and and the Orthodox Church and some of the the higher church traditions of making idols out of those icons. Right. Right. And there is a sense at which ⁓ it can be very easy for us to slip into worshiping these these things. And but that's not the point of the monument. The point of the monument is not to worship it and say that's what saved me. Think about what the Israelites did with the golden calf. Right. Here is your God that brought you out of the the out of Egypt. And it's like, no, no, this is not God. ⁓ and the calf, in that sense, maybe that analogy breaks down because the calf was not really built to ⁓ memorialize anything God had done. Right. Right. But the difference between the calf and this stone pile is the stone pile isn't what saved them. The stone pile reminds them about God. It points their worship to God. Yeah. So I think, I think it is an interesting thing though to reflect on for us. We're we'll willingly set up these monuments. To rememorize soldiers and and even just a monument, ⁓ you know, a tombstone to remember someone someone's life. Or even like a trophy to remember a second place finish at a softball game. Right. Right? Like there's there's these kind of trophies and plaques that we give for all kinds of other things. Right. Maybe the little minor stuff. Right. Exactly. But we don't do that. Why why don't we do that with things that happened in our faith journey? For instance, the significance of the calling in my life. How valuable would it be for me to put something that reminds me of that calling as I go day in, day out that God called me to ministry? ⁓ I think there would be value for us to s to pause to think about: are there things we can put in our daily lives that help us remember the gospel, remember God, remember what He's done in our lives? And so I guess kind of tying this back again to the weekend and Memorial Day and all that, we have we have some national holidays that are intended to Make us remember things or cause us to reflect on things. I know in the Old Testament and still in the Jewish culture, there are a lot of holidays. ⁓ we tend to de emphasize a lot of those. We do Christmas and Easter pretty well. Right. ⁓ but there's not as much of that. I wonder, I wonder if there are some things that we can build into our schedule and and build into our world that would help us to remember not to become idols, not things to worship, but things just to Recall, right? Wow, look what God has done, either for me as an individual or for us as a group of people. Yeah, I I think you're spot on. And I find it interesting too, like in judges, ⁓ I'll just say this real quick. You don't have to say it quick. I don't have to say it. There you go. You guys are enjoying listening, right? You could just take we've been covering that you'd like to have more and more. So here we go. We'll just have Javon say it's slow instead of quick. There you go. ⁓ saying things slow is not my ⁓ forte. ⁓ Judges. ⁓ chapter 8 verse 33. This is after Gideon. No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites beg again prostituted themselves to Baals. They set up Ba Baal Bareth as their God. Here again, like they're worshiping these things as God. That's an idol, right? Right. ⁓ but they did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. So again, just Remember that command in Deuteronomy. Remember, remember God. Don't forget. Don't forget. What did the people do over and over again? They failed to remember God. They failed to obey his commands. The very thing that was given in Deuteronomy. And I think as I relate it to now. We can see in the Old Testament how hard it was for the Israelites to remember these things. Yeah. Yeah. The humanity, the sinful humanity, how quickly we are ⁓ to forget that come thou found. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, right? Prone to leave the God I love. Right. And it's so true for me that I need to remind myself of the gospel daily. Mm-hmm. You know the song Lord I Need You? Mm-hmm. ⁓ quick story. There was this ⁓ older gentleman at my my old church that was ⁓ he's passed away, but he was sitting up front one Sunday, and my dad led that song of worship. Lord I need, you know, Lord I need you. Every hour I need you. When the song got done, all of a sudden you hear him pipe up, and this is in the middle of the service, mind you. ⁓ I I I got a problem with that one song. It's just it's not right. And ⁓ you can kinda everybody's like especially in the Mennonite church, you don't you don't do that in the middle of service. If you have a problem you wait till afterwards, then you talk to the Or you send an email on that song and everybody's like, You can see everybody get kind of tense and then he says, It's not every hour, it's every second and I was like, Well, yeah, good point. So how do you I mean as we kind of think about you know, as we think about remembering How do you do that? Like Javon, how do you do that? And I I think that's a challenge for a lot of us. How do you remember every day? I mean, maybe there's a picture that you need to put on your desk. Maybe there's a note that you need to put on your mirror. Maybe there's a message you need to write on the back of your hand, an alarm to put in your phone, something to write on the calendar. ⁓ I know reading the Bible is helpful. ⁓ praying is helpful. Right. Talking with people we love is helpful. Coming to church on a regular basis is helpful for us to remember. What are some of the things that you have found to be helpful for you? Right. I mean In some ways we could we we could look back and say, ⁓ those those foolish Israelites, how did they forget? I mean, we have the story of Jesus Christ. We have all four of these gospels in this New Testament that we can read and we forget. How do you, Javon, what what are one or two things that you do to remember every day, every hour, every minute? Yeah. ⁓ the reality of the gospel and the hope that that brings to your life. Right. I you I think you talked about, you know, just reading scripture, I think is so important. Note, and you'll notice in the Psalms there's this theme. Who meditates on God's law day and night? Okay. There is something actually really critical. And I I'm not saying it has to be morning, you have to reflect on it in the morning, but there is something very critical about what we wake up, our minds wake up to, what our minds fall asleep to. ⁓ Being reflecting on God, praying with God, even journaling, ⁓ allowing God to come and and speak to you and as you re journal about your day, processing your day, processing the things you thought about, allowing his word to speak to your day, allowing God's word. ⁓ I just find it's so critical for me that if often when I start to ⁓ when I start to to veer away from from emphasizing God's word, that's when the enemy comes in. And ⁓ And it's important for me to be centered on God's word and also just to remind myself, ⁓ like there's a song that says, I preach the gospel to myself, that I am not a man condemned. Like we we have to just preach the gospel to ourselves. Yeah. And ⁓ the spirit, praise God for his spirit that ⁓ dwells in us that helps us remember that. ⁓ now that that feels like a softball that you just picked out there for me because because I wanted to challenge you. I mean, this is a really good challenge for all of us to be thinking about how we can remember. Remember, not forget ⁓ the goodness of God, the things that God has done, certainly our salvation, but also the victories of your life, you know, your calling when God spoke to you and gave you a direction in a particular area, when you found victory in a challenge. Let's remember that stuff. But Memorial Day was not the only day here this past weekend. I'm t come to you right now on Wednesday. ⁓ on Sunday, it was Pentecost Sunday. And I actually had that in my notes as I was preparing to preach. And then as my sermon got more and more developed, I kind of fell out of my mind as I was thinking about ⁓ Abraham and circumcision and all of that. But I didn't remember, I didn't remember Pentecost. So Monday was Memorial Day. The day before Sunday was Pentecost Sunday. And Pentecost is the celebration of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples. In the book of Acts, you can read about it in Acts chapter 2, ⁓ and Acts chapter 3, and and some of those amazing things that happened through the disciples. Jesus, after his resurrection, said to his disciples, Wait here for me, or wait here, and the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Pentecost was the day that. That happened. And so that's a pretty big day in the life of the church. That Jesus actually at one point had said it'll be better for you if I leave, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, will come. Jesus says it's better for you to have the Holy Spirit in you than to have me beside you. Right. Is what Jesus is saying. And so Pentecost is a celebration of that. We didn't talk about that much on Sunday. ⁓ Again, this is kind of fun how Javon and kind of spurs my mind, and then we get talking about things. You were talking today about some of the symbolism of fire and how often fire is used to show God's presence as we're connecting especially Old Testament to New Testament stuff. ⁓ give us a lesson here, Javon. What do you think of it? And that's connected to that that concept of the fire the flames ⁓ you know ⁓ tongue tongues of fire that appeared on their head. That's interesting. What appeared to be tongues of fire, right? Yeah, what on the day of Pentecost. Yeah. ⁓ Certainly kinda like a Rolling Stones kinda no, I'm sorry. Yeah. So it got me thinking about what what are some of the themes we see about fire in the Old Testament as you as you referred to. So I'm I'm gonna start here in Exodus. Well, th in chapter three, I'm not gonna read it all right now, but is the account of Moses and the burning bush. Uh-huh. Exodus chapter three. Ch Exodus chapter three. All right. Right? Moses and the burning bush. And and so here you've got, you know, what did God ask Moses to do? Take off your shoes, this is holy ground, right? He's in the presence of God. God's presence is there. Then later ⁓ in Exodus in chapter forty at the very end of the book. They have just built the tabernacle. Right. They're out in the wilderness. ⁓ well, actually, I skipped over technically on Mount Sinai, you know, God appeared. There was a pillar of fire that came down. There's fire that came down on Mount Sinai, God's presence. Again, in the tabernacle, they build the tabernacle. And at the end ⁓ at the end of chapter 40 here, starting verse 34, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it. The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Iveral Israelites, whenever the cloud Lifted from above the tra tabernacle, they would set out. But if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by nay day, and fire by night was by night. ⁓ so that they could see it would directed them. Then right immediately following after this tabernacle, you've kind of got the commissioning of the priests in Leviticus. Uh-huh. And and they go to essentially Dedicate and begin their their ministry. Right right. And so they offer up a sacrifice here in verse twenty-two, chapter nine of Leviticus. Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them, and having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering, he stepped down. Moses' and Eris Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. How did it appear? Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering in the fat portions of the altar. So in Exodus chapter three, we have God appears to Moses in a bush. In a burning bush. Right. Fire that does not consume a bush. In Exodus chapter 40, you've got the cloud by day and God guiding them with a pillar of fire at night. Right. In Leviticus 9, now you've got the Levites are kind of consecrated and and Moses Moses and Aaron come out and God God comes through the tabernacle like a fire. Take burns up this offering, just consumes it as they're dedicating themselves to the service in the tabernacle. So there's three examples of God coming in the form of fire kind of marks or or is an indication of God's presence among them, right? Right, exactly. And furthermore, when Solomon builds a temple. So now we're we're moving out of the tabernacle. Now Solomon builds a temple. In 2 Chronicles ⁓ chapter 7, when Solomon finished praying, and this is after the Temple was built. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. ⁓ the priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. I mean, that sounds fire coming down from heaven. They couldn't they can't fill enter the temple because of the glory of the Lord. I mean, that that had to be an intense scene. And so fire again accompanying this presence in in the temple. And then we know the story. The Israelites did not, they forgot. Right, right, right. Forgot the Lord their God. What did it tell them in Deuteronomy would happen? They'd be destroyed. These foreign countries come in, they're exiled. And then there's this period, ⁓ we're we're jumping now into Ezra when the people come back exile. Uh-huh. And they are commissioned. ⁓ you can read about it in Hagi. They're commissioned to Ezra and Hagi. We're going deep here. The prophets. And that well, let me let me save that point for for for for a little later. ⁓ you're getting I'm getting excited. I love this Bible stuff. So ⁓ this Bible stuff, yeah. It's pretty good. Yeah. ⁓ Ezra here in Chapter six, they're building the temple. Uh-huh. And this is the new temple, right? After the destruction of the first. So in the book of Exodus and then in the Leviticus, we read about the tabernacle, which was like the temporary place, and it moved around with the Israelites, and the tabernacle was the special place where the offerings were supposed to happen. Exactly. And then in the time of Solomon they built a temple, right, which was a permanent building. It was made out of mortar and bricks and stone or sorry, stone and all kinds of decorations, and then Solomon's temple was destroyed, and now in the book of Ezra, they've rebuilt it. Right. They're working at it. Yeah. And actually here they actually here, right. They have So God and God came to the tabernacle in Leviticus. Leviticus. In Leviticus God came to the tabernacle in the form of fire, burned everything up. When Solomon dedicated his temple Fire came and right burned everything up. What do we see here in Ezra once they're rebuilding the temple that had been torn down? What do you see? So they're going to dedicate the temple here. Then because of the decree of King Darius that to King Darius is sent, I'm not gonna know these names, by the way. I'm just gonna Tetanai, governor of Trans Euphrates and Sh and Shethar Boz Bos Bozeni. There, if any of you need baby names, got a lot of studying to do, Julon. Got a lot of studying to do. Get these names straight. And their associates carried it out with diligence. So the elders of Jew of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zachariah and descended of Ido. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus Darius Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The temple was completed on the third day of the month of Vadar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. Then the people of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles celebrated. The dedication of the house of God with joy. For the dedication of this house of God, they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams. So here they're doing sacrifices again. So they've got a new temple. Right. They've got all the people there. They've got prophets that are prophesying. They've got governors and bigwigs who are kind of putting their stamp of approval on this. Right. Now they're making sacrifices of bulls and so forth. And they and it says they installed the priests in their division. So remind you, Leviticus, they're installing the priest. This is all in Ezra 6, huh? Right, in Ezra six. And they do. It all according to the book of Moses. And then ⁓ it just kind of they do the Passover, Ezra comes to Jerusalem, and one of the things that at least in my study, what I noticed, there's something missing. What occurred with all of the other temple buildings? God shows up in the form of fire. I do not see fire, no fire for this rebuilding, no fire for this rebuilding. In a sense, they've come back to build this new temple, but God's presence has not come to it. There's no ark in this temple. There's no presence of God. Something's missing. I can't help but think of these exiles coming back. We're gonna rebuild the temple, we're gonna come back and we're gonna do this, and just like what like waiting expectantly for all these things that happened before are not happening now. And ⁓ we're not left without clues as to why, right? The prophets give us clues. So turning to Haggai, which I did not do in one flip like I did before. Chapter two, ⁓ this also speaks again about the the second temple. ⁓ And and here's what he says to Zerubbabel, be be now bit now be strong. And Zerubbabel was sent back to to build the temple. That's who this guy was. But now be strong, Zerubbabel declares the Lord. Be strong, Joshua, son of Zo Josedak. Which is not Joshua. And don't be confused, it's not the Joshua who congregated. This is a different guy. The high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord, and work, for I'm with you, declares the Lord Almighty. This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my spirit remains among you. Do not fear. This is what the Lord Almighty says. In a little