Create Space!

0:00 So Lily, I haven't entitled this message create space. first of all Mazel tell if you did a fantastic job Yes, you can clap. And Lily, I'm gonna speak to you. And everyone else can listen. And I think I might have said this a couple weeks ago. It's really easy for me. to speak to someone specifically And to apply it for all of us, you know, I speak to the children every Shabbat.

0:46 for for just a few minutes and I want you know, I am speaking to the children is like in it's engaged. I'm trying to engage them and try to get them to learn but oftentimes. I'm trying to get you to engage as well and sometimes as people. We don't hear. When we're the ones being addressed. We only hear when it's someone else that's being addressed. You know, we're working through the Book of Luke right now and this happens multiple times when she was addressing the Tom Medina then the Pharisees get upset. Why because he's addressing the tomidine, but they're the ones that are being convicted. And so on and so forth. It's back and forth. So I'm gonna speak to Lily today and hope that some of you can can Garner some some life

1:32 lessons in your own lives. You know Lily I've had difficulty maintaining the the time slot. a lot of to me with just about seven to 10 verses over the last several weeks today. We're going to cover 15 chapters. Actually, can you guys do me a favor and put a clock up back there for me? I'm gonna otherwise I'm just gonna go too long. 15 chapters is a lot. So here we go. We're gonna start and exodus 25 and we're gonna end and exodus 40. So 25 to 40 is perhaps one of the largest chunks in the Torah.

2:21 given devoted to a particular a very particular storyline I think have also other blocks like Joseph at the end of Genesis and really all of Deuteronomy is kind of one shot also but this to be such a large volume of text means that there's something important here. And what is this chapter 25 through 40. It really all deals with the mishkin the Tabernacle. So in chapters 25 through 31, we covered the Revelation or the vision that Moses has of the design. So in other words, he sees the Heavenly Tabernacle. That's the his blueprint and then in

3:09 chapters 35 through 39. It's the collection and the building of the actual items and the Tabernacle itself. And then in chapter 40, we have the Assembly of the of the Tabernacle. So see now we have covered 15 chapters. Now we're going to get into some some details here. By the way, let me just pause Lily you just maybe applicable for you too. And and I would I would ask for a hand count, but you don't need to think about putting your hands up. But if you read through the Bible chronologically or in a year or through the tour portions. It's right around this time when I begin to fall asleep. You know, we got 50 silver sprockets. We got 50 golden sprockets. We got 50 bronze sprockets.

3:57 We got some some goat hair. We got some some blue hair some yellow hair some red hair. We got an altar that's built with four corners that are this part anybody everybody like you understand what I'm talking about you we get into these details and we're like, I'm like have no idea what I just read for the last four chapters. It's just escapes us. That's good in its bad. But this is what I want to come to this language and we're gonna start here in chapters 25 through 31. I know it's not your Torah portion, but it's what leads primarily into your Torah portion in chapters 25 through 31. We

4:43 have a whole lot of language. This very technical but also very reminiscent of an earlier part. in the Torah you see this this the way this is all coming about the creation of the Tabernacle is strikingly similar grammatically verbally and even component-wise to the creation account in Genesis 1 So, let me let me let me oh, yeah, if you don't put it on the front screen then everybody else knows how long I'm going. Just on the back screen so that I know how long I'm going. No, I'm just playing.

5:30 You see in in Genesis chapter one what we have is God creates space. for us in the universe God creates everything he creates the boundaries of everything and then he fills those boundaries with specific entities. He creates the heavens and he fills them with the stars and the Moon and the Sun. And now what we're doing in this in this area in this to build the construction of the Tabernacle. We see the creation of space by man. for God so it's creates the creation or the demarcation of space. in our midst for God and His purposes

6:19 and what we have is we have boundaries that are created we have walls that are put up. We have the boundaries that are created for the mishkan and then we have the filling of those boundaries just like the creation account and days one through three and then four through seven. We have the filling of everything within so you're you read today that the the walls were put up and that inside the misbejock. The altar was built to be filled to fill the space inside. So you see it's very similar to The Creation account in the way in in verbiage and terminology, but more than that in Genesis 1 There's a phrase that's repeated over and over and over again. And

7:04 it's the phrases this then God said. Let there be light dah Let There Be man, so on and so forth in the creation thereof. Now this is what I point one to point out. in chapters 25 through 31 the phrase and God said to Moses. in other words then God said Let me just let me give you a guess. How many times a little do you think it occurs? Take a guess. If my premise is that we're comparing this to Creation. Then God said and then he declared it was good. Then God said how many times you think there are?

