ABC - Solomon Builds God's Temple - Lesson 7

day. Father, you are, so, such a blessing to us. You have so richly endowed us with your grace and your mercy. In your very presence, and I thank you for that.

Thank you for the kindness that you showed to us and, and the relationship that you give to us with you. And as we look into these scriptures today and we ponder all of that, help us to, take it deeply and to, to really see what your word has to say about your, reaching out to us and what that means to us, and may it further inspire us, Lord, to, to walk in your very presence in Jesus' name. Amen. The question I, I, I put up there on the board, Who is man that you're mindful of him comes from the middle of Psalm 8.

And so we'll be looking at that a little bit today. amongst a whole lot of other things. We are, in the, the very last class of, this, spring session. And so, we'll be looking at, the, the building of, of, the temple.

the temple for God that, that Solomon actually built to be looking at, the, the fundraising, from the fundraising to the dedication, and then what that means to us. As a people. And so, That's where we are today, just as a way of review. a few weeks ago, Pastor Mike took us into the Davidic covenant.

We talked about that. David, remember, had the idea to build the, the temple, sitting in his palace that was really nice and, and looking out and, and actually going to the place of worship was the tabernacle. It was, a temporary structure, portable structure. And it's been moved around from place to place, even during the time of Israel, it'd been in Shiloh, now it was in Jerusalem.

And so, David, in, in this process of worship, he, he has this idea that I live in this really nice house and yet we still have, we have this temporary structure covered with, with animal skins and so on that yes, it's nice in its own right, but it's, it's not enough. And so his idea was to, to build a temple to God and, and, Out of that, the conversation came up where God says, no, I have a different idea. I, I want your son to build the temple, but I'm gonna make some promises to you.

And so, in that covenant, we saw that, that you find in 2 Samuels chapter 7.

I will raise up, your descendants, and your descendants will be on the thrones, for, for many generations. As long as they will follow after me, they will not fail to be a descendant of yours on the throne. He says, I will establish your son's kingdom, and he will be, a king, for his whole life. and then he shall build a house for my name, and that's what we'll be talking about today.

I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. And those, those are great words, a great covenant that, God had made with David. And so that's how this whole process began.

It began here of the building of the temple. And And so we get into it and, and as I've been processing thinking about this, something I've thought about for a long time, probably you have as well. And that is that, do you ever wonder why God In the glory and grandeur of his creation. chooses to honor us with his presence.

By going into this small structure. there's this, this small structure that, that he goes into that he's, he's willing to tie himself to. to meet with the people. why does God do that?

God, is the creator. He's the creator of, of the universe. And yet, he's willing to go to this little small structure. And we're gonna talk about that idea.

a little bit, so if you turn with me to Psalm 8. To begin with, this is where we'll start. Psalm 8. We'll be looking at These items.

but let's, let's read it. First, he says, it says, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who have displayed your splendor above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him?

And the Son of Man that you care for him. Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. What we see here is David in writing this psalm, brings out a perspective. I'm sure David had a great view at night of the heavens, seeing the stars and so on, and then he's very familiar with the the creation that he lives in, the environment in which he sees and he, and he sees the, the genius, he sees the beauty, the grandeur of all of that. And he feels very small.

That's very, that's very normal for us to feel, to feel very small, even insignificant, and God is, why is it you even pay attention to us? And so this God who is so big, who has made such big creation, bigger than we can even see, Who is this God? Well, he, he describes him as being majestic. and, and.

And so he sees them, and then the, the point is, oh, God, what do you think of us? do you value us? And he answers that, that question in, in how where God places man in the order of creation. And so, David has that, that, right response or the right answers to that, in, in how man is created and what man is assigned to do, what man is supposed to do and his function underneath God's authority.

And so that is where it is, where we are, but I still sometimes wonder at, at, what God must think to, coming down through creation. That he looks past the works of his hands. And when he looks at, at his, the things he has made, how is it that he can care about our little projects? so I, I got some pictures of some of the stuff that he's made.

