I Kings 6:1-8:66; II Chronicles 2:1-7:22
Pre-intro – Some of my fondest high school memories aren’t of school at all. They’re from the summers. I had the privilege of living in CO and taking backpack trips through our church camp there. They were great! We’d pack in 10 miles or so, carrying everything we needed to live for the week, set up camp, and then spend the days hiking around, climbing mountains, and fishing. It was beautiful scenery. For me, one of the greatest features was going places mostly untouched by people. There were no roads, no buildings, no traffic noise, no pollution. We’d hike around, but I especially liked to visit the water. I did a lot of fishing in lakes and streams that were as clear and as beautiful as they get. On one of the excursions we took, out in the middle of nowhere, where there were no people and no signs of people, we found an old silver mine. Not only was there a mine, but there was a sluice and tons of equipment – a boiler, rails, steal cables – tons of it. It was over 100 years old. And it occurred to me: someone also had been there before! In fact, how on earth did anyone get all that stuff there? They didn’t have helicopter drops in the late 1800’s! One thing was sure: it didn’t get there on its own. In fact, it had taken several people a lot of hard work to haul all that stuff in there and set it all up. It’s that way with anything big – every building, every project got there on purpose – not by chance or accident.
Every week here we have a group of volunteers who set up and tear down for whatever events are going on. Sometimes it takes a lot of moving furniture, even the walls, and when it’s all over, it all has to be set up for the next thing. Remember that when you see it. It didn’t just get there by accident.
The same is true of this building. Many of you were here as it was built. You know, as does anyone who sees it, it didn’t get here by chance. It took some deliberate effort to build a building for God’s use. Ask anyone who’s been involved in a church building project – it’s a lot of work. It takes a lot of sacrifice. Right now, outside by where the vans are parked, we’re staking off to build a garage. It has already been a lot of work. These things just don’t build themselves!
Today, we’re going to talk about what ought to go on in God’s House – especially about building God’s House.
(end of pre-intro. Break to song set, Lord’s Supper, Offering)
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Israel went through a period of just over 300 years where they had no king. That’s not good, because during that time, everyone just did what was right in his own eyes. That’s why we’re wisely concerning ourselves with all of the unrest in the Middle East these days. God had given Israel good leadership – prophets and judges – but Israel decided they wanted more. “Give us a king!” they said, “Like all the other nations have!” Samuel, God’s prophet at that time, was disappointed, but under God’s instruction he anointed, appointed, and installed Saul, son of Kish, as the 1st king of Israel.
(move over by crown)
He was an impressive man. He just looked kingly. He became an impulsive man, and finally an obsessive and jealous man. So, God took the kingdom from him and handed it over to David. The David and Goliath scene was really just a taste of what was to come. David was a fascinating mix of faithfulness and failure, of singer and soldier.
(move over by sword)
It was David who paid to marry Saul’s daughter Michal by going out and killing 300 Philistines.
Just last night, we had people camping out here. It was fun! But part of what makes camping out fun is knowing that you don’t have to stay there forever. You don’t live in that tent – it’s just for a short time.
Well, David began to feel bad about having a nice house while God was still being worshiped in a tent, he set his heart to build a house for God – a temple. But God told him,
1 Chronicles 28:3 'You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.'
Instead, it would be his son. David at least helped collect materials, and the building plans were all drawn up before he died. He died before God had a nice house, but not before his son was installed as king.
(move over by toolbelt)
He was called “Jedidiah” by God, and Solomon by his parents. Solomon means “peaceful.” He became king during a peaceful time in Israel. And it was Solomon who built God a house
We’ve already talked about how wise this man was. God gave him a depth of wisdom and understanding in a multitude of areas. So, when he builds a house for God, I expect he would do it well.
There’s a good indicator in his words in
2 Chronicles 2:5 The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods.
David also had said,
1 Chronicles 29:1 The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the LORD God…
That’s a good place to start – with a realization that God’s house is for Him. Solomon did.
4 years into his reign, this 23 year old king started the biggest church building project ever. What can we learn from Solomon about building a House for God?
When you build a house for God…
I. Make It the Very Best
The whole temple area covered about 6000’ square. Imagine 2 football fields laid side-by-side. The actual building was about 90X30 and about 45’ high. Really, its size wasn’t what makes it so great. Through the centuries, a lot of places of worship have been built – many of them to false gods.
(show pictures of temples here)
Why so fancy? Why so ornate and gaudy? These are “gods.” They expect a nice place, right?
And, when the wisest man who ever lived sets out to build God a house, you’d expect it to be the best, wouldn’t you?
The Scriptures list for us the weight of all the gold, silver, bronze and iron used to build the temple and all of its furnishings. Now, in the copying of these OT texts, there may be some variance. Decimal places were real easy to misplace, and the standard of measure changed in the 6th century BC. Imagine the confusion it would cause in the future if today a pound ceased be 16oz and became 8oz instead! So, it’s hard to say with precision how much gold was used. The record even says so much bronze was used the amount couldn’t be recorded.
