True North | Week 6 | Pat McCalla

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75 min

Pastor Pat McCalla · Feb 14, 2021 · 4 min read · 75 min listen

Quoting the message: God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with Him, end quote..

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Scripture in this message

Big Idea

The God who is too great to even describe, who needs no one and nothing, still wants to be close to us. From the garden, to the tabernacle in the wilderness, to Jesus becoming flesh, to the Holy Spirit living in believers, Scripture shows one continuous story of God moving toward us so He can dwell with us.

Key points

1
1The tabernacle Moses brought down from Sinai was more than a building — it was God's declared desire to live among His people.
Pastor Pat sets the scene at Mount Sinai with the mountain shaking and the Shekinah glory on display, then points out that Moses brought back not just the Ten Commandments but detailed instructions to build a tabernacle. God told Moses to place it in the very center of the camp so all one and a half million Israelites could look and see where their God dwelled.
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2The Hebrew word mishkan (tabernacle) means to dwell, rest, or live with, not just a structure.
Pastor Pat walks through the parts of the tabernacle — the menorah, the table of showbread, the altar of incense, and the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant — and explains that Jesus fulfilled the blood offering once for all. He then unpacks the word mishkan itself, showing that its real meaning is about relationship and presence, not architecture.
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3John deliberately used the word mishkan to describe Jesus becoming flesh and tabernacling with us.
Pastor Pat notes that John is the only New Testament writer to use this word, translating it so his Jewish readers would connect Jesus to the wilderness tabernacle. In John 1:14, Jesus made His home, or mishkan, with humanity by compressing Himself into a human being.
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4From Eden onward, God's pattern has been to come near, even when people hide from Him.
Pastor Pat retells Genesis 3, where God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden as a normal evening rhythm, and after their sin still called out, Where are you? He argues this wasn't God being uninformed but God pointing out that they were the ones who moved away.
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5Jesus told His disciples He would send something better than His physical presence — the Holy Spirit living in them.
Pastor Pat walks through John 14, showing that as a limited human Jesus could only be present in one place at a time, but the Spirit would never leave believers and would move from being with them to being in them. This, he says, is God wanting to be closer to us than even physical presence would allow.
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6Revelation shows the same word and the same desire: God will one day dwell with His people forever.
Pastor Pat reads Revelation 21:3, showing that John used the word mishkan again to describe the future when God's home will be permanently among His people. He frames this as the bookend to Eden and the tabernacle, showing the whole Bible tells one story of God moving toward us.
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7The Israelites' campsite, shaped like a cross with Judah camped at the tabernacle's east-facing door, pointed forward to Jesus.
Pastor Pat highlights that God gave specific instructions for each tribe's camp position, with Judah — the tribe Jesus would come from — stationed at the entrance facing east. He connects this to Jesus calling Himself the door and the way, arguing none of these details were accidental.

Application

Pastor Pat frames the whole message around Jesus' question echoing from the garden: Where are you?

Ask two questions before sleep each night
For seven days, before falling asleep, ask where you lived out truth, goodness, and beauty that day, and where you saw or experienced it, to retrain your eyes toward God's fingerprints in the world.
Recognize that you moved, not God
If you feel distant from Jesus, own that it's you who drifted, not Him, since He desires closeness with you more than you desire it with Him.
Put your faith and trust in Jesus
If you've never trusted Christ, pray now to commit your life to Him, ask forgiveness, and accept Him as Savior so His Spirit can dwell not just with you but in you.
Run back to His open arms
Whether you feel two feet or a thousand miles away, respond to Jesus' question, Where are you, by turning back toward Him this week.

