It’s Time To Renovate The Church - Part I
II Chronicles 29:1-5
I know when you look at the title on the projection screen you are scratching your head and saying “We just renovated the church 2 years ago!” You are correct, but there are some things that we missed. If we look real close I believe that we will see that:
1) There are some things that are broken that need to be repaired.
2) There are some things that are missing that need to be replaced
3) There are some things that don’t belong that need to be removed.
Before you start running through the numbers of our current budget in your head, let me ease your mind, there is no cost for this upcoming renovation… well, not financially speaking. What I am referring to is a spiritual renovation.
As we look at the condition of the Church in America today we see a broken shell of what once was. In many areas the Church is broken down, neglected and falling apart. While we all would agree that the Lord’s Church …“the body of Christ”, has many issues that need to be addressed, but we can’t fix what is happening to an assembly in California, or Montgomery, or Birmingham or even those across town or down the street. This church… Stockdale Baptist Church is the only one that we can do anything about. And as members of this local assembly it is our responsibility to ensure that we are where God would have us to be… doing what He would have us to do!
And if there are things that are broken, it is our duty to repair them.If there are things that are missing, it is our duty to replace them. If there are things that don’t belong, it is our duty to remove them. Therefore, I submit to you that “It Is Time To Renovate The Church!
Hezekiah found himself in a similar situation when he began his reign in Jerusalem. He succeeded his father Ahaz on the throne of the Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chr. 29:1), He is described as a great King. He followed the example of his great-grandfather Uzziah. We have a brief biography of him in our text for today, Look to - v1 ¶Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.2 and he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.
This was God’s man for this time in history and He had a plan for Him that would bring glory to His name. I stand before you today as God’s man for this moment in history at Stockdale Baptist Church. There have been some great men fill this pulpit in the past and there will be others in the future. But today God has given me a burden to see this church move forward for the glory of God. I would like for us to take those steps that are necessary to Renovate This Church.
In order for us to have success we must see a biblical example of how this “renovation” should take place. We find that example in the story of Hezekiah. To begin with we must see that:
I. We Must Repair What Is Broken - v3 He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.
This new King at 25 years old began to make changes at the outset of his reign. We read that “In the very first month of the first year of his reign”. He did not delay… there was no procrastination … HE DID WHAT WAS NEEDED. There is a lesson for us in this, there is work to do and the time to do it is now!
The things that were broken were as a result of Hezekiah’s father’s reign - II Chronicles 28: 24 Ahaz the king took the various articles from the Temple of God and broke them into pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord’s Temple so that no one could worship there, and he set up altars to pagan gods in every corner of Jerusalem. 25 He made pagan shrines in all the towns of Judah for offering sacrifices to other gods. In this way, he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of his ancestors.
As a result of the king’s wicked actions the people of God suffered. When Hezekiah ascended to the throne, he reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them. When you look at the Church today it doesn’t take long to see that some things are broken! Someone said “the world has become churchy while the church has become worldly.”
To repair the church today, we must look at the original blueprints. Everything we need to know about what the church should look like what is found in the book of Acts. I challenge you to find a modern day church (including this one) that even resembles what we read about in Acts. Notice - Acts 2:42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper ), and to prayer.43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity —47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
When you look at the blueprints of the early church you will find that it was built with:
• Worship
• Prayer
• Fasting
• Biblical Preaching
• Sacrificial giving
• Fellowship
• Discipleship
• Service ....And its foundation was Jesus Christ.
Many churches today appear to posses these elements but many really don’t. - Vance Havner said “Today the church is so subnormal that if it ever got back to the New Testament normal it would seem to people to be abnormal. -
Churches today have the look but they don’t have life! Many churches today are no different than these flowers in front of me. They look real but they are man made and can produce no fruit. Consider what Jesus said to the Church at Sardis - “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.
Dennis Lyle said, “Tragically, many churches are dead. Like a rotting corpse, these church bodies have the foul stench of death upon them. They have the appearance of life, but they are in actuality, dead. Their sanctuary is A Morgue with a Steeple. They are congregations of corpses. They have undertakers for ushers; embalmers for elders; and morticians for ministers. Their pastor graduated from the Cemetery. The choir master is the local coroner. They sing, "Embalmed in Gilead." At the Rapture, they will be the first churches taken for the Bible says, “the dead in Christ shall rise first.” - http://www.denislyle.com/Sermons/bibleclass/revelation/rev7.htm
Now some may find that funny, some may find it offensive but in many cases it is a spot on diagnosis! - It is easy for us to agree with these statements as long as they are generalized. It is fine when we are talking about the church as a whole or even the church down the street. But we must also look inward and consider our own assembly.
We must examine ourselves and see what areas we need to address to “Renovate The Church “ It is apparent that there is much in the church that needs to happen … to do so we must repair what is broken!
Not only must we “Repair What Is Broken” There is another step in Renovating The Church:
II. We Must Remove What Doesn’t Belong - v4 And he {Hezekiah} brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, 5 And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
Hezekiah “called the Priests & Levites together” and commanded that they “purify themselves and the Temple”. Notice what he said - “Carry forth the filthiness out of this place”. Not only were there some things that were broken in the temple, there were some things that did not belong. Ahaz had broken the vessels in the Temple into pieces. He closed the doors of the temple and the people could no longer worship. He then set up pagan altars all over Jerusalem. Ahaz removed the bronze altar from its place in front of the Temple. While visiting the King of Assyria he observed a pagan altar and sent a model and the dimensions to Uriah the priest. Uriah built a replica of this altar for Ahaz. He then replaced the bronze altar with a pagan idol
In II Kings 16 Ahaz told Uriah the priest, “Use the new altar for the morning sacrifices of burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and grain offering, and the burnt offerings of all the people, as well as their grain offerings and liquid offerings. Sprinkle the blood from all the burnt offerings and sacrifices on the new altar.
