 Good morning, everyone, once again. Thanks for joining. I hope you all are doing well. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you. OK, I shall thank you for sharing. Thanks for sharing that, Asha. OK, let's get started, guys. Can I request one of us to spray and to get started? Thank you. I'm audible, right? OK, it's a strict request. Anyone of you to just start us off with a word of prayer, please. Shall I pray first? Father God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, we come to you with thanksgiving in our heart for this new, beautiful day, for this time of fellowship and learning about Father. We thank you that you have promised and you are with us and that you lead us and guide us through the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray to you, Father, blessed pastor, as he teaches us, Father, talk to us through him about Father so that we may learn how to worship you and spirit and in truth to be well equipped for the ministry that you want us to complete on this earth, Father, and be submitted to you in all ways. Bless everyone who has joined in. Bless everyone and lead each of us to do your will, Father, in all the ways and walks of life. Continue to be with pastor and continue to bless him and guide him. Once again, thank you for everything that we are learning because it's your grace and mercy upon our lives. We give you glory, honor, and praise and ask this prayer in the precious and matchless name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, amen. Amen, amen. Thank you, Anthony. All right, guys, welcome once again to the worship ministry course. I'm excited about just continuing to teach because I'm continuing to learn. I'm not surprised that every time I prepare or teach or talk on the subject, not necessarily teach, I get excited because I learn so much. That's one of the reasons why I enjoy teaching on the subject. It just moves me and it humbles me. It keeps my heart in check every time I speak about a character from the Bible or things that they've sacrificed or what they've done and how they pursued God passionately with all their heart, how zealous they were for the presence of God. It moves me and I'm sure it moves you as well. So I'm excited to just continue teaching so I'm looking forward to learn along with you guys. So in the last class, we discussed about the tabernacle of Moses a little bit in detail. We started off with how it was a blueprint that God gave Moses. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 5, it says, it's a copy. They serve as a shadow of the heavenly things. The tabernacle and temple, the pattern, it came from God. We know that. And then Moses made a note of all of that and he gave it to the Israelites to build it, build the sanctuary. And we see as it progresses. Now, every time we spoke about the tabernacle, we always start from the outer courts, inner courts, and the holy place. Maybe we started off last week with the gates and the significance of it. But then from Exodus 25, from the first time that God tells Israel, people of Israel in Moses to build the tabernacle, he starts from the inside out. What is on the inside always matters to him. That's what he is going for. And I don't think I have to go deeper about that, what matters on the inside. In this session, what we will be talking is about David's tabernacle and one of the things that God tells Samuel, Prophet Samuel, is the man looks on the outside, but I look at the heart. So he is always, what's on the inside matters to him. So he moves from the inside out, from the holy of holies to the most holy place to the outer courts and whatnot. You can praise God with the multitude of people in the outer courts. You can serve him with just a handful of people in the inner courts, like with the team of your ministry. You can serve. But when you get to the holy of holies, there is no more doing anything. You are just there beholding his glory, encountering him face to face. And you worship him only one on one, face to face. And in the outer courts, there was the natural light, the sunlight, and when you step into the inner courts, you have the light from the golden lamp stand. But in the holy of holies, there was divine light. It was the glory of God that lit up that space. And just to that space, we've been invited, says our father, says, come boldly to the throne of grace. He's not only saying, come. He's also addressing the attitude in how we can come. He says, come boldly. I have made a way. So in every progression we see in the tabernacle of Moses, we see the blueprint and Jesus in every single thing. The altar of burnt offering, we see that he is our sacrifice. And John chapter one verse 29, John 1, I think John 1, 29, John the Baptist says, there's just too many, too many John's, sorry guys, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. At the water baptism. I think I need to have my coffee. The water baptism is water-based in the bronze laver, where the priests have to wash their hands and their feet. And in parallel, we see that our righteousness is nothing like filthy bags. We know that because now Jesus is our righteousness. We don't attain righteousness by doing things, by works. That's what's hand signifies, right? But we still continue to walk this walk of life. And hence, we are encouraged to cleanse ourselves with the word of God, right? And we saw multiple references to that. And then we progress into the table of showbread, I mean signifies, symbolizes that Jesus is the bread of life. He says that in John chapter 6 verse 35, that I am the bread of life, right? Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. All these very popular scriptures, which we've heard a lot growing up, but then it's very important for us to pause and ponder, have those sailor moments, as you would say, right? I am the bread of life. Okay, what does it mean to me, right? And so we continue to see Jesus in every symbol, in the tabernacle of Moses, Golden Lampstand. Again, Jesus in John chapter 8, verse 12 says, I am the light of the world, right? And also light brings revelation. And when you read the book, John chapter 9, the whole chapter, it's about Jesus heals the man who was blind from birth. And then somehow he's like drawing a parallel with the blindness of the... You're saying, okay, don't be like this. So I am the light of the world. The light brings revelation. And I'm reminded of this quote by C.S. Lewis, anybody here like C.S. Lewis? Yeah, I knew Tharun's hand would go up for sure. Screw tape lepers, I mean, you gotta love those. It's brilliant. So one of his quote, he says, I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sunrides, not only because I see it, but because by it I see all things. It's a beautiful quote. And not to mention this, another popular verse from Psalm 119 verse 105, this famous song, Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, right? He reveals, the light reveals things. So Jesus is the light of the world. And at the altar of incense, is which represents, symbolizes the altar of intercession. Once again, we see that in John chapter 17 itself, where he intercedes for us, right? If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. And if you haven't read John chapter 17, I would encourage you to do that. We see how Jesus is standing in the gap who's interceding on our behalf. And yeah, I can go on, I'm just doing a very quick recap. It seems to be a very extensive summary of the last class, but, and the Ark of the Covenant. So we started the need for the tabernacle from Genesis, because of sin and how it separated us, our spirit from the spirit of God. We were deprived, you know, we were dead in sin. So the tabernacle of Moses was God's resting place, which he didn't have for approximately 2,500 odd years from the time of the fall to somewhere in Exodus 25. It was God building a bridge between heaven and earth, you know, trying to mend a tear. And it's very significant. And I always say that it's very important for every Christian to understand the significance of the tabernacle of Moses for us to understand the new covenant and what we've been given for us to appreciate the new we need to understand the old. That's my take on it, right? And so I hope you've been learning something about it as well. So this class, we'll start the David's tabernacle. Right, you guys okay? Yes, Pastor. Okay, all right, okay. Thanks, Stephanie. Awesome. All right, let's go. So in your notes, I think it's page 22. Now, just as a quick background, the backstory is always important, isn't it? This is at the context. Now, just as the need for the tabernacle of Moses was in Genesis chapter two, three, because of the fall, the tabernacle of David also has a backstory. So for that, let's go to the book of first Samuel, with me, way before David even is in the scene. First Samuel, chapter four. So there are you, Samuel. Okay, there you are. Okay, so first Samuel, chapter four. Now, another background in the background is, there's a high priest called Eli. He had two sons who were wicked. There was no relationship with God. And during this time they were doing evil in the eyes of the Lord right in broad daylight. That's what's happening. So basically, there is no relationship between God and the people because they were doing a lot of wicked things. But it is a time like this, they are being attacked. So that's where that's the setting, okay? First Samuel, chapter four. It says, now, the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Afak. The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel. And as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about 4,000 of them on the battle against the Philistines. When the soldiers returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Very important. Let us bring the ark of the Lord's covenant from Shiloh so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies. So the people went, sent men to Shiloh and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. When the ark of the Lord's covenant came into the camp of camp, all Israel raised such a great shout. Okay, if you remember one of the Hebrew words for praise, it's Shabbach, which means a violent rage shout. In the first year, they raised such a great shout that the ground shook. Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, what's all this shouting in the Hebrew camp? When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. A God has come into the camp. They said, we're in trouble. Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us, who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. Be strong Philistines, be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Be men and fight. So the Philistines fought and the Israelites were defeated and every man, so the Philistines fought and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great. I want you to underline this next line. Israel lost 30,000 foot soldiers. How many? 30,000. The ark of God was captured and Eli's two sons, Hophne and Phinehaeus died. And so not to read the whole chapter, the news goes to Eli verse 16, okay, just to fast forward verse 16 from chapter four. He told Eli, I have just come from the battle line. I fled from it this very day. Eli asked, what happened, my son? The man who brought the news replied, Israel fled before the Philistines and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophne and Phinehaeus are dead and the ark of God has been captured. Verse 18, when he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward of his throne by the side of the gate. He fell and he broke his neck and he died for he was an old man and heavy. He had led Israel 40 years. His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehaeus was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news, the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. As she was dying, the woman attending her said, don't despair, you have given birth to a son, but you did not respond or pay any attention. She named the boy Ichabod, saying the glory has departed from Israel because of the capture of the ark of God and the debts of her father-in-law and her husband. She said the glory has been departed from Israel for the ark has been captured. Too much of reading for one day or for one class. But I wanted us to read, I wanted us to really kind of at least understand the gravity of what's happening. Talk about having a bad day. This is a very, very bad day in the history of Israel. So many things. So where do we start? Where do we begin? They thought they could just step into a battle, carry the ark of God into the battle without having any intimate relationship with him, doing all the evil things, living an immoral life. But because something has been done in the past for victory because they took the ark of the covenant into battles in the past and God gave them victory, God went before them. Because of that, they thought they could live off history, but it didn't happen. They lost big time, to say the least. How many soldiers, how many foot soldiers were killed? Talk to me, guys. How many foot soldiers? 30,000. Yeah, 30,000. And so ark of God was captured. We'll come to that later, okay? So 30,000 people have died. Hearing this news, Eli, the leader, the judge leader at that point in time of Israel, he breaks his head, his neck, and he dies. His two sons are dead. Eli's daughter-in-law, whose wife? Phineas, yeah, Phineas's wife, right? Yeah. She dies giving birth to her son, naming him Ichabod, which means glory has departed. The presence of God has left. Israel in the Old Testament was a symbol of, they were known as the people of God, right? So the presence of God had left the people of God, right? The glory of God had left the people of God, God's covenant people. Then you, it's one of, it's a very tragic thing, isn't it? I'm reminded of Samson's story is like, when Delilah cut his hair off, it says that Samson did not know that God's glory had left him. It's very tragic. So a very, very bad day in the history of Israel. So that is like the background. I'm sure you already knew all this, but then I just want for benefit of all of us to just go through this. So from that time till David becomes king in second Samuel, it's about, from first Samuel chapter four till second Samuel chapter six, where until when David decides to bring the ark back, it's about 70, 75 years, give or take. Okay. Once again, for 75 years or so, no one felt the need until David to bring the presence of God back into Jerusalem before David Saul was the king, but Saul was all about position and not about presence. When Saul had sinned, he tells Samuel, okay, Samuel, just walk along with me, come out with me so that the people will know that the God is still with me. Right? He was all about position and not about presence. Where David was about the presence, right? For 75 years, it's like, okay, the first thing that he does is, well, I don't want to go forward without his presence. If your presence doesn't go with me, I don't want this leadership. I don't want this position. I don't want this kingship that you've given me. So if you've given me something, it's something beautiful about David, right? We all know God chose him because he was the man of God's own heart. We need to remind ourselves every time and again, why has God chosen us? Why has God chosen me? Why had God chosen you? Is it because of the gifts and talents that we have? And in that process, do we forget who gave us the gift and the talents? Or is it his favor or is it his mercy or is it his grace and his faithfulness towards us? Right? That's one way I feel like David is reminded of this, okay? I was a shepherd boy. I was nobody. Nobody wanted me. My own family, they didn't like me. They rejected me. I was rejected. I'm not ostracized. I had no, almost no