Welcome to our Bible Teaching Class Today’s Message is: “The Temple God Did Not Need” God Bless you as you read message down to the end. Let us pray – Heavenly Father, your children have gathered in your presence to hear from the written word of God, prepare our heart so that we may gain from the scripture in Jesus Christ name we Pray. Amen. INTRODUCTION OPEN with me to the book of 2 Chronicles Chapter 6:12-39 & 7:1-2: I want to set the stage for the text we’re going to read this morning. All of Israel has gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the completion of the Temple Solomon had built for God. This was a time of great excitement and the festivities lasted for 14 days and they made sacrifices of 22,000 cattle, and 120,000 sheep and goats. Some of those sacrifices were offered up in entirety to God… but many of them were shared in common meals among the worshipers. It’s in the midst of this celebration that Solomon blesses the people and bows before God in their presence to offer up this prayer: OFFER PRAYER I’d like you to sing with me the first verse of this great hymn of the church - The Churchs One Foundation “The Church’s One foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation by water and the word. From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride, And with His blood He bought her and for her life He died.”(Written by Samuel John Stone) What is the church? (ask the audience for a response), That’s right. The church is Bride of Christ. It is the people who have been saved by the blood of Jesus. WE are the church… not this building. Paul wrote this “Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body.” (I Corinthians Chapter 6:19-20) This building we meet in is NOT the church. It is merely a place where the church meets. The ONLY thing that makes this building holy is US. We fill this building with the Holy Spirit when we gather here to dedicate ourselves to serving God with all our hearts, souls and minds. If you and I ever stop loving and serving Jesus Christ, this building will be ONLY a building. It won’t matter what the name is on the marquee out front, or on the side of the building. If we fail to stay faithful to Christ, this church building will only be empty shell as far God will be concerned. Now, that doesnt mean God isnt honored by church buildings. Nor does it mean that God doesnt USE church buildings like this one. In fact, God has used of all church building… A Lot, He has permitted us to use this building for His service almost every day of the week. • There in the church is where we have our worship services and Sunday School every Sunday morning. • Church meetings • Bible studies • Saturday Men’s Prayer Breakfasts • Counseling sessions • Worship practices • Youth Group • and, of course, the Pastors Office and other departments. There are very few nights that this building is not used. And there are very few times during the day that this place stands empty. And that, of course, is why we’re building on. We want to do more for God than we can do now. And, of course, we want to grow more than we can right now. This new sanctuary will give us room for about 250 more worshipers. And each day we’re having a special service to ask God to bless this new sanctuary. Now to prepare ourselves for the dedication this new Sanctuary (Maboju Area Temple) that weve been having building for God, I want to go back in time and think about the very first Temple that was built by Solomon. This Temple was constructed 480 years after Israel left their slavery in Egypt and was ultimately destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar 490 years later when Judah was led away into captivity. For those centuries the Temple served as a place of worship, offerings and prayer for God’s people. Now the Sanctuary we’re building is well built… but it probably won’t last 400 years. About 250 workers have worked for nearly 10 months to bring it to the stage it is now or near completion... and it is built out of wood, iron, metal, cement and drywall. When it’s finished, it’s going to cost about $500,000,000.00 (of which weve already paid a lion’s share of that cost) By contrast, the Temple that Solomon built took nearly 200,000 workers and 7 years to complete. It was made from huge slabs of hewn and dressed stone. Then there was the precious stones and woven fabric that was used throughout the structure. And there were various types of wood like: Cedar, Pine, Olive wood. They used 4,000 Tonnes of gold and 40,000 Tonnes of silver. Someone estimated that the total cost of the Temple (in today’s dollars) was about $60 Billion dollars. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing you could buy most of Cass county with that kind of money. Now as impressive as that Temple was, I want you to notice a few things from Solomon’s prayer that day. First of all – Solomon recognized that God did NOT need the Temple that he had built. In his prayer of dedication Solomon admitted that - “The heavens, even the highest heavens, CANNOT CONTAIN YOU. How much less this temple that I have built” 2 Chronicles Chapter 6:18. In the book of Acts, Stephen (the first Christian martyr) agreed, “ it was Solomon who built the house for him. However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. 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?’ - Acts Chapter 7:47-50. So, in both the Old and in the New Testament, God drove home this truth: • you can’t build a building that’s BIG enough to house Him. • And you can’t build a structure that’s ELABORATE enough to impress Him. He’s God. If He wanted a building to live in, He could build something far better than we could even begin to imagine. Now my point is this: a lot of people don’t think that way. A lot of people think God SHOULD be impressed with their building. Some people tend to get way too tied up in their church buildings. They spend elaborate amounts of money on their church structures, falsely believing that would be the best way to bring people to Christ. Let look at this illustrations: You know, some of the most beautiful church buildings ever constructed are in Europe. I once read the observations of one man who visited several of these Cathedrals and he said: “I saw amazing church buildings with incredible architecture. They were old, and their history was incredible. (But) some of them no longer had worship services. Some of them had small rooms partitioned off for current members. In most of them, there were more tourists during an average annual youth programme than worshipers on a given Sunday.” (Steve Ridgell) These are huge cathedrals, but virtually no one uses them to worship God. Theyve become basically irrelevant for the cause of Christ. They became places for museums rather than places for ministry. When we start worshiping in this our new Sanctuary at Maboju Area temple… we need to remember that, the beautiful buildings should not be our focus. We should NOT try to win people to a beautiful building, we should try to win people to a beautiful Savior. Jesus won’t NEED our building… but our building will NEED Jesus, So, Firstly, Solomon recognized that God didnt need the Temple he had built. Secondly, Solomon recognized that God owned the Temple. “When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it.” 2 Chronicles Chapter 7:1-2 In his prayer, Solomon said that he had built that Temple. But once it was built God FILLED that building with His Spirit. From that day on it was called “the Temple of the LORD” Now here’s what I see. God didnt need the Temple, but once it was dedicated to Him – it BELONGED to Him. In the same way, God doesnt need this new church building at Maboju Area, but once weve dedicated it to Him – it will belong to Him. But NOT as some sort of sacred talisman or treasure. It will belong to God as a tool. In the same way we should NOT worship our building. But we should use this building as a tool for God, because it holds the most sacred commodity in the world. Do you know what that sacred commodity is? That’s right, this building holds the Church – the people that Jesus died to save. So First of all, Solomon recognized that God didnt need the Temple he had built secondly, Solomon recognized that God owned the Temple and Thirdly Solomon recognized that the Temple was worthless if it was filled with unrepentant sinners I’m convinced that once we start worshiping in this new sanctuary we’ll be blessed with some fairly phenomenal growth. And if God grants us that kind of growth: • We might get tempted to think we’re pretty good stuff. • We might get tempted to think we’re more special than anyone else in town. • And we might get tempted to think that God loves us more than anyone else. If we should ever get tempting to thinking that way, we need to remember this one verse: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Does that mean you have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? Does that mean I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? We need to remember .this new sanctuary is for sinners whove been shown mercy. That’s you… and that’s me. We need to remember that it is for whove failed to praise a gracious God. That’s you… and that’s me. We need to remember it’s for those who don’t always think and act and speak like they should. That’s you… and that’s me. We always need to remember that this building is a place that we come to every week; to be reminded of how much God has done for us and how much we need His mercy and grace. May the lord bless His teaching and give us the goodness to honour Him alone in this new sanctuary to the glory of the Kingdom in Jesus Christ name we pray Amen. Daniel .E. Tommy Senior Teacher Christ Ministry Inc
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 15:55:30 +0000
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