Awakened Conference 2023: Friday Night

I'm just going to be a few moments with you, and precious Natalie is going to come and sing while we're at the altar. Hopefully we'll come to the altar. Hopefully we'll heed the call. There's a verse, and it's in Exodus 38, 8, and it's this teeny, tiny verse. It's only 24 words.

If you blinked, you would miss it.

But it's one of my favorite verses. I'm sure most of you have never heard it spoken about, but it's chock full of information in these 24 words, and it paints a picture of what a consecrated life looks like.

The verse speaks about this massive amount of women, and they do two significant things. We don't know their names. They're nameless. They're ageless. I'm sure there's all stages involved, but we do know this.

We do know they're redeemed women. They are women that were brought out of slavery. They're women that saw the Red Sea split. They're women that saw water come from a rock. They're women that had manna delivered to their town tent.

They're grateful women. They're redeemed women. And because they're redeemed women, they're grateful women. They're all in. They're sold out, consecrated, devoted.

They were women who loved the presence of the Lord.

They were so fixated on heaven that earthly things took a backseat. I want to be that woman. I want to be that woman. I want to be that bride that is so fixated on him that nothing else matters. So the Bible tells us two significant things about these women.

Number one, it says they served at the entrance of the tabernacle. They would also gather at the tent of meeting where Moses would meet and a cloud of glory would descend. But now they are preparing the tabernacle, the sacred residence, the dwelling place of God. And the Bible says that they would serve at the entrance of this tabernacle. Well, what's so significant about women who serve?

I mean, women have always been serving in church. They've always been serving the Lord. But these women serving at the entrance, they weren't greeters. They weren't preparing matzo ball soup. They weren't giving out herbal tea.

They were in a cute little women's Bible study. They were in a sewing circle. They were in a crocheting knitting group.

No, the word says they were serving women. And if you look up the Hebrew of the word serve, it's the word sabah, and it's a Military word. And it means to wage war, to war in warfare, to go forth as a troop, an organized army. This was an organized army of spiritual, sold out women. These were battle ready, warring, worshiping women.

These women, they gathered, gathered all the time. They had their ear to the door of the tabernacle. They wanted the presence of God more. They wanted anything else. They wanted the anointing that Moses carried.

They served, they interceded. They were protecting the house. Why did they serve at the door? Because women were not allowed inside. But closed doors meant nothing to these women because they knew they had an open heaven.

They wanted to be where the glory was. It wasn't convenient for them to meet at this door. They had to walk far. It was time consuming. But time or convenience wasn't even a consideration.

The second thing the little verse talks about was that they donated their bronze mirrors because the tabernacle was in need of bronze. The tabernacle, the dwelling place of God was in need of bronze. And the mirror, which allowed them to see themselves, focus on themselves, see their own beauty or lack thereof. They freely surrender their mirror. I mean, think about the significance of this action.

What is a mirror to a woman?

Everything. Everything. It is the most valuable object we have. It's the means by which we see ourselves. It could be our best friend, it could be our worst enemy, depending on the day.

It sets our mood, it sets the tone of how our day is going to go. Our day starts and ends with the mirror.

In some versions it calls it the looking glass. And this looking glass was the means by which they identified themselves. And this is a fact. How did these Israelites, how did these ex slaves get these bronze mirrors? Well, the Bible tells us that the tre.

The, the, the children of Israel left with the riches of Egypt. Now this is a fact. The Egyptian women, when they would go into their temple to worship their God, they would have this bronze mirror with some sort of a strap hung around their neck. So when they went into their temple to worship, it was sort of self worship. It was an idolatrous practice.

And somehow the mistresses, as the slaves were leaving Egypt, they somehow gave them these mirrors. I mean, this was the most valuable possession that these women had. I'm from New York, I figured it was a gunshot, but we're used to that stuff.

So of course these women, these slaves who had nothing, they probably admired their mistresses. These mistresses were beautiful. You know, they would put henna in their hair and they probably tattooed eyeliner and so forth and so on. So these women were Given these bronze mirrors. So what are they going to do?