value, so to speak. And then says, okay, it is him. It is God who's brought me this far. How can I go forward without his presence, right? So that's where David is. And now we see, okay, let's go to, let's go to second segment. We'll jump on an entire book. We go to second segment, chapter six. Actually, you know, I don't want to go through, we all know the story, right? But, okay. Okay, this is awesome. Okay, let's go to second segment, chapter six. Sorry, great. When you're there, give me a thumbs up or an amen. So second segment, chapter six, okay. So here we go. David has defeated the Philistines now. A lot has happened, right? In the 75 years, you know, the Philistines captured it. You know, they keep it in their temple of God, Dagon and Dagon falls down day one. Second night he falls down, breaks his neck and they can't handle him, they send it away. So a lot of things has happened. I'm not going into all those details because we don't have the time. But I would encourage you to look into what has happened. Okay, great. Second segment, chapter six, verse one. David, again, brought together out of Israel, chosen men. How many? How many? 30,000. Does that sound a little familiar? 30,000? Yeah, yeah. On the day the ark was taken, 30,000 men died. I'm sure David knew about this history. And so this verse doesn't give like the proper detail of it, but let's go to first chronicles, chapter 13. Okay, now first chronicles, chapter 13. Yeah, I hope you're there. First chronicles, first Corinthians guys, first chronicles, some classic, okay. First chronicles, you guys there? Okay. Verse one, two and three, okay. It says, actually why don't one of you read verse one, two and three, first chronicles 13. One of you read please. Can I read first one? Yes, please. David conferred with each of his officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. He then said to the whole assembly of Israel, if it seems good to you, and if it is the will of the Lord, our God, let us send word far and wide to the rest of all people throughout the territories of Israel. And also the priest and the Levites who are with them in their towns and the pasture land to come and join. Let us bring the ark of our God and back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of soul. Thank you. You're most welcome. Right. So David, in his very last line he says, we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul, right? And so David was well aware during the reign of Saul, the ark of the covenant was not there, and he knew that it was supposed to be there. And we see in second Samuel chapter six, we see that David, it only says David again brought together out of Israel, chosen men, 30,000 of all, right? But I liked this first chronicles 13 because it says that he had a team meeting, right? He had a very big team meeting, right? Talk about a round table conference or whatnot. Okay guys, let's huddle up. This is where we are. This is what we're gonna do. Who's with me? And then they go and bring the ark back, right? So that's the whole story of David's tabernacle. Even before we get, start talking about the nuances of the tabernacle of David, right? So you guys with me so far? Okay, I'm gonna take that as a yes. All right, cool. So now we're in first chronicles, we'll go to, we'll start learning about his tabernacle a little bit and about how he went about setting it up, right? We'll go to first chronicles chapter 16. First chronicles chapter 16. I'll read a few scriptures for us. So it says, After David had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each Israelite man and woman. He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord to make petition to give thanks and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. Okay, so let's just pause there. And so just a few points in your notes that's mentioned is David set the ark in a tent, right? At the tabernacle in Jerusalem, he had raised for it, then blessed the people and celebrated. David did not bring the ark into his residence like Obed it own. David blessed the people and provided a meal. It's almost like foreshadowing the supper of the lamb. That's first chronicles one to three, right? He sets up a tent. I like what it says that says David pitched for it. It's almost like he started getting his hands dirty. He went and just pitched this tent. Tent of meeting, the tabernacle. And then David appoints Levites to minister to God by remembering, thanking and praising. That's from verse four until verse six. Verse six of first chronicles chapter 16 ends like this. It says they were regularly there to minister before the ark of the covenant of God regularly, right? So, excuse me guys, my internet is saying something wrong. Did I get cut off or not? Okay, okay, cool. Yeah, it's, I'm sorry about that guys. All right, so the first thing he, you know, David sets the ark in the tent that he pitched. He sets Levites to minister before God by remembering. You know, he even writes songs for them from verse seven, when you see that David first committed to Asaph and his associates this sum of thanks to the Lord. Means he wrote this song on the day the ark was bought and he gave it to Asaph and it was like, okay, you put them to music, right? And we say that the Levites were to minister