Scripture of The Week 09/14/14 The Story: Finding Your Story In Gods Story Act 4: The Suspense Builds (God Responds) Chapter 19: The Return Home 5 Now this is what The Lord Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.-HAGGAI 1:5-6 *VIEW TODAYS SERMON HERE: https://youtube/watch?v=bpoLuDCK8jc&feature=em-uploademail EXILE: Being forced to LIVE where you dont BELONG. God wants to BE WITH HIS PEOPLE. (*In the center of their town) Three Traits of the Temple Lifestyle: 1. Gods PRESENCE. 2. Godly COMMUNICATION (*PRAYER). *Warning from Jesus regarding prayer: MATTHEW 6:5-8 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 3. Gods PEOPLE (*Do you look like a Christian or do you look like the world?) Scriptures Used In Todays Message: EZRA 1:2-4 This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of His people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of The Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem. EZRA 3:1 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. HAGGAI 1:4-11Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin? Now this is what The Lord Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. This is what The Lord Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says The Lord. You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares The Lord Almighty. Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands. ACTS 7:48-50 However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says The Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things? 1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. MATTHEW 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. HEBREWS 10:19-22 A Call to Persevere in Faith: Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 1 PETER 2:9-10 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Personal Sermon Notes: 1. The Temple was in the center of their community. 2. C.S. Lewis says, If you put first things first, you get second things thrown in. But if you put second things first, you lose both first and second things. 3. If we withhold from God, He WILL withhold from us. 4. WE are the Temple of God - do people see God in you? 5. What do you need to do to have God with you 24/7 - everywhere you go; beside you in the car, beside you at work, beside you on the couch, everywhere? He is there to help you, not criticize you. 6. Now, you are thinking about God being in you and are now asking yourself, If God is everywhere I am, why do I need to go to church then? -You come to church because Jesus says, For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.-MATTHEW 18:20 -You come to church to remember Jesus sacrifice for you. After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.-LUKE 22:17-20 -You come to church for fellow-encouragement - if one member is missing, the whole body suffers - If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.- 1 CORINTHIANS 12:26 - Dont you have the kind of life where by Friday, you need spiritual recharging?! 7. The Holy of Holies in the Temple was only entered one time a year by one man (priest) who was allowed to talk with God - The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) - LEVITICUS 16 The Day of Atonement: The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached The Lord. The Lord said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before The Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for The Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to The Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before The Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before The Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before The Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover. He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the tent of meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. No one is to be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel. Then he shall come out to the altar that is before The Lord and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. Then Aaron is to go into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments he put on before he entered the Most Holy Place, and he is to leave them there. He shall bathe himself with water in the sanctuary area and put on his regular garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people, to make atonement for himself and for the people. He shall also burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar. The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp. The bull and the goat for the sin offerings, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; their hides, flesh and intestines are to be burned up. The man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you—because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before The Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a day of sabbath rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance. The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the members of the community. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites. And it was done, as The Lord commanded Moses. MATTHEW 27:45-55 The Death of Jesus: From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? (which means My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?). When some of those standing there heard this, they said, He’s calling Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, Now leave Him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save Him. And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, Surely He was the Son of God! Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for His needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. 9. WITHOUT THE TEMPLE, THERE IS NO ATONEMENT. WITHOUT ATONEMENT, THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 10. JESUS CHRIST CAME AND WASHED US CLEAN AND REMEMBERS OUR SINS NO MORE - HEBREWS 8:12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:49:43 +0000
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