TCB
Pt. 2
I remind you that last week I told you that Elvis has sold over 1 billion records worldwide. More than any other artist in history. But I also told you he didn’t accomplish this by himself. His band the TCB Band helped him accomplish this. TCB – Taking Care of Business was the driving motto in Elvis’ life.
But I also told you should also have significance for us as believers. Because Peter makes it very clear that we are priests. Remember I emphasized that this name or descriptive term for us carries great responsibility and duty. So we began a journey last week to discover what the duties a priest carried out each day and the implication of that for us.
The first was to diagnose and provide remedy for sickness. I told you we don’t TCB in this area because: 1. We aren’t healed ourselves – so we can’t heal anyone else. Healing is not a passive process. 2. We are too caught up in ourselves – so we don’t notice anyone else is sick. 3. We don’t want to get close to anyone – have to get involved in their lives. 4. We are afraid of contamination – don’t want their sickness to rub off. We must begin to operate in strength. 5. We are afraid they will ask us for a remedy and we won’t have an answer.
Second duty is to transport glory. Our answer is not a program or a class, but transporting the glory out of this place into our daily lives. The glory can bring remedy. However, I also told you that most of us can’t transport glory because we are not holy. We must be daily aware of our need to be holy so that we can transport glory. How many of you have a sore back this morning? You should because you should have been carrying the weight of glory all week!
So let’s move forward and look at more areas in which we should be TCB.
TEXT: Exodus 35:30-33, 38:1-7; Leviticus 6:8-10
30And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, Jehovah hath called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 31And he hath filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; 32and to devise skilful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, 33and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of skilful workmanship.
1He made the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering from acacia wood. He made it seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high. 2He made horns at each of the four corners. The horns were made of one piece with the Altar and covered with a veneer of bronze. 3He made from bronze all the utensils for the Altar: the buckets for removing the ashes, shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans. 4He made a grate of bronze mesh under the ledge halfway up the Altar. 5He cast four rings at each of the four corners of the bronze grating to hold the poles. 6He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with a veneer of bronze. 7He inserted the poles through the rings on the two sides of the Altar for carrying it. The Altar was made out of boards; it was hollow.
8GOD spoke to Moses, 9“Command Aaron and his sons. Tell them, These are the instructions for the Whole-Burnt-Offering. Leave the Whole-Burnt-Offering on the Altar hearth through the night until morning, with the fire kept burning on the Altar. 10Then dress in your linen clothes with linen underwear next to your body. Remove the ashes remaining from the Whole-Burnt-Offering and place them beside the Altar. 11Then change clothes and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. 12Meanwhile keep the fire on the Altar burning; it must not go out. Replenish the wood for the fire every morning, arrange the Whole-Burnt-Offering on it, and burn the fat of the Peace-Offering on top of it all. 13Keep the fire burning on the Altar continuously. It must not go out.
I. Introduction
The priests had to daily (every morning and evening) approach the Brazen Altar. This altar blocked progress into the Holy of Holies until sin was dealt with. There could be no worship, fellowship, illumination or contact with God’s Shekinah glory until sin had been specifically dealt with at this gruesome altar which speaks again about holiness. Without holiness on a daily basis it is impossible to please God or even approach Him. At this altar the priests would make a sacrifice to deal with their sin.
We will talk more about this later, but today I want to draw your attention to the construction of this altar and the instruments that were used along with the altar. The altar was a hollow box shape made out of Acacia wood. It measured 7 ½ ft. square and was 4 ½ ft. tall. It was overlaid by brass. Suspended in this box was a brass grate. The Fire was down in the midst of the Altar, not on top. Teaching us that the sin that must be burned out of our life is not a surface issue, but goes to the heart of who we are. Just dealing with the emotions caused by sin isn’t enough. We need a deep cleansing by fire. The sacrifice was laid on the grate and this holy fire would burn it. The grate was designed so that the sacrifice would burn and the ash would fall through the grate.
Leviticus teaches us that each day the priests would put on linen clothing and they would take the special pan and shovel that were designed for this purpose and they would gather the ash from the burnt offering. They would then begin what could basically be described as a funeral march outside the camp. There they would dispose of the ashes that they had gathered.
1. The 3rd duty of the priest was to remove the ash.
The ash would keep the sacrifice from being burned. The ash would get in the way. It would build up unless it was removed.
Ash represents the residue of yesterday.
Too many of us can’t get breakthrough at the altar because the ash has built up. Too many of us can’t worship because the ash has built up. You are ashy. The residue of yesterday has built up in your life. You find yourself marked by pain. Covered by the residue of hurt, misuse, harsh words, loneliness, and brokenness. You have been mishandled and maybe mislead. In the privacy of our bedroom or our car we wallow in the pain. We cry, we mourn, but when the lights come on, when someone asks us how we are doing, when the song starts we wipe off the marks we think can be seen and we go and perform. We have become pros at hiding the smudge.