before the Lord regularly. That means day and night and night and day. First chronicles 1637 and 38 days. So he left Asaph and his brothers there to minister before the ark regularly as every day's work required and obeyed him with his 68 brethren to be gatekeepers. All right, so he delegated, so to speak, right? He made teams, okay? Once again, like how we saw, how worship was organized when we just went through the whole lot. It was very organized, right? Everybody knew what they had to do. There was a modern word to use would be a roster. If you, I prepare the worship team roster for APC. It is not a fun job to do. It's, yeah, getting people's availability and balancing the teams, setting them through different locations, making sure the children church worship teams are all set. So rostering is not fun, but I'm sure these guys had fun. Everybody were excited, you know, the zealous to serve before God. So the work was regular, it was consistent. It was ongoing day and night. And we'll read more, we'll learn more about it in chapter 25 in just a minute. But as a conclusion to this session at least, we see this very famous scripture from Amos, chapter nine, verse 11 and 12, which is being quoted in Acts, chapter 15, verse 13 and 18. Verse 13 and 18 is that God is in the business of rebuilding the tabernacle of David, right? A lot of things to ponder about it. And I've been pondering is we see that the ark of a covenant was kept in a tent which David pitched, right? It was a tent. And then here we see that, let me just read that verse, Acts 15, 13, 18, it says, and after they had become silent, James answered saying, men and brethren, listen to me, Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, verse 16. After this, I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of the mankind may seek the Lord even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things known to God from eternity are all his works. I've always wondered, why God says, I will rebuild the tabernacle of David and not the temple of Solomon because which is so much more grander, it's made up of gold everywhere, left, right and center. It was just more royal and what not. And everything was happening there as well. Am I the tabernacle of David? I've always wondered, it was a thing is, it's my thought, it's again, it comes down to the person of who David was. David was so many things, we know that. He was a shepherd boy, he was a worshiper, he was a musician, he became a warrior. He was always was a warrior even as a shepherd. But in every season of his life, he felt the need to go after God. In every season, he felt the need, he knew that he needed God. I was talking about Psalm 23. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. The scholars say that David wrote that Psalm somewhere during the latter part of his kingly days. The time when he was a king of Israel. Now, as a king of a nation, you are powerful. You have everything you need, right? You have people who will do what you tell them to do. All the power, all the riches, all the wealth in the world, right? That's the position where David is. And even in that season of life, where he has everything and whatnot, he pauses and says, the Lord is my shepherd. He's acknowledging the Lordship of God, right? The Lord is my shepherd. When he says that he's submitting himself, saying, okay, I'm the sheep and there's a shepherd who's leading me, who's guiding me, I shall not want. He's not saying, I shall not want because I'm the king of Israel. I have everything I need. He's saying, I shall not want because the Lord is my shepherd. And I think it's just the heart and the posture of David's heart of foreworship for God is what the significance behind this whole verse is. And I see it and I see worship movements be rising up all across the globe, house of prayers. You know, like IHOP, International House of Prayer. That's just one of the examples where God is raising up houses of prayers where there's worship, word and intercession going on day and night, 24 hours a day, nonstop. And all of that in so many ways you see that God is rebuilding the tabernacle of David, a generation of people who are not up for fame, who are seeing the need for the presence and they are not worried about the position on a stage or a fame and whatnot. And so, yeah, if there's any encouragement for us, who are learning about worship ministry and for those who are leading a ministry, who will be leading a ministry. And if you're not leading a ministry, that's just fine because it all comes down to that posture of a worshipper, isn't it? And as it says in John chapter four, for the father is seeking true worshippers. It's interesting that it says that a father is not, if father is seeking worship, it doesn't say that. Rather he's seeking worshippers, you know, so because he knows that if he finds a true worshipper, only worship is going to arise from his heart. And so, yeah, now the Lord is rebuilding the tabernacle of David in our day and time among his saints and that's very encouraging to see. And that's very encouraging to see, right? Any thoughts guys so far? Feel like I'm talking for a bit. All right, so we'll pause here and we'll take a break. We'll, a little extra break and I'll see you all at 10. Okay, thanks guys.