7:54 seven then God said seven times in between chapters 25 and 31 and just take a wild guess as to what the seventh one is about. Yeah. Sure. I'm this is a I'm well, this is a new I'm I don't normally do this with barnbot missiles, but I'm doing if the seventh one in Genesis chapter occurs in Genesis chapter 2 is about Shabbat. What do you think the seventh one? in Exodus 31 is about the Shabbat So you see we have this correlation that's between the two it's fascinating. It's and God said to Moses saying seven times

8:40 Genesis Exodus 25:1 Exodus 30 11 x Exodus. 317 Exodus 30 30 22 Exodus 30 34 Exodus 31 1 and exodus 31 12 and you find in 312. commentary on Shabbat As a side note, this is really I mentioned this in class this morning before before service. But as a side note, this is where we develop the rabbis of developed rules concerning labor or work that is not permitted on Shabbat. It's all of the all of the work that was put into the creation of

9:27 the mishkan of the Tabernacle. Is this exact labor that we're not supposed to do on Shabbat? in other words labor of creation if you will. Creating space this is really what I want to talk to you about Lily. Is this creating space idea? The work of creating space is difficult. So my question for you. Do you have a desk Lily or something like that? Where you work at home? Yeah, you have a desk when you let me ask. I don't know much about your personality, but I can make some assumptions because you're 13. Is your desk clean? No.

10:13 When you need to do something, what do you have to do? You have to clean off at least a portion of your Desk or your where you work? When you create that open space. What happens next? It gets filled. That is exactly correct. I'm telling you. You're 13. I'm older than that. and it doesn't change. When space is created in my life. When I walk into my house if we clean the house and we have nice open countertops You Know Places flat places

10:59 inevitably Within. 15 minutes every open space is filled with something. It's books. It's papers. It's books. More books and more books and then Brittany says you need to get a bookcase and I say I do have one. And she says you need to fill that and I say it is full. anyways When you create that space on your desk it fills quickly. Either intentionally or unintentionally if you're creating the space so that you can do math. Then You're Gonna Fill it at that moment with doing math when you've done

11:45 with math you put the math away how quickly does it fill up after that pretty quickly Yeah, five minutes. Totally. This is totally normal. You see when we have an empty space it fills. That's just the way it is in our lives. That's how we as human beings are. You have to fill it with something. So let me. Let me show you a picture. I've been doing some gardening over the last couple weeks. And yeah, if you guys can pop that up on the front, this is this is right in front of my house. You'll see it once it translates to the To the front screen, but in order to do this I had to go in and clean out all of

12:32 the old stuff the weeds the things that were growing and do all of the labor to get it clear so that then I could fill it with what I wanted it filled with. So at this moment, it's filled with some some bushes. And then you see some flowers that right around along the rim there what you don't see yet is that we planted two rows one row of broccoli and one row of onions. And that the broccoli is starting to sprout. So I'm praying and everybody else can join me that the freeze tonight doesn't actually freeze. So anyways, but in order to to get something like this. You have to put in the work to get it clear of everything

13:20 that used to be there. And then you can't just let it sit you have to fill it with what you want in that spot. Before something else fills it because I'm telling you weeds will come in real quick and fill that space. They'll fill it even after I've already filled it. but if you want something particular you have to be very diligent and work hard. Moses finishes the work of the construction and finally the assembly of the mishkan Oh, let's see. I forgot in all of this. That we're looking at a particular text. So you're welcome everyone to open with me to Exodus 40