They're going to imitate the cult.

So now they're wearing their bronze mirror as they gather at the door of the tabernacle, and all of a sudden an exchange happens because there's need for bronze.

They didn't look around and say, well, maybe they could, or maybe they could, could. They looked at each other and they knew they had to surrender. They were basically surrendering their identity. They were laying down self because they were in the proximity of his presence. And because his presence presence took precedence, the grip of Egypt was loosened and they gave up something they loved for someone they loved even more.

You notice that loving always comes before giving. For God so loved the world that he gave. How much do you love Jesus?

You only know how much you love him by how much you give him. They gave up their time. They gave up their treasure.

The Lord has need of thee. And the mirrors that they donated was transformed into this sacred piece of furniture. It was called the lavar. It was the sacred wash basin. And just a side note, when we laid down self, we are transformed.

Their mirrors were transformed into something so much better. So the sacred wash basin was used as the priests entered the temple. They had to wash their hands and feet. But see, God is just so amazing because as they were washing their hands and feet, they had to look at themselves. They had to see the reflection of themselves.

And of course, God wasn't interested in them fixing their hair or getting a better shave. No, God wanted them to look at themselves and see their inner self, to see what needed to be changed, what attitude needed to be fixed. Because the truth of the matter is, if they would have went into the tabernacle dirty, it would have been death.

We know that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. In the Old Testament, you had to be clean before you went inside. But in the New Testament, you have to get inside in order to be clean. Thank God for the mercy and grace of God. And you know this symbolism, it's huge, right?

Ephesians 5, 26, 27, it says, Christ cleanses us by the washing of the Word. The Word is our sacred wash basin. Every day they had to put fresh water in that lay bar. Every day we are to pour fresh water upon us. It's time consuming.

But we have to read the Word because the Word gets into the inner parts where the mirror can't fix. The Word can fix. James 1:23 tells us that the Word is our mirror. It's our sacred mirror. It tells us who we are and whose we are and what needs to be adjusted.

The word of God changes our identity and our identity should no longer be in our outer appearance. Listen, before I was a believer, I was upset, obsessed with how I looked. I was obsessed with how I looked. I was in the fashion world, everything was about the outer.

But as I fell in love with Jesus, the grip of culture was loosened. And it's a process. And side note, I am not talking holy doesn't mean homely. Just so you know.

I'm not saying you shouldn't put on lipstick. I have lipstick on eyeliner. I'm not saying you shouldn't color your hair. It's nothing about that.

But it's about being obsessed with his presence. It's about putting down the mirror. Look at me, look at me. And picking up the mirror and saying, God, how am I doing? Holy Spirit, how am I doing?

Instead of taking inner, Instead of taking selfies, we need to pick up the word and take inner inner selfies because it's the word that cleanses us from those unsightly inner blemishes. We need to turn our eyes upon Jesus, this Jesus. We need to look full in his wonderful face. The things of the world need to grow strangely dim. And I believe that God is raising up an army, an army of consecrated, surrendered women.

Listen, Christianity has morphed into what God can do for me, what God could do for me.

If it doesn't fit in our schedule, if it's not convenient, When did we forget that he was king of the world?

When did we forget that it was a daily picking up our cross and following him? When did we forget that as not about our life, we've been bought with the price precious blood of Jesus. Because the truth of the matter is, ladies, we can't serve the Lord and do his bidding with the mirror of self hung around our neck, weighing us down. You know, you are what you behold. And we want to behold his face.

We want to behold his glory. And I believe that God wants to raise up an army of women just like those Women in Exodus 38:8. I believe that God is calling women to lay down their lives, to put down their mirrors, to put down their worship of self, to make self take a backseat to the only begotten Son of God. Hey, thanks so much for joining us for this message. If God spoke to your heart in a special way, we would love to hear from you.

You can reach out to us@testify.therefuge.net I look forward to you joining us again, whether it's in person or online. God bless.