while I once more shake the heavens and the earth. The heavens and earth shook in the New Testament. ⁓ the death of Jesus Christ. Right. the sea and the dry land, I will shake all nations, and and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord ⁓ the Lord Almighty. The glory is of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty. And in this place I will grant peace, declares the Lord Almighty. So he's promising this new house that will be better. Than the in glory than the in the previous house, this temple, this new temple. And he talks about how his spirit remains among them. And then in Ezekiel, we get a prophecy ⁓ in chapter 37 in this valley of dry bones. And Ezekiel talks about I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's a big passage. But Ezekiel prophesies and says, Look, the spirit, actually, verse 14, I will put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. The spirit of God dwelling in the people. Is a direct prophecy of the spirit to come to dwell into us and in our hearts in the new temple as the as the New Testament writers talk about. We are the new temple. Our bodies, we are the new temple. We're dwelt by the Holy Spirit. And ⁓ this his presence is now in us and among us. It's not no longer in this temple building. ⁓ it's in us. We are now and and as you referred to. Like it's bet Jesus said it was better for me to leave. ⁓ and Jesus also talks about his disciples, which I think is wild, doing even Greater things. Now that's a whole conversation we could have. Yeah, yeah. But the Holy Spirit is in you. That same power it says in Romans that resurrected Christ from the dead lives in you. Mm-hmm. And just just to contemplate on that, we're in the age where the Spirit dwells the people. The Spirit that resurrected Jesus from the dead. It lives in you. You don't need to go to a temple to worship and it's not just a fire that's at a certain spot or only over here or only over there. Instead, the Holy Spirit is fully present within us. And and that's something that believers can take comfort in, but also find a challenge in, recognizing that we are ⁓ we are vessels for the Holy Spirit. And that's not something to be taken lightly. Right. And think about the Holy the that fire, that pillar of fire was guiding the people. What does the spirit does do? It guides us, you know, ⁓ it directs us, it convicts us of sin and ⁓ And I think one of the things that I often reflect on, Ephesians chapter one, says that the Holy Spirit is the sealer. Refers to him as a sealer of the faith. When you think of What is the evidence of salvation in a person? It's the work of the Holy Spirit. When when the when the Holy Spirit is in someone in that regenerated soul, when the Holy Spirit's working, that that is the sealing of of the promise, the sealing of faith. The Holy Spirit's evidence of that resurrection power in you. And that's what we can stand firmly. I know that Christ, I believe that Christ was dead and raised because I've experienced that resurrection in my life. That's what gives me confidence in in. in f in faith ⁓ in Jesus Christ. And so here we sit on Wednesday afternoon thinking back on Memorial Day. And even as we think about remembering, not forgetting, we see ties from the Old Testament giving hints and clues about what's going to happen in the New Testament. We talk about Sunday with Pentecost, we think about fire and so many references that you gave us from from the burning bush to the tabernacle to the temple to the second temple to the prophets to Acts chapter two and the tongues of fire upon the disciples. We see we we see See again the same truth of the old testament being pushed forward into the new testament, some different forms, right? But the same God, same truth, and now we're filled with that with that spirit of God. Right. Some some good stuff to be able to pull out lessons from Sunday and Monday, Javon. Yeah, there you go. And I think I think the big one of the big things you should notice here is like we talk about the road to Mayus. The Old Testament reflects to Jesus. The road in this sense, the Old Testament's reflecting to the Holy Spirit. When you see something like tongues of fire appearing, it it's not just God being random. God has purposes. And so we should if you're doing your Bible study and you come across something like, what is going on? Dive into it. Pause. You know, pause on that passage. Look at the cross references. And if you have a study Bible, I highly recommend, you know, look at those cross references. If you don't understand it still, try to find commentators that you can trust, you know, that can help you peep parse it out. If you still can't understand it, talk to your pastors, talk to fellow believers in Christ. And talk to him as well. ⁓ talk to fellow believers in Christ and try to figure it out. Because there's just there is we shouldn't just read these things and just go, well, that's weird. That probably means nothing. It it means something. There's a reason. It is fascinating the more and more you study to see how the book of the Bible, from Genesis one to the very end of Revelation, how it all ties together because our God is that kind of God. He's telling us this story, showing us who we are, showing us who he is and how we relate. So all right. Well, I guess ⁓ this is a little bit of a weirder podcast today, not quite as tied to specific Old Testament passages. ⁓ I guess we'll see if you like it, but that's all we've got for today. Thanks for ⁓ tuning in. I hope that your Bible knowledge has grown a bit today. I hope that the Holy Spirit is working in you to stir up some curiosity in you. May you be blessed as you continue to study your Bible. May you see Jesus in every single page. Amen. All right, I'm Jesse. That's Javon. We'll see you next time. All right, what think? ⁓ yeah. That's long. Sorry. How long was it? Thirty seven minutes.