14:07 and we're looking at verses 33 through the end of the chapter. And this part Exodus 33 Exodus 40 verse 33 is when Moses goes He sets up the courtyard around the Tabernacle in the Altar and he sets up the screen at the Gate of the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work. So Moses is now constructed all of this and assembled it. And he's finished the work and then he steps back to like the Lord do the rest you see in the garden. When we finished the construction of that Garden we put up the rim we put filled it with dirt. We planted the seeds. And then we step back. And we let the Lord do the rest and the Lord provided rain. We also

14:53 watered but the reality is I can't go down there and go come here little seeds sprout for me little seed. It doesn't work. Now. You may talk to your plants and it may make them grow bigger. eventually But I can't do anything to make the seeds sprout because that's God's work. All I can do is everything is prepared the environment and provide water as necessary. Moses prepares the environment. He finishes the Assembly of the mishkan he steps back and he lets the Lord do the rest and now we come to verses 34 and 35. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses was unable to enter into the tent

15:39 of meeting because the cloud resided there and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. You see Moses created the space. And the Lord filled it. I say Moses, but actually credit goes to Moses betsulele, and holy of and then also everyone else who did the labor. They created all the physical space and then assembled it so that the Tabernacle was in the midst of the people of Israel or within the people of Israel. After it was built the people even Moses vacated the space so that God could come down and fill it. The cloud covered the tent and the glory of the Lord

16:25 filled the Tabernacle and this became the temporary point of connection between the heavens and the Earth. between the spiritual and the physical world the lord dwelt in the midst of Israel or within Israel. I'm using the language on purpose here the Lord's within Israel. Or in the midst of Israel and is this is now the connection point between his Heavenly realm and the Earth? And it all starts with creating space. within the lives of the people for the Lord to fill John 1 says this in the beginning was the

17:11 word and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning all things came to be through him. And without him nothing made had been. In him was life in the life was the light of mankind the light shines in the darkness in the darkness has not suppressed it the word became a human being and lived with us in other words or said translated differently the word tabernacled with us. What are we talking about in your Torah portion the building of the Tabernacle? The Lord tabernacled with us and we saw his glory his shiftina the glory of the father's only son full of grace and truth and you mentioned

17:57 it when you talked about Hebrews Hebrews 1:3 says this he Yeshua is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So you see Yeshua tabernacled Among Us. And then Yeshua went and dwelt in Heavens. And what Peter says in 1st Peter chapter 2 is as you come to him the living Stone rejected by people but chosen by God and precious to him you yourself now become as living stones.

18:43 And are being built into a spiritual house to be kohanim set apart for God to offer special to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him through Yeshua the Messiah. By allowing Yeshua to take up residence in our lives and subsequently by being filled with the ruach hakodesh together. We become similar to the children of Israel. in your Torah portion You see the Lord dwelt in their midst and when Yeshua dwells in your heart, he's within you or within as in the context of Exodus 25 to 40 within the people. And then the glory comes down

19:30 and dwells also. So now let's let's keep going here in verses 36 through 38. Now whenever the cloud was taken up from Over the Tabernacle the children of Israel went onward throughout all their Journeys, but if the cloud was not taken up they did not move. out until the day that that it was for the cloud of the Lord was on the Tabernacle by day and a fire was there by night? In the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their Journeys. The Lord will lead you. But you must follow. You see the Lord came and dwelt. Within the people of Israel and the cloud itself

20:18 dictated their movements if the clouds stayed the people stayed if the cloud lifted the people would arise and would follow the cloud. If they didn't if the cloud didn't go they wouldn't follow. Excuse me, they would follow but they wouldn't go. And it was a day by day Journey for the people of Israel in the wilderness as they're following the mishkan every day. They didn't know ahead of time every day is the cloud there. We got a watch. It's every hour of every day. They had to be attentive in looking to the cloud. You see the same thing is true in our lives today every day. We have to be attentive in looking to the Lord and see is the cloud or lifting or

21:06 is it staying? Do we stay right here or do we move and it's only dictated by the cloud? In other words the glory of the Lord the Lord himself dictates our movements. It's the same cloud and fire that led the people out of Egypt. It was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar. Fire by night it's the same. It's now dwelling within the people in the Tabernacle. So knowing all of these random facts, what does this have to do with you and me? This is what has to do with us Lily. It's important for us to create space.