In doing these things Ahaz ignited the fury of The Lord. And when Hezekiah ascended to the throne he took the proper steps to purge the temple of the things that didn’t belong. When there are things in the church that don’t belong the only answer is to REMOVE THEM!!
Jesus made that very clear on 2 separate occasions while He was on the Earth - Matthew 21:12 Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”
God’s house is a place of worship, not a place for making personal profit.Jesus didn’t like His Father’s house being exploited by these greedy merchants, so He chased them out to purify and cleanse God’s temple.Jesus is not pleased today when His people gather together and His Father is not glorified! There are some churches today that are nothing more than big businesses and their goal is profit. There are some churches today and they are nothing more than the local civic center or the YMCA. These churches are always busy but they are busy doing the wrong things and the problem is in the fact that you can’t find discipleship, evangelism or the Gospel!
Then there are also some good churches with godly people but certain things have crept in that MUST BE REMOVED!
o Personal agendas
o False teaching
o Traditions
o Legalism
o Liberalism
o Fanaticism
o Discord
o Worldliness
If we identify any of these issues in this assembly THEY MUST BE REMOVED!
Our mission statement here at Stockdale Baptist has a threefold purpose:
1) To Exalt The Savior
2) To Equip The Saved
3) To Evangelize The Sinners
Our mission is summed up in 3 words… Worship, Discipleship & evangelism.
Anything we do as a church should either - Exalt the Savior, Equip the saved or evangelize the sinners. If it doesn’t do any of that, THERE IS NO PLACE FOR IT HERE! The inception of the church was 2,000 years ago and things are much different now than they were in the beginning. I think one of the biggest issues is that we have picked up a lot of clutter along the way. The church is cluttered with things that make people happy, and though they are not necessarily bad if they don’t glorify our Father …WHY ARE THEY IN HIS CHURCH? One of the biggest struggles that will come in removing those things that don’t belong in the church is that they were put in place by our parents and grandparents. We can not justify doing things simply because Mama and Daddy did them that way. We cannot base our future on what we have always done but rather what our HEAVENLY FATHER would have us to do today!
Look at what Hezekiah said when he called the priests and Levites together - “sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.”
The process of removing what doesn’t belong, starts with us as individuals. We must look within ourselves and if there are things that don’t belong WE MUST REMOVE THEM! If there are sinful actions in our lives… WE MUST REMOVE THEM! Hezekiah was not only taking a stand against the traditions of his father, he was also going against the will of the people.
The people of Judah were very much involved in the practices of idol worship – II Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
The brazen serpent that Moses had made was broken into pieces. The people had ignored that God had created it and began to worship it in a pagan manner by burning incense to it. There were some obstacles that Hezekiah encountered that had to be confronted. If the traditions of your fathers come before your devotion to God…. like the people of Judah you are practicing idolatry. Hezekiah ignored the devotion to his father and destroyed the idols that he had set in place.
Will you remove the things that don’t belong from your life today?
What if Hezekiah had compromised and allowed the idol worship to remain? He would have failed miserably! - Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Sometimes even things that began honorable can become hindrances in the house of God. The same was true during Hezekiah’s time - v4b and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. God commanded Moses to make this brazen serpent. -Numbers 21:7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.8 Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!
The people had preserved this serpent but had strayed from the original intent. Instead of remembering what God had done and glorifying Him, they began to burn incense and worship it as an idol. Hezekiah “broke the brazen serpent into pieces and called it Nehushtan” (nothing more than brass) In many places the church has become like that brazen serpent. The church has become an idol to many people today! (it is just like that brazen serpent) We know that an idol is anything that comes between you and God.
1. Some people worship the brick and mortar of the building and forget the Savior.
2. Some people worship a specific ministry and forget who it represents.
3. Some people worship certain people in the building instead of Jesus Christ.
It is time that we look closely at ourselves and what we do and why we do it, and if it is not about Jesus Christ THEN IT MUST BE REMOVED!! And we must follow the steps that Hezekiah outlined for the “Priests and Levites” He said to - “sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.”
This process begins with us as individuals.We must take a long hard look in the mirror and realize that we have a part in “renovating the church”
a. Why do we do what we do?
b. Is Jesus the main focus in our assembly…?
c. If not, then it is time to Renovate The Church
In order to do that, we must: Repair What Is Broken & Remove What Doesn’t Belong ....Will you take the proper steps to that today?
I know that so far this has not been the most joyful and encouraging message. I hate to break the news to you but there are 3 more points to this message that we will consider tonight. But that is the way the “renovation process” is. Two years ago when we renovated this physical building there was much blood, sweat and tears. There was work to be done and it was not all enjoyable… it was difficult. Renovating this sanctuary took time and money. But once we were finished everyone would agree that it was well worth the effort. One thing that we said throughout that process was that it really didn’t matter what we wanted, our goal was to honor and glorify our Father.
This “spiritual renovation” is not easy, but we must take those steps to become what God would have us to become. We must do those things that are necessary for us to honor and glorify our Father in Heaven. When you look at the condition of the world in which we live, it is obvious that something must be done with the church. Hezekiah gives us those steps that need to be taken. We have seen 2 out of 5 of them.
So I ask…
1) Will You Repair What Is Broken?
2) Will You Remove What Doesn’t Belong?
“sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place”