Hopefully you can see those pretty well. some of these things we don't get to see every day. Unless, of course, you have it on your screensaver, but But these are amazing pictures that are taken out in space, some by the Hubble telescope. amazing creation that God has, has, brought into place.

And then here we are in our tiny planet. And you zoom in and, and you just look at what's on our planet and how amazing some of the things are that we can, can see, that we look at, that when we go to see them, we experience them, we're in awe. We're, we, we have a hard time even taking it in. The beauty, the wildness, the structure, how it all Just, forms and, and, and operates, the cycles of nature, everything that goes, that, that we get to be part of an experience.

And when you look at the beauty of these things, how can we make anything to compare to that? There is no way we can do that. And so, We have our little projects and sometimes I, I think about that and the question comes to my mind is, aren't we just children? Playing in the dirt with sticks and stones.

all the stuff that we build. we can build bridges, we can build hospitals, we can build skyscrapers, we can build amazing theaters, we can build, all these things, highways and so on. And yet, all we are doing is working with the materials that we get out of the dirt, right? And we're putting them together.

And, and all in all, we're just scratching the surface of our planet. And What we make is so trifling. We can't make living things. We can't make, things of this beauty, the beauty that is so awesome and so amazing.

And yet Solomon would, it would seem, be so audacious. is to build a structure that God would be pleased with. That, that overwhelms me. And, and it makes me think that, that how is it that, that, that, that could be.

And yet God ordains this. This is actually something, these are, when Solomon builds this temple, these are God's plans, as we will see. And so God desired to do this. You see from the The, the gospel tells us from the beginning of history.

That God is intimately acquainted with our ways. And he looks past all of his glorious creation to see us and interact with us. Think about that, the God. Outside of the creation looks through all of this.

All of the space, all of those constellations, all of those planets, all of the stars. All into the earth, all past the mountains and the rivers and the oceans and so on, to see us and to interact with us. God deliberately, purposely does that to interact with us. And so it makes me think, That we, on the other hand, should be the people who Look past all his glorious creation.

To see him and interact with him. The temptation sometimes, in fact, has been throughout human history is to get caught up with the creation, right? In fact, in Romans tells us that we substitute the creation for the creator. And what we need to be doing is, as God looks past his creation to see us and interact with us, we have the opportunity to look past his creation, look through it, and see the God behind it and interact with him.

That's the, that's the tunnel through all of that, that God gives us, that we can have a relationship. And the temple that, that Solomon would build. It was really going to be a testimony of that. So we see in this interaction.

That we see that this interaction is personalized in the building of the temple. Because the temple is going to be a place for men to meet with God. So let's turn over to First Chronicles. Chapter 28.

1 Chronicles is right before 2 Chronicles. If that helps. We're looking at chapters 28 and 29. I'm just reading some, a few verses out of this section.

What we're gonna see first of all, this is the preparation. For building the temple. This is gonna be a big project and so this is, is actually during, at the end of David's life, David is setting things up for Solomon to build the temple. And so the first thing I want, I want us to notice is the empowering of Solomon.

And so if you look at chapter 28, And verses 9 to 10. He, he gives some instruction to his son. He says, as for you, my son Solomon. Know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts.

If you seek Him, he will let you find him, but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now for the Lord has chosen you to build the house of the sanctuary. Be courageous and act. And then look over in verse, it should be verse 20.

In verse 20 it says, then David said to his son Solomon, be strong and courageous and act. Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God is with you. I think it's an important point to, to bring out here that That David is telling Solomon, he's empowering him here. He's setting him up to be the one who's going to lead this project.

And what he's saying to them is, is to be courageous and act or take action. And I'm sure that in that, in those phrases, there's a sermon for someone to someday preach, probably has been done. But, But that is something that, that speaks to our humanity, doesn't it? Sometimes we can, can be so intimidated by projects that we are, we don't really want to get started.