21:53 in our lives Not just empty space. but to create space for the Lord to come and minister to us. and through us When you do, you know what happens when you create space for some another person like your brother your sister your friend what happens when you create space it becomes a reciprocal relationship that edifies both of you. And so when we create space for the lord, it's a moment for us to delve deeper into this reciprocal relationship between us and the Lord. You say wait a second. How can there be like this great reciprocal, how can I bless God I know God can bless me.

22:40 But how can I bless God I'm just me. You know how you can bless God. You can walk with him. every day and by doing so others will be able to see him through you. And therefore you become a blessing to God because others then begin to magnify the name of the Lord and they're drawn to it. So, how do we do this? How do we create space? This is I'm gonna get super practical here and I've done it before but I'm going to do it again. I'm going to give you a couple different options. Number one is something I learned. I think it was even before I was a youth leader. I

23:26 think it was right before I became the youth leader. We had a youth retreat and a group came in and they talked about creating space in your life. through what they called the 10 10 so you take I'm gonna spell it out. You take 10 minutes. And you read the Bible you say by the way, first of all you separate yourself, you put yourself in like your own little space where you're not going to be interrupted and certainly away from this. Don't use your Bible on this. I'm going to tell you use this one. If you need a timer or something don't use your phone. Get a watch. Or something else something that does not have the ability to interrupt you.

24:13 Use your sister. No, I'm just playing. This is a joke anyways. You take 10 minutes and you just read. I would say read strategically, but you know, if if nothing else and you just go. Here we go. I'm going to read 10 minutes right here. The reality is wherever you read in here. It's great great stuff. And you in the Lord will will minister to you through it. Take 10 minutes and read. Then you take 10 minutes. You close your Bible. And you just pray? So you spend 10 minutes reading and then you send 10 minutes praying you're going

25:01 to say, what does that mean to pray? We'll talk about it in a minute. We'll talk about in a minute, but praying is basically. talking with God and like you would talk to your sister. And really even if there are some moments where you're like, I can't tell my sister that because it would hurt her feelings. You can do that to God. Because his feelings won't get hurt. You can just let it all out and have this whole conversation and then let him speak back to you. So you have 10 minutes of studying 10 minutes of reading 10 minutes of prayer and then your final 10 minutes. You grab a notepad and a pen. And you just have silence. now

25:47 what's going to happen? Is things will begin to pop into your brain. I don't know what things that's going to be for 13 year old girl. So let me tell you from my own self. The things that are going to pop into my brain. Did I pay my electricity bill? Write that down pay electricity bill. But whatever it is in your case, then I write that down. You know what you know what your brain does. Oh. Got that task accomplished. It's kind of like your brain has all of these open browsers. In the moment you write it down. It's closing the browser. And you're like great I accomplished that. Then you're sitting there silence complete

26:33 silence. And it's a and you hear in your brain. I got a call so and so I forgot to call them. Or text them. Write that down. Don't do it. Just write it down. What you'll find after about five minutes. Your brain has accomplished all of the tasks and you've closed all of those open browsers in your mind. And now what you have is space. So for the final few minutes, you'll find that's where the Lord will begin to speak to you. And then you can write it down. You see the first part is good. It's the paying your electricity bill is not a bad thing calling. Your friend is not a bad thing write it down so that you don't forget to do it. But when you write it down your brain thinks that you've done it and you put it to the side and now

27:21 you wait and listen to what God has to say. Because you have created space and now you're allowing him to fill that space. So that's one way. I just in this weekend this past week as we were studying this passage together. I I realized that there's a there's one more aspect to this. I've done the 10 10. and I recommend usually doing it in the morning. I know that everybody's like, oh, I do my best study time and hearing from the Lord in the evening or that's fine if that's the way you are. That's that's fine. I'm just telling you for me. It's always best to start the day off. Right and this is where it's going to be. But then what you can do in the afternoon. You get into this afternoon