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“look what he says, Exodus chapter 25 of verse eight, skip down to verse eight, he says this, have the people, this is God talking to Moses, have the people of Israel build me a holy”
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From the transcript
“Look at the next verse, verse nine. God goes on, he says, you must build this tabernacle, Mishkan, this dwelling, and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you”
From the transcript
“John chapter one verse 14, it says, So the word, the revelation of God, Jesus, so Jesus became human and made his home, except if he was writing in Hebrew, he would have said, and made his mishkan with us”
From the transcript
“Revelation chapter 21 verse three, it says this, I heard a loud shout from the throne. This is future, this is when Jesus comes back someday and makes all things new”
From the transcript
“In Genesis three verse eight, it says, when the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden”
From the transcript
“Let me read that verse that I read earlier again. Exodus chapter 25 verse eight. It says, have the people of Israel build me a holy, a set apart sanctuary, why, so I can live among them, so I can tabernacles with them”
From the transcript
“And John tries to describe it and he says, John one fourteen, so the word Jesus became human and made his home or mishkan or tabernacle with us”
From the transcript
“In John 14, Jesus talking to them says this, verse 16, and I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate, counselor, friend, helper”
From the transcript
“jump back in that time machine. We gotta go and just look at this verse one more time. Revelation 21 verse three. Oh, we're gonna look at this again. God help us get this. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Day 1

There is something quietly stunning about Genesis 3:8. In the cool of the evening, after everything had gone wrong, God came walking. He wasn't dispatching a messenger or issuing a decree from a distance — He came Himself, into the garden, looking for Adam and Eve. Pastor Pat pointed to this moment as the very beginning of a pattern: a God who needs absolutely nothing choosing, again and again, to pursue the people He made. The Hebrew word mishkan — the same word that will later describe the tabernacle — carries the idea of dwelling, resting, being present with someone. And here, before there was ever a temple or a tent, God was already living out that word in a garden. What makes this moment even more tender is the question He asked: 'Where are you?' He already knew the answer. The question wasn't for His information — it was an invitation. He was drawing them out of hiding rather than leaving them in it. That same question echoes through every page of Scripture, and Pastor Pat suggested it is still being asked today. Wherever you are reading this — whether you feel close to God or a long way off — the posture of God in this story is worth sitting with. He is the one doing the walking toward you.

For reflection

When you imagine God asking you 'Where are you?' right now, what honest answer comes to mind — and what might be keeping you from stepping out of hiding?

Pray

Pray for the courage to stop hiding and to respond honestly to God's invitation to be found.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

The word 'tabernacle' might sound like ancient furniture — but this message makes the case that it's actually the spine of the entire Bible, one word tracing God's longest pursuit.

Discussion questions

1
The Hebrew word mishkan is often translated simply as 'tabernacle,' but Pastor Pat pointed out that it literally means 'to dwell, rest, or live with.' How does knowing that translation change the way we read passages about the tabernacle or temple?
2
In Genesis 3:8, God comes walking in the garden in the evening — apparently a regular pattern — looking for Adam and Eve. What does that image of God initiating that kind of ordinary, daily closeness tell us about what He was after from the very beginning?
3
John 1:14 says the Word became flesh and 'tabernacled' among us — deliberately echoing the mishkan language. Why do you think John reaches for that specific word to describe the incarnation, and what does it connect Jesus to?
4
In John 14:16-17, Jesus tells His disciples that the Holy Spirit will not just be with them but in them — and He frames that as better than having Jesus physically present beside them. What does it mean for God's dwelling to move from a tent, to a body walking among us, to inside a person?
5
Revelation 21:3 uses that same mishkan word one final time — God's home will be among His people forever. Tracing this word from the garden all the way to the new creation, how might that arc shape the way we understand what history is actually moving toward?
6
Pastor Pat closed with a question from Genesis — God asking, 'Where are you?' — and suggested we carry it with us in the other direction: each evening, asking where we saw truth, goodness, and beauty that day. What might that kind of daily noticing do to the way we move through ordinary life?

Pray together

Thank God that He has always been the one pursuing — from the garden to the cross to the Spirit dwelling in us — and ask for eyes to notice His presence today

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

True North | Week 6 | Pat McCalla

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

Love Defined | Week 6

Essentials | Week 2

Love Defined | Week 7

Love Defined | Week 4

Essentials | Week 3

Never Enough x YTH Takeover | Week 6

True North | Week 6 | Pat McCalla

The big idea

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

Love Defined | Week 6

Essentials | Week 2

Love Defined | Week 7

Love Defined | Week 4

Essentials | Week 3

Never Enough x YTH Takeover | Week 6