And so David is, is really empowering and, and pushing Solomon for this. Then we have Construction plans. And we, as we know, if you're gonna have a building, you're gonna have to have blueprints, right? You're gonna have to have plans.

You're gonna have to know how it's gonna start, what's gonna happen, and how it's gonna finish. And so, We have construction plans and, and you can read those, verses 11 to 19 or is, is part of the description of that. I just want to read a couple parts of those in, first part of verse 11. says then David gave to his son Solomon the plan of the porch of the temple, and it goes on to talk about all the plans for all of the, the, the, the parts of the building that was going to take place.

And look down in verse 19. He says all this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me all the details of this pattern. So we find here that the plans begin with in the mind of God. And, and he passes those plans on to David, and now David's passing those plans on to Solomon.

And so, We have the construction plans that, that, are, are being finalized here. And then we have materials and financing. You're gonna go into a building program, you're gonna have to have building materials, you're gonna have to have financing, a way to pay for all of that. Not just for the materials, but for the labor as well.

It's all gonna have a cost. And so, Read in verse 2. Of chapter 29. It says, now with all my ability, I have provided for the house of my God, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, the wood for the things of wood, onyx stones and inlaid stones, stones of antimony and stones of various colors and all kinds of precious stones and alabaster in abundance.

And here we have David standing before the leaders of the people. Beginning a fundraiser. And so he's gonna be challenging them, first of all with what he is giving and what he has set aside for the construction and he's gonna be challenging them as we see, to, to give themselves. The first part of verse 5, Or the, the end of Vers rather, who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord?

And that idea is, who's gonna jump in with me and give as well. Verse 6, then the rulers of the father's households and the princes of the tribes of Israel, and the commanders of thousands of hundreds with the overseers of the king's work offered willingly. And then in, in the next verse, it talks about how much they gave. And so there's this great offering that takes place.

Verse 8, whoever possessed precious stones gave them to the treasure of the, of the house of the Lord in care of Jehiel the Gershenite. This is gonna be another job that's gonna be really important, security. Somebody's gonna have to guard the treasure. And if you look back and actually it's, it's chapter 26.

it gives more of a list of people who are assigned to this guarding of the treasury. these are all Levites. And one of the interesting, notes that I, that I saw in looking at that list is one of the officers in charge of the guardian of the treasury is a man by the name of Shebuel who is a descendant of Moses. I thought that was cool that, that Moses had a descendant that's still, wanting involved in doing things in, in, in the, in the service of, of God.

but anyway, they have temple guards. They're guarding this treasury. why? Because those people are made of the same dirt we're made of, and, you gotta guard the money.

You always have to have, have locks on the door. then in, in verse 9, the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they had made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart, and King David also rejoiced greatly. And so we have this, this offering, that's given, that provide for the materials and for the labor of the building of this temple. And then we see the purpose and perspective laid out in David's prayer.

So let's read a, a portion of that and, and get a sense of what he is seeing in his purpose. So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly and David said, Blessed are You, O Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth.

Yours is the dominion, oh Lord, and you exalt yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you. You rule over all, and in your hand is power and might, and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now, therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name.

But who am I? And who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from you and from your hand, we have given to you. For we are sojourners before you and tenants as all our fathers were.

Our days on the earth are like a shadow and there is no hope. Oh Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build you a house for your holy name, it is from your hand, and all is yours. This is the, the sense of, of right perspective. and this is a good perspective for giving, isn't it?

That we remember that, that whatever we have is, we're just tenants and sojourners here. That this really all belongs to God. And so they were able to with that mindset, give with a willing and joyful heart. And and so that's how the preparations were made for the building.

Of the temple Next look at the action then, Solomon does take action and, and when he becomes king in his 4th year as king, the, the construction begins. So let's look over at 1 Kings chapter 6. And we'll read just some highlights of the construction of the temple. We'll start with verse one.