So how much gold was there? Was it 1,875 tons? That would be 150,000 gold bullion bars. Was it ½ that? I figured, once you’re past a couple of tons of gold, what does it matter?! The entire US federal reserve is somewhere around 8,972 tons. And silver – is it 18,750 tons of silver? Was the figure copied accurately for us? I figure, with silver, once you’re past 10-15 tons, what does it matter? There was this huge bronze pool built for washing the priests – a laver – it held somewhere around 11,500 gal. of water. It was all cast from bronze.
So, how much material was there? More than average! More than any other building project – ever!
Solomon also imported wood – great cedars from Lebanon were cut, made into rafts, and floated down the coast to Jerusalem.
Beyond the materials used, Solomon also made sure the craftsmanship was great. He hired Hiram of Tyre to work. And the stones that were used for the whole thing – they were all cut off-sight, so that when the temple was all put together, there was no hammer or axe or any iron tool heard in the place. Can you imagine – cutting all the pieces of a complex building somewhere else, so that when you put it all together it fits?
Why bother? Because, like Solomon said, “our God is greater than all other gods.” Like David said, the building was for God, not man. When you go to build a house for God, you make it the very best.
Story - A woman once came to Jesus with perfume that would have been worth a whole year’s wages. She broke it open, and poured it out over His head. Everyone watching said, “What a waste!” It was too extravagant. It was too fancy. It could have been used for something better. Can you really be too extravagant when you’re doing something for Jesus? Jesus said she had done a beautiful thing.
When you build a house for God, how can it be too nice? You make it the very best.
You also…
II. Follow His Design
As David handed over the blueprints for the temple he told Solomon,
1 Chronicles 28:19 "All this I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan."
Chs 3-4 of II Chron and all of ch 6 of I Kings contain the details of the temple and its furnishings, although there are also a lot of details we’re not given.
Solomon didn’t just get together with an architectural firm and a building committee. He started with the plans that were given to him from his father David. And David didn’t just sit down and think to himself, “Hmmm…I wonder if God would like the big picture window facing east or west.” All the details of the plan came from God. God knew what He wanted, and He made it known. His house was to be built after a certain plan.
The inner sanctuary of the temple was a perfect cube-shape – about 30’X30’X30’. That was “the most holy place.” It’s the room where the Ark of the Covenant would be placed. On each side of the ark, Solomon built a cherub, made of olive wood and overlaid with gold. They each were each 15’ tall and had a 15’ wingspan, so their wingtips touched each other in the middle and touched the wall on each side. Who would have thought of that? Doesn’t matter! It’s the way God designed it to be.
When you start to study the temple and its furnishings, you begin to realize that God was very picky about the design.
Hebrews 8:5 …a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
The lampstands, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offerings, the table of showbread, the Ark of the Covenant, the veil between the holy place and the most holy place – these all were a shadow, a kind of earthly representation, of deep spiritual truths. God is rather picky about truth. So, when building His House, He wants to be sure that it follows His design.
Ill – You’re a married couple. You have finally managed to start building your dream house. So, you’re coming out to see your house being built, and the builder says, “I know you wanted it to be 2 stories, but I made it 3. I just felt like it would be a better use of space. And, I know you ordered oak trim, but I changed it to fir. It doesn’t cost as much, you know. Oh, and the pool you wanted out back, I’m building a greenhouse instead. Pools are so much work!” What would you think? You’d probably wonder why the builder was more interested in his own wishes and his own personal tastes than he was in yours. He wasn’t building it for himself. He should have followed the given design you gave him, not his own.
Remember that when it comes to building a house for God.
Finally, when you build a house for God…
III. Dedicate It To His Use
Ill - When we had a house built in OH, we learned a lot. One thing I learned is my very own “expense and timetable calculator for building a house.” You just figure up all the fees, materials, and labor costs and add them together. Then, you take the finishing time required by all the contractors involved and get a final date. Then, you take those numbers, add $50,000 and 3 months, and you’ve got it! That’s generally how building projects go. And, boy, are you glad when it’s finally done!
I don’t know if they estimated how long the temple building project would take. I know there wasn’t a labor shortage. Solomon had 3 shifts of 10,000 men cutting wood, 80,000 men cutting stones, and 70,000 men in charge of moving stuff. Added up, that’s 160,000 men. Those were just the people responsible for getting wood and stones to Jerusalem. Yet, with all those people at work, the project ended up taking over 7 years to complete. What do you say after finishing a 7 year building project?
We can read what Solomon said. I Kings 8 describes the dedication service and the words of Solomon to the people and to God.
He prayed that God would regard the temple.
1 Kings 8:27-29 - "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, 'My Name shall be there,' so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.
He goes on and names several scenarios – If a man makes an oath by this place, listen to it, if Israel’s army loses, and the people come here to seek Your help, hear them; if there’s a drought, and everyone comes here to pray to You, heal the land; if there’s a famine or a plague, and everyone comes here and seeks you, answer them; if a foreigner comes to this place and calls on You, hear him; when our armies go out to war and the people pray toward this place, give them victory; when people sin, and they come here to tell you they’re sorry, forgive them.