28:07 Haze now everybody in here knows what I'm talking about and it's usually post lunch. And you sit there and if you're at work, you're like this. It's that like, you know, it's the post after the post meal time. You're just kind of like either you're falling asleep. Your brain is thinking about all the things look at the beautiful clouds in the sky outside. That one looks like a lion. That one looks like a duck Oh, look The Lion's gonna eat the duck. Like your brain, sorry. She's got more of it there. Your brain does all

28:53 of these things in the afternoon that I would call Creative Expressions. So in the morning, when you've done your 10-10-10, you've written down these things perhaps one of those things was let me think about how to creatively interface with the Lord. In the afternoon, you take 30 minutes. And you figure out what's the creativity how am I going to creatively interact with God right now? Is it through my through ART is it through crafts? Is it through whatever this is? Let me do something for 30 minutes that I that I now and and like tangibly doing something. It's not the silence anymore. It's now we're doing something and it's creative and it's your exercising that part of your brain. That doesn't get exercise. Or it sits there and says put me to sleep because

29:40 I'm so tired post lunch. So do something creative for for 20 30 minutes in the afternoon. Now, let me give you another one. That was new to me. This one's from Rabbi Sean. And it's the reason I read Psalm 92 this morning. from Psalm 92 Rabbi Sean was talking with me, and he said right here we get a blueprint. Of another way to create space in our lives. So Psalm 92 verses 2 through 5 say this. It is good to praise the Lord and to make music to your name most high to declare your love in the morning and your faithfulness

30:26 at night with a 10-string harp with resounding music on the liar for you made me glad I don't know by your Deeds. I sing for Joy at the works of your hands. So you're like wait a second. That's a lot of stuff and now I'm hungry because it's almost lunch time. Number one, it's good to praise or to give thanks is what the Hebrew says give thanks to the Lord. So if you don't know how to create space in your life start with Psalm 92 here give thanks to the Lord. That's a great way to start declare his love or recount. It says declare his love and faithfulness. In other words to recount the things that God has done for you in your life. So you start with thankfulness Lord. Thank

31:13 you for waking me up this morning. Lord you wake me up every morning. That's amazing. I also didn't get into a car accident yesterday, which is a great thing. You recount the Deeds that the Lord has done for you Lord. You provided meals for me yesterday. recount the Deeds then verse 5 rejoice Listen, I noticed while you're up here you were very joyful, and I noticed this all the time about you. You're very joyful. So you rejoice before the Lord and then finally you sing. For Joy at the work of his hands so you can take Psalm 92 and do those four things and all of a sudden you've created space in your life for the Lord.

32:02 What I notice is I Was preparing for this is these are beginning to represent. What is known throughout Christian history as the development of spiritual practices. Sounds super boring. It's known differently in Judaism. But I also I put it in in my YouVersion notes a link to a podcast from which I derive some of this. called the bema podcast and it they take two episodes on this passage in Exodus and they explain it talking about creating space and then they talk about they take a whole episode for an hour on spiritual practices or disciplines. Not that you have to do all of these.

32:49 but the mature believer does at least a couple or a few of these regularly. So let me talk about this is where we're going to talk about prayer prayers one of those pray regularly. So there's there's different ways that you can do prayers super fascinating and and I'm now quoting from them. You can do prayer journaling. So that means when you're praying you just start journaling You don't even have to call prayer journaling. You just call journaling you just journaling and then you can look back and see later in life. What God did for you in other words you can recount the things that God has done for you as you're supposed to do in Psalm 92, and now you have a whole list. I'm gonna I'm I'm not gonna tell you I'm excellent at that. That's the prayer journaling is one of my like

33:38 I just I know it's good and I just can't do it. I can't figure it out. It's just so hard for me to write. Oh, that's the reason it's because I have to write. Difficult for me to write so here's another one that they recommend is called fixed hour prayer. I've never heard of this in my life. It was so fascinating. Fixed our prayer is basically comes from a monastic lifestyle. And so in a monastic lifestyle, you do it every three hours regardless, they say, you know start at 9 am and finish at 9 pm, you know, not during the night. But every three hours you just set an alarm and when the alarm goes off doesn't matter what you're doing. you stop And you spend 30 seconds praying if that's 30