But you look ashy. I see past the mask, the act, and I see the smear caused by the angry spouse. Is see the blotch left by a hateful church member. I can see the stain that is the result of the one who has crushed your heart and your hope. I see the scar caused by the friend who has stabbed you in the back.
We think we can hide it. We think we can fool them. We think that we cover it up. We convince ourselves that no one will notice. But it is apparent. It is obvious. It disfigures you. It keeps you from going further into His presence. It blocks your path. You can’t get past your ash.
Perhaps the one person that is most like us is David. David was wounded. He was overlooked by his father. Underestimated and mistrusted by his brothers. Misunderstood by a madman king who also happens to be his father-in-law. Ridiculed by his wife. Almost killed by his followers and closest friends. Betrayed by his own flesh. Yet before he became king and even after he took this place on the throne, until the time of his failure with Bathsheba, David would strap on his armor and fight. He never missed a beat. He was never defeated. While wounded he fought effectively and successfully. He was marked by pain. Marked by hurt. Marked mortally by the issues of life. David was ashy. Like Job he finds himself sitting on the ash heap of brokenness.
And like David, like Job, we too find ourselves, God’s men and women of faith and power, covered by wounds.
Maybe David’s story is your story. Hurt. Lonely. Helpless. Despair. Anguish. Heartache.
What caused your wound? Cancer? Cares? Concerns? Family? Friends? Foes? Men? Ministry? Lost love? Lost dream? Lost hope? Lost opportunity? I don’t know what has caused you to hurt, but I would say to you from examining David’s life that when we are wounded, when we are covered by ash, when marred and scarred we must understand that we must run to and experience Psalm 113:7-9.
Psalm 113:7-9: He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes, with the princes of their people. He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD.
In other words, what God wants to do for you today is to get you off your ash. He wants elevate you – he will seat you with princes. He wants to make you fruitful again – he takes the barren and gives them children again. He will remove you from the ash.
In fact, may I encourage you, in the midst of pain, to once again rely on Jeremiah 8:22. The prophet asks a rhetorical question, “Is there not a Balm in Gilead?”
We know the answer. The answer is yes there is a Balm in Gilead and His name is Jesus. How does this speak to me and my pain? Balm was used and would draw out the poison and cause it to heal without scar. The word Gilead means “Raw” or “Rugged”. In other words, God wants to meet you at the rawest and rugged place of your life and produce healing.
What you hide He cannot heal. What you conceal He cannot cleanse. He desires to lift you out of your ash today. He desires to apply the Balm of Gilead. He wants to make it possible to fight, to perform, to serve, to live in health rather than in hurt. He wants you to get off your ash. To put the pain behind you. To refuse to live wounded the rest of your life. We must willingly put down our armor, our game, our mask and allow him and others to see us at our most vulnerable state. He will lift you and place you!
Some of you need to change your clothes and have a funeral. Bury the ash of your life! You have let it build up until it is blocking you. It is time to get rid of it.
The 4th duty of the priest was to keep the fire going.
The fire at the altar was started by God, but it is the duty of the priest to maintain the fire. Keeping our spiritual fervor and fire is our responsibility. Too many of us are trying to warm ourselves by a dead fire. Just because it was hot once we want to continue to hang out there. The ash revealed that there was fire in the past. We can’t discount the heat of the past. It was real. But it is out. Why do we keep sitting around a dead fire? Wanting the old songs. The old methods. The old feelings. All the while we freeze to death. Settling for ash rather than fire.
Or we offer strange fire. Remember the story of Aaron’s sons who were priests. The Bible says that God judged them because they offered strange fire to God.
How many of us turn to other fire? We try to warm up next to everything but the fire of God. We substitute the fake for the real and call it good.
Nothing will substitute for His fire. Nothing will satisfy, but His fire. We must rekindle it daily. A slick program won’t warm you like He can. An earthly relationship cannot help you like He can.
We must daily rekindle the fire of God in our lives! We cannot afford to let it go out! It takes daily discipline to keep the fire going so often we settle for strange fire that is easier to come by!
We must hear Paul’s instruction to his spiritual son Timothy. 2 Timothy 6:1, “6And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze!” Stir it up. That word “stir” in the Greek carries with it the idea of re-kindling.
In other words, conduct a daily heat check. How is your fire? Is it burning? It is almost out? We should never settle for a revival once every 6 months or every 2 years. We should daily be stoking our fire through reading the Word, listening to the Word, and praying. Our duty as a priest is to make sure that the fire is going. He started the fire, but we are obligated to keep it going! (SLIDE 19b) If it is out it isn’t His fault. It is ours! How hot are you? How ablaze are you?
TCB – we have a job to do.
Prayer –
1. Ash would be destroyed and pain healed.
2. Fresh fire.