Solomon was saying, “Let this place be the place where people find You and find help from You and worship You. This is Your house, God.”
We’ve all seen some kind of dedication service – when a building or a business or a ship is dedicated to a specific use. We also understand what that means. Jesus certainly did. Many years later, Jesus would come through the temple courts and kick out the people who were there using it to turn a dishonest buck. And as He threw them out, He quoted Isaiah 56:7 “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations.” When you build a house for God, it should be dedicated to His use.
The House of God…
But even Solomon knew God wouldn’t “live” there. Nothing can contain God.
And it’s a good thing, too. In 586 B.C., it was completely destroyed by the Babylonians. If God really had lived there, He would have been homeless!
It wasn’t until Zerubbabel rebuilt it 70 years later that Israel had another temple. It wasn’t nearly as great as the first one. It was also pillaged and beaten up over the centuries, until a 2nd reconstruction was done by Herod about 15 years before Jesus was born. And it wasn’t finished until AD 64…6 years before it was destroyed by the Romans. So, I’m wondering, without a temple, where does God live during all of this?
Then I read the words of Jesus in John 4. A Samaritan woman is asking Him where is the right place to worship God – where do you go? Where does God live?
John 4:21-24 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Sure enough, God has made a change of residence. There’s no longer a temple in Jerusalem, but there is a temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19 - Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
1 Corinthians 3:16 - Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
2 Corinthians 6:16 … we are the temple of the living God.
1 Peter 2:5 …you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
One of the neatest pictures of this is in
Ephesians 2:19-22 - Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
If you’re a Christ follower, you are the House of God. One of my goals this morning is that when you hear or when you use the phrase “house of God,” it will be in light of this fact.
54X “house of God” appears in the Bible. Every time, it’s referring to the OT temple, except for 4X in Hebrews where it’s referring to the people of God. Why? Because that’s where God has chosen to live right now. Because, wherever His people go, they’re a portable temple, with God inside. Because worship isn’t something that’s limited to a specific place, like, say, a church building. Because, when you come here on Sunday mornings, you don’t “go to church.” You ARE the church, and you’re supposed to be and to appear to be the Church outside this building just much as inside.
Too many people equate being in a church building with being a Christian. In the building at Pape, MO, we had snakes, brown recluse spiders, bats, we had a skunk under the building one Sunday – talk about a church pew! We had herds of mice – even once found a baptized mouse in the baptistry that had been immersed during the week. Now, are they all Christians because they’re “in the church”? No! Not even the baptized mouse!
I understand how in some places you feel closer to God. Frankly, I’ve come into this place when it’s empty to pray. What happens here is significant to me personally. I understand that it’s a special event when God’s people get together in a large group, and we often associate that with a place. But understand this: if you consider this place here the house of God and you don’t consider yourself the house of God, you’re flying in the face of what the Bible clearly says, and I would venture to guess that somewhere in the recesses of your heart you’re using it to excuse yourself from being what God has told you to be. Take a look deep inside this morning and see if that’s true. Are you the Church or not? Are you a living stone in the temple of God or not? Are you the House of God or not? This is what God calls His people now.
Here’s a test. Take your right index finger – your pointer. Now, point to the House of God. If you’re pointing at someone who’s a follower of Jesus, you’re right. If you’re pointing at a ceiling or a wall, take that pointer and point it at someone who has committed himself or herself to Jesus.
Now, let’s take that NT definition of the House of God and revisit where we’ve been.
If you’re building a house for God…
• You should make it the very best
• You should follow His design
• You should dedicate it to His use
Since that house is you, let me ask, are you making a house that’s its very best for Him? What’s the room look like when God snoops around in there? Are there skeletons in the closet? Dirty laundry on the floor? Ants in the cupboards? What kind of a place would you want to live in? Have you made it the very best for Him?
Since that house is you, let me ask, are you following His design? How much of you reflects what your Divine Homeowner wants? Are you following His plans, or just ignoring them? Do you look at them and say, “I know You said, this, but I thought this was better…”?
Since that house is you, let me ask, to whose use have you been dedicated? There are several who would gladly become tenants – several users who would gladly use the house until it’s a mess and then run off to the next one. Or are you dedicated for the Lord’s use only?
Conclusion:
Jesus was talking about our relationship to Him, and the HS, and the Father, and He said,
John 14:23 "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
KJV has the word “abode” there: we will make our “abode” in him.
Strange how, in v.2, the only other place in the NT where that word appears, they translated it “mansion.” It’s the same word. It gets used only 2X in the whole Bible, but in v.2 it’s talking about the place where we get to live: In my Father’s house are many mansions…”
Why is it that we get to have a “mansion” and God gets to have an “abode”? I don’t know if that’s intentional or not, but I do know that too many of us aren’t intentional about giving God a mansion to live in because we don’t even consider that the house of God is right here.
What kind of house will you offer to God this morning? Or will you not even invite Him in?…
In Rev 3, Jesus says to His Church, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