34:24 seconds praying Lord. Thank you that I just have this opportunity to think about you right now in the midst of whatever I'm doing or if that 30 seconds consists of Our Father who is in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it already is in heaven Give us today. When you when you can pick you can pick these prayers that that take about 20 or 30 seconds and it gives you 20 or 30 seconds every three hours repeatedly. Fascinating to me. The funny thing is I've tried doing it since I first heard this and I have yet to hit it on the mark and I'm looking his 1242 and I miss my 12 clock. I forgot about it. but anyways

35:09 There's another one called praying the text. in other words, this is you, you know the scripture and the Lord says It's good to praise the Lord. So Lord, your word says it's good to praise you. So right now I'm praising you. I know that my life doesn't like my circumstances don't leap lead me to want to praise you, but I'm supposed to praise you and at least I'm just gonna quote you back to you. Out of just the bare minimum and all of a sudden you'll see what it does it begins to change your own attitude in life. They in the podcast they go through a couple more Solitude Shabbat and silence all relating to

35:55 this creation of space. Fascinating he talks about one guy told him take your Bible in a lunch. And go down to the dock at the lake. And sit there. And he goes, okay. For how long use all day? He as you go down in the morning and you sit there only your Bible and your lunch. And he he reported that it took about five hours. For his brain to get to the point where it had released everything that was of a daily concern and he was finally able to commune with the Lord. Five hours. That's how busy we are in our minds always.

36:43 simplicity this is the resisting the pool of complexity acquisition consumerism through the intentional pursuit of a simple life. Dress simple I super funny that it's of course today that I'm talking about this dress simply and I'm wearing a suit, but dress simply. eat simply transport simply to use Simple Technology. And as you begin to do that in and you take the complexity out of life actually life becomes very simple. He goes, I'm just gonna list off these other ones. Sorry.

37:28 Generosity submission gratitude meditation and memorization of scripture. By the way. I say I'm just going to list them off. Let me just talk about meditation and memorization of scripture when you memorize scripture. And you begin to dwell on it. It's like it comes to life. And you you see all of these nuances, but you have to you have to memorize it in like let it get into you. I don't know how else to say that other than just to let it get into you get spiritual Direction. In other words get a mentor that you trust that's able to speak into your life. Self-denial he talks about fasting and other things and then he lists a whole bunch of other ones and I'm not going to go into those. I just found these to be very fascinating to me.

38:14 So Lily what you can do is create space in your life. When you create space. Make sure that you let the Lord fill that space. So once you've cleared out that area you let the Lord fill the space. It takes work to get the space open and clear and then it takes time and recognition for you to see that he's filled the space once he has filled the space. You can follow him just like the children of Israel followed the Tabernacle followed the cloud that would lift. And come down. So once you've done this once you've cleared space let the Lord fill it all of a sudden you can daily walk with the Lord.

39:00 And know that he's leading you. So Mazel, Tov Lily I'm becoming about mitzvah. You did a fantastic job. As you attempt to create space understand. That if you don't do it now. It only gets more difficult the older you get. So do it now so you have the habit now and you don't have to come back when you're 40 and go man. Whatever. I already tell me about my bomb Mitzvah 27 years ago. Do if you start it now if you started with something simple, 10 minutes 10 10 three times, I mean

39:47 30 minutes in the morning simple. I know someone who started that way and now they I don't know how they do this, but they get up at like four clock in the morning and they spend five hours. Before they enter their work day. And then they work all day and they come back at night and they say, thank you Lord. And then they repeat. It's a five hours is a lot to me. but start with 30 minutes May the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

40:33 if I recogn ize A here, I don't know valekah movie who? never Car he surunai panavalaka. There's some love. shallow Hashem you sure Shekinah in the name of our Messiah Yeshua a man shabbat shalom Mazel, Tov Lily