Now, it came about in the 480th year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt. In the 4th year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the 2nd month that he began to build the house of the Lord. As for the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was 60 cubits, it's width 20 cubits, and its height, 30 cubits. I did think, it, it went through my mind that, when David was getting the plans from God and God said, OK, I want it to be 60 cubits wide and 20 cubits or 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide and 30 cubits high, that David must have said, cubits?

Does it really have to be, why is it always cubits? But I guess that's how God measures things in cubits. And so, you gotta You gotta go with him. The rest of the world may go to the metric system, but God's sticking with cubits here.

anyway, That's the measurement. That's also the time frame for 180 years after they've left Egypt. This is, is where they are. verse 7, the house, while it was being built, was built of stone prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer, hammer nor ax nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built.

And so all the, the preparation of the stones was done at the quarry, and then they were brought over. So what that takes? That takes good measurements, doesn't it? You have to have, have the right measurements, get it all right, because those, these are big stones.

When you get them there, they got to fit. And so, they're, they're taking their time doing it right, doing it as craftsmen, and they're, they're really doing the, the work in a, in a good way. The, it's believed that the the quarry was not that far away. just a few miles, probably even less than a few miles.

They have, there is, in fact, if you go, do a search on Solomon's temple, there are pictures of all kinds of things. One of the things is of a quarry that's believed to be, the quarry that Solomon used for the building of the temple. And so, it's, it's rather close, but all of the, the preparation of the stones was done at the quarry and then brought and they were set in place. amazing construction, I think.

verse 11. Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, concerning this house which you're building, if you walk in my statutes and execute my ordinances and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out my word with you, which I spoke to David, your father. I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel. So God responds and, and, and during this project is encouraging Solomon as to what's gonna make this all work.

And that is that, this isn't just going to be a formality. You build the temple and everything's OK. No, you need to walk in my statutes. You need to follow my will.

You need to look after me. And so this is, this is a matter of the heart, right? It's not just some external worship that so often we as human beings get caught up in, but this is the matter of our heart following along with God. And staying true to God.

Look at verse 37. It says in the 4th year, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in the month of Ziv. In the 11th year, in the month of Bull, which is the 8th month, The house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its plans, so he was 7 years in building it. So that's how long it took.

and they got it finished. And then look over in chapter 7, the last. The last verse there, verse 51, he says, thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils.

And put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord. Now if you remember from when we did the study on the tabernacle, the, the Tabernacle was basically a, a, was a pretty simple structure in that it had a courtyard. Inside the courtyard was the, the, the the tabernacle itself. And it had two rooms.

It had the the holy place and then the holy of holies. The temple is has some similarity in that it has the holy place and the holy of holies in a bigger building, a solid building on a foundation, but then it has a whole lot of extra rooms, storage rooms, mostly. there's gonna be some, some changing rooms for priests. There's gonna be, a lot of that that's also part of the structure that, that would get built.

And so, One of the things that they did, did was build a treasury. So once the, the, the temple was completed, they could put the treasury in it. As we're going to see in a little bit when they dedicate it, they also move into one of the rooms. There's a storage room that was made especially to keep the disassembled tabernacle and all of the implements.

That, were part of that. They ended up being stored there as something precious, something that, that was of value to them and would be kept there, for as long as, as it could be kept. So, we have the building of the temple. And, and also there are laborers and craftsmen.

We won't, go in and read a lot of that, but, if you look in, in, chapter 5 and in chapter 7, goes, goes into some detail about the craftsman. In particularly, chapter 7 gives the, the name of a person. His name is Hiram. He's from Lebanon.

And he is, his mother is Jewish. His father is Sidonian, I think it was. But Anyway, he is an expert in in brass or in bronze. He's a, he's a bronze smith and he's good at making stuff and so Solomon gets him to come and do a lot of the ornate.

bronze working that is part of the temple structure and that's all really interesting. And in fact, if you're the person who loves, building things, whatever it is you do, as it was with the building of the tabernacle, so it is here. There's so many details of, of how It's put together and, and what it was that they made that it's very interesting. And, and also, if you do that Solomon's Temple search on the internet, some of the pictures do show you some cutaways of what the inside looked, may have looked like.

