The Tabernacle

"Go and make disciples," was Jesus' final command. When we obey and multiply, we connect others to God and get better connected ourselves.

We have been called by Jesus to Love God, and Love People. Serving is the best way to do this. The issue is we have stopped taking Jesus at His word and example.

Connect is a 3-week topical Fall kick-off series that will teach and remind the Tabernacle how to get connected with the spiritual pathways that produce disciples. In scripture we see Jesus using 5 primary strategies in disciple-making, and we encourage people to do the same.

Sin alienates us from God, from others, and from ourselves. God’s grace and forgiveness brings reconciliation but does not absolve us from the consequences.

David is a man who has been blessed and anointed by God to be Israel’s earthly king. Throughout his life we have seen his truly amazing faith in God. This has led us to witness his first recorded victory over Goliath, his battle prowess in many battles, his ability to lead men and shepherd them, his ability to seek God’s will and follow through. Although he is not perfect his success is unprecedented to say the least. In this story he does a complete reversal. It feels like he was teaching a class on how to sin and make life shattering choices. We can learn a lot about our selves in this one story. Sin is not baffling, it follows an easily seen path.

The worst of feelings is shame. It steals our joy, kills hopes, hollows out relationships, and is hard to talk about. But shame is not from God, and King Jesus came to remove it forever.

Too often we try to talk God out of loving us because of how lame we are, the invitation is open to come humbly despite our lameness to the King’s table. We see a picture of the King’s kindness here in the story of David and Mephibosheth.

The struggles of life can jade believers into believing that victory is a pipe dream. But God promises a total victory through Jesus, foreshadowed in the victories of David’s kingdom.

God’s ways are not our ways, and that’s a good thing. Even when we are motivated to do great things for God, his blessings on us are greater, and can never be repaid.

True worship of God begins with the fear of the Lord, is from the heart, and in accordance with His word and design. The careless neglect of those details is a dangerous thing.

David’s success came from God who blessed his dedication and service to God’s people. David foreshadows the future Christ, who will one day create a new Jerusalem, a heavenly city in which He will rule and reign eternally as God’s perfect King.

Historically and in our lives it seems people have trouble knowing good from evil, so how can we be sure?

Justice belongs to God, but too often we would rather someone experience our vengeance than God’s grace. In the story we see David seeking to unite Israel under his rule, but men like Joab and Abner set the nation on a path of vengeance and payback that threatens to turn into a full scale civil war.

Jesus promised that in this world we would face opposition, conflicts and trials. But he also encouraged us to take heart because he has overcome the world.

God hates sin and death, and it is Biblical to grieve over both of them. But Jesus conquered both sin and death so we can have victory and enjoy eternal life.

The Bible teaches that death is not the end of existence. But many of us live like this life is all their is. How we choose to live, and who we choose to live for makes the difference in our eternal destiny.

God waits patiently for us to come to the end of ourselves. When we turn to God we find grace and power that can snatch victory from defeat.

Our greatest battle is with our flesh, and the consequences of sin put us in bad situations. We are our own worst enemy and desperate for a Savior.

If we harden our hearts and ignore God’s word, we cannot expect his help in desperate times. But if we seek God while he may be found, he always answers.

We are saved by God’s grace through faith. But sometimes we allow fear to overcome our faith, causing us to sin against God. Our faith must be fixed on Jesus, the one true King, to overcome all our fears.