And so it's, it's, it's pretty amazing, what it was that God gave them instructions to do, in this, temple. It wasn't just a plain, four-sided structure. it's pretty ornate and it's pretty amazing to see. Then we had opening ceremonies, yes.

what is Right that hill, the Temple Mount, right? Mhm. So Fairly close. It's, it's it's close enough that they could reasonably bring the stones over from the quarry without having to call.

They, they've actually found, in fact, if you go on that same search, it'll show you a picture of, of, Of some of the, the foundation that they've found, fairly recently. And so they do know, from, from the, the foundation stones, they can get an idea. I don't know, I couldn't answer what, how big the stones were. to Yeah Right.

And in fact, one of the, the pictures I saw, it was the, the caption underneath it was explaining just a little bit, but it was explaining how This, it was, it was giving a contrast between the, the, The foundation of the, this temple and then the second one which was inside it. So it's a little bit smaller. And if you remember from, from Nehemiah, When the people saw that, no, Ezra, Ezra, when the people saw the temple, they wept. part of the weeping was to the fact that it wasn't as big, wasn't going to be as nice.

And so, this, this first temple was a little bit bigger. Now we know also that it was added onto by Herod. Herod the Great, added and made it huge. And, and, and so it was a, a huge structure during the time of Christ.

but with this, particular temple, it, there, the fact that that same place, the quarry is also called the hiding place for one of the, prophets. I forget which one that was hiding in that cave, hid their prophets had to hide, at times. so. Anyway, but, but it's tho those are interesting parts of of the construction.

Of the, the temple. Well, we have the opening ceremonies. And we, start off in, in chapter 8 of First Kings. Solomon calls the leaders of the nation together.

And so, they come together and there's this great, gonna be this great assembly of, of people. And then they, they bring in the Ark of the Covenant. And so in chapter 8, Verse 4, it says they brought up the ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils, utensils which were in the tent, and the priests and the Levites brought them up. So they've disassembled in preparation the tabernacle.

on this day, they're, they're hiking it all up and they have this big ceremony. It's, it's like a parade and it's, and, and they're bringing all this these artifacts up. And they're offering sacrifices on the way. It's, it's just this huge celebration.

So it's pretty amazing. Must have been an amazing sight. And they're bringing it into the temple. The, the tabernacle with, with all of its implements will be put into storage.

The Ark of the Covenant, however, will be the one thing that remains to be taken into the Holy of Holies, in the new temple. And then we see how the, how God responds and In verse 10. It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. So God Looked through his creation.

And was pleased with what they did. Even though they're just men, they can't make anything like he makes. But what? Man is also his creation.

And so God was pleased with what they did and God filled the temple, so much so that they couldn't even continue their acts of worship there. They, they had to, to get out because the glory of God was so great inside. so that's God's response. Then we have Solomon making an address to the people that are there.

And In that address, he's recounting the purpose and then he offers a prayer, and this prayer is amazing. So I wanna look at parts of it. but he restates, God's promises. He, gives attribution to God's greater glory.

he, he, bring, he makes a point of the temple being a beacon of light to the world. And he also makes a large point about it being a place to turn for forgiveness of sin. And he makes several points of that because that's, we do that a lot. And, and we need a place to turn for forgiveness of sin.

let's look, just look at, a couple of things though. Let's read in verse 22. In his prayer, he says, then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. He said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing loving kindness to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with your servant, my Father David, that which you have promised him.

Indeed, you have spoken with your mouth and have fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day. Now therefore, Lord, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David, my Father. That which you have promised him, saying you shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel if only your sons take heed to walk to their way to walk before me as you have walked. Now therefore, God of Israel, let your word, I pray, be confirmed.

Which you have spoken to your servant, my father David. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven in the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house which I have built.

Yet I have, yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today, that your eyes may be opened toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, my name shall be there, to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place. And so he goes on to talk about prayers of supplication. And prayers of, of, asking for forgiveness.

And then in verse 41.

how it relates to the rest of the world. He says also concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel. When he comes from a far country for your name's sake, for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm. When he comes and prays toward this house, here in heaven, your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls you.

In order that all the people of the earth may know your name, to fear you, and do. As do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name. In this prayer, we see an understanding that this temple is bigger than Israel, isn't it? It's, it's, it's something that's to be a light to the world.

And the nation of Israel really was called by God for that purpose, to be a light for, for the rest of the world, to call people to repentance, to call people to faith, to follow after the true God. And so this was their purpose. And this was what they experienced during that time. And these must have been glorious years, amazing years in the nation of Israel.

There are some sad side notes. in regard to the temple, the tabernacle, as we, we saw at the beginning, They used that for 480 years. from the time of its construction until the, the opening of the temple. 480 years with a, a, a temporary structure.

That was, that was mobile, portable, that they could carry with them 480 years. The temple. The permanent structure built with great stones covered in gold, lasted for 420 years. And It was in 420 years that Nebuchadnezzar came in, destroyed it, knocked it all down.

There was nothing left. Took all of the gold and silver and, and all of the valuable things back to his treasuries in Babylon. And that tells us something again about our humanity. That we can trust in all the wrong things and our focus gets in the wrong direction, and that is what happened to them.

We read about the glory of the Lord filling. The temple here and, and how God was pleased to be there and to be with his people. Ezekiel chapters 10 and 11, give us the account of the glory of the Lord departing. From the temple.

And what a sad story that is when you read through it and you see what's happening there, why it's happening, and, and how it is that God brings Ezekiel to see it. He's the only one that notices. Everyone else is too busy with their idolatry, with all of their distractions, with everything else. They don't even see the glory of the Lord departing.

And so another sad note. To, to this, and that God is not confined to a building. He goes where he chooses to go. And, and he leaves when he chooses to leave.

And, and so we here, we have here the second example then of that word Ichabot. you remember we saw it. Back in. Samuel's childhood.

When we talked about Samuel and, and, and the, and the priest Eli and his two sons, and, and they took the Ark of the Covenant to battle and the, and the Ark of the Covenant was taken. And the the wife of one of the son of one of the sons of Eli gave birth to a son and named him Ichabod, which means the glory has departed. And We, we see it again here, that, that God takes his glory away in Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel sees that.

All right. Here's one artist's rendition of what it may have looked like. And there's another one. A little different.

Yes We read specifically about that It would be in, in this artist's conception. Well, that one wouldn't really have it. It is. It it begins with that.

Yeah. The, the thing with the artist's conceptions, they vary and, and I had another picture I was gonna show and then I deleted it because I'm looking at it, looking at it and I say, wait, this doesn't, where's the courtyard? Where's the, and, and, and they, they didn't have the, the altar out in the front. They didn't have the the big giant sea, the basin where they washed and, and so I, even though it was a really nice picture.

I, I took it out. So it, the artist's conceptions don't always give us like the greatest image. They, they just give us an idea. Applying John chapter 4, you remember, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well.

And her question comes up about worship, right? And, and Jesus, says in her, in response to her question about where it's supposed to be, he says, salvation is of the Jews. The Jews have had it right. It is in Jerusalem.

that is where it is. But he says the day is coming and now is. When they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And what Jesus was communicating to her was, it wasn't gonna be just in Jerusalem anymore.

In fact, it was going to be wherever people are. And, and it's not about a place. It's about the heart. And, and it's about how we prepare for that.

1 Corinthians chapter 3. We're not gonna have time to, to read all these verses. but these, these passages, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19, Ephesians 2:19 to 22 are really great references about the, about we being the temple of God, that we are, that, that God has chosen to make his dwelling place in us. So it's not in a building in a certain city.

In a geographical location on Earth, but it's throughout the Earth in, in individual people. His dwelling is there. He's made his dwelling within the people. another passage, First Peter 2, verses 9 and 10, in case you want to write these down and look at them.

2 Corinthians, we can read this and it says, for we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. So we do have this, this transition of time where God has, is, has said, no longer am I gonna be just in a building. But I'm going to be in people throughout the earth.

And wherever those people are, that is where my dwelling is. And so no longer do we then face a certain, to a certain place on earth to confess our sins, but we go directly to the Father, and we come boldly before his throne, seeking His grace and His forgiveness. And so that is, is how things are different for us now. That's, that's what changed with Jesus coming and Jesus being the final sacrifice as payment for our sins, that atonement has occurred.

I wish we had more time to actually have a discussion on this. But there is something about the specificity of the temple construction and worship. that teach us about the worship of God. I'll just give you the points I wrote down.

How's that? It'll be faster. God takes worship seriously. We see that in, in all the specificity and so on.

If he takes it seriously, we need to take it seriously. that is, incumbent upon us. If we're to worship in spirit and truth, that means we must prepare ourselves. Both for corporate worship and, and private worship.

There should be preparation involved. That's part of taking it seriously, that we prepare our hearts for this. That we don't just walk into it casually. We, we take God seriously.

We should see worship as the event. That we participate in. Imagine people going, traveling to Jerusalem. Bringing their sacrifices.

To worship God That was the reason for coming to Jerusalem. was to do that. they, they weren't coming to Jerusalem because it was a great resort town and they could drop off their sacrifices, spend a little bit of time, and then go have fun, right? No, they were coming there because it was that was the event.

And I, I, I'm afraid that sometimes we take our worship too casually. and, and so that, what we shouldn't be doing is seeing worship in, whether it's personal or especially corporate worship as being something that we drive in, spend the, the hour or two, and, but it's kinda on the way to, to the rest of our day and, and, and that's, and that's what we do. that's not what the, the pattern of worship that That, that God is inscribing. I think real worship, it becomes the event.

That's the main thing. Our God is holy. That means if we're gonna come to worship, we have to be holy. And If we need to We need to pursue the meaning of holy.

If, if we don't understand it, then we need to find out what that means. What does it mean to be holy? Finally, worship is our greatest life experience. It's where we connect with the living God.

Who is willing to connect with us. It's our greatest life experience. You see, that connection with God, when we really begin to Take in who he is. That he thinks he creates.

That he has way more awesome stuff than we have ever imagined. And that we have eternity to discover that. Our worship here on Earth is just the beginning. We're just getting a flavor, a taste, just a whiff.

But our time of worship is our greatest life experience. And The whole world is calling us to distract us from all that. We have many, many distractions, but let's not let that happen. But let's stay in spirit and in truth, focused upon it because this is the real thing.

This is our true connection with our Creator, with our designer, and the one who loves us and wants to be with us. All right. That's it. I'm gonna Wow It's If you didn't hear that back there, sorry, I can't repeat all of that.

It's too long. But, but, but it is personal and, and that's, that was, his, his point. It And it's something that, that can be real for us. And let's not just keep it in a two-dimensional on paper formality, that we just go through.

But let's let go of our heart and be real in our worship. Be honest before God. And receive his, his grace, his kindness, his interest. The mind of God who sees into us and loves us.

And, and wants to have that connection. Our part of that connection is worship. And that's what we do, and we worship God. we are connecting with the most amazing being that there is.

well, I'll close this in prayer and then Mike's gonna have a few words to, To finish this off. Father, I thank you for, For caring about us. In, in having an interest in us and wanting to be with us. And Lord, may we be people.

That respond in kind and that, that we see past all of your creation, see past all of the stuff around us. And see you and, and, and go to you and interact with you and be, be changed and cleansed by you. You're the giver of life. You're the sustainer of our souls.

And so, Father, we wanna just commit ourselves to that, to be true worshippers, worshippers in spirit and truth. Amen.