Building of the Temple of God

So many memories come back after coming here again. It's been 19 years since we were here, Bevanai, for Sabbath services in Glendale. I still remember so well, and it looks like not much has really changed, although I've been told that the place has been remodeled. But it's so good to see so many friends and so many people that we've known from times past, and to have so many people from the Southern California area meet here. But it's been a lot of wonderful memories, and I do feel very emotional about this because it's just so wonderful to be reunited again. Bevanai are very happy to be here.

We are here for a number of reasons. One was to be here for Larry Darden and Patty Bergstrom's wedding, which we were very honored to be at. A number of you were there. It was done on a boat, the Scarlet Bell in Oxnard, and it was a four-hour cruise in the harbor. The wedding was at sunset, and it was just a very, very beautiful evening.

Just very, very wonderful. A little bit rocky on doing the ceremony, and everybody looked like they had already drunk their wine walking down the aisle. But it was very, very beautiful, and just great to see everyone. We wanted to see a number of other people across the grapevine, but the weather prevented us from going there, and also our flight was five hours delayed from Cincinnati, and we just couldn't do it. We were honored to see Mr. Camilo Reyes in Bakersfield visit with him, but I did talk to Aggie, and certainly our prayers are for a very, very serious operation that he will be undergoing.

We did get this chance to see Herb and Ann Vieira yesterday, and it was so good to see Herb after knowing about some of the challenges that he's had with his health. And Beth and I visited with them yesterday at the area where he is staying right now. Also on this trip, we are planning to go on from here tomorrow to Hong Kong and to the Philippines. There's a number of church matters that have to be taken care of there. Hong Kong has now become part of a senior pastor system. We manage our areas around the world through senior pastors, for the most part areas that require support from the U.S.

Some areas are UCGIA, such as Australia and Canada, and others, but there are a number of areas that are serviced directly from the United States. That includes most of our areas in Africa and Latin America, for that matter. Hong Kong was administered by Australia, but they have quite a trip there, too. It's about a six- to seven-hour flight. Since we already serviced the Philippines as a senior pastorate, we thought that we would add Hong Kong to that. Not part of the Philippines.

There will be two separate pastorates, but it will be managed there. We have 18 people now who attend regularly in Hong Kong, and we have about six brand new people here of late. We're very happy about that. I'll be meeting with them the next couple of days. Also, we're looking at Hong Kong as a possible fee site for next year. I wanted to see one of the venues that will be possibly used for that. There's an outreach campaign through one of our leading members, Mary Ong, with a school that she works for that wants to have a combined outreach with LifeNets, perhaps, where they would be raising funds there for activities there, but they would like to be connected with and partnered with a U.S.

organization. I thought that was very nice. That was an initiative on their part, and we wanted to explore that. Also, we're finding that there's talk about Sabbatarians and mainland China. We've been hearing about this from time to time historically about Sabbath keepers, and it's still noted that there are probably as many as one million Sabbath keepers in China.

We may possibly see what that's about, but that's what we'll be spending three or four days in Hong Kong and working on that. From there, going on to the Philippines, there's a national council meeting, the annual general meeting, which will be held next Sunday, all day. So I'll be there.

Earl Romer, the senior pastor, will also be there. And then from there, we'll be going on down to Takloban, which is in the Visayas, where the typhoon came through last year and destroyed many, many homes, and thousands of people were dead. But I wanted to see some of the rebuilding process that has taken place through good works and life nets. We've been able to rebuild at least seven homes for church members, and we're just very, very delighted to be able to take a look at the things that have been done in those areas.

I also wanted to thank Robin Weber for inviting me to speak here today. I just wanted to thank our pastors and elders in the Southern California area for the wonderful work that they have done in servicing these churches. It's a very, very large area. And believe me, Bev and I, after coming here and just driving a little bit after having 19 years of restful driving, it is an absolute madhouse. But then you kind of get used to it.

Just watching Mario drive here today, he's just so calm as he waves through traffic. But for us, we're just kind of glad that it's for traffic purposes where we're at. But we have really appreciated the work of the pastors and appreciate your faithfulness, your faithfulness to the truth that God has called us to. I'll be speaking about that here in my sermon. Also, I wanted to thank Mario and Cottie Seagley, who have hosted us.

We've just really thoroughly enjoyed being with them and getting to know them. We kind of know them better. I know Robin very, very well from the past and also Mario. But it's just wonderful to be back together and to be able to be talking about things that we had known before. Larry Darden spoke to you when he spoke last. Understand he gave a very interesting presentation about Africa. Is that correct? He talked about Zambia and the work that we're doing there.

I just wanted to mention one more thing because he spoke about the people in Zambia. Zambia is a big country. It's the size of Texas. There are seven different church groups or seven different churches around the area. It's a huge area to administer. According to the United Nations, a few years ago, it was the fourth poorest country in the world. It's hard to get around. Everything is expensive. Things don't work. It's just a very, very complex area to work in. On top of that, we have been working with a group of people.

In fact, one of the areas in Mufumbué, way in the northwest, is nestled between Angola, the DRC, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. Three languages. Angola has Portuguese, the Congo has French, and Zambia has English and many other local dialects. But there's a group of people there that have waited 25 years to be baptized. These are people that first heard the truth in 1983.

And they wrote in and received literature. And nobody really came out to visit them because they were so far away. However, one of them did travel to the capital city, 500 miles away, and was baptized two years later. But he went back to his area, and with three brothers and a few other people, they met every Sabbath, Sabbath in, Sabbath out. And their meeting consisted of reading literature and just spending time together. In 1993, all literature stopped. Nothing came from the church anymore at that time.

And from 1993 to 2004, they really had no contact with the church, but they still met every Sabbath. Every Sabbath they met, and they simply just read the booklets again, read the magazines, and any literature that they had, they would read to one another and stayed faithful.

They observed the Holy Days, they had the Holy Day calendar, and they were faithful to God. In 2004, they decided to write in to a name that they had seen in Lusaka, of one of the pastors, and thought that he might be able to give them more information about the church because they were receiving nothing.

And they received a magazine called The Scroll. They weren't sure the name had changed from plain truth to The Scroll, or at least it was a local magazine, and they said, this isn't there. Things that we've been reading, this is so different. And they just simply rejected that information. And so again, from 2004 to 2009, they continued to meet every Sabbath with the material that they had. Finally, one of them, Joseph Capatula, that's the one that Larry Darden has been working with and has been helping rebuild an orphanage, or helping with an orphanage in the Northwest. Joseph said, I'm going to go directly down to Lusaka and find out for myself more about the church.

It's got to be there somewhere. And so, with $25, that's all he had, he started this 500-mile trip. He got somebody for $8 to take him all the way down to Lusaka, and all he had was a cell phone number of a pastor. He sat in a bus station and called all day long, trying to reach that pastor, hoping that the pastor might come out there to meet him at the bus station.

No answer. But he was sitting next to someone, who struck up a conversation, and this person next to him noticed that he was reading a booklet about salvation that looked very, very familiar to him. And so, the two of them started talking about their lives. Joseph told this man about the fact that they were studying, that he came down to see the pastor, he wanted to find out more about the church.

The person who he sat next to was one of the deacons of the United Church of God. Joseph Littabah, or Jonathan Littabah, I should say. And so, Jonathan then just told him where the church was. It was still three more days until the church. But Jonathan told him, where the church met Lusaka, he said, why don't you go there? Because Jonathan actually wasn't from there. He was from about 200 miles away from there to the northeast.

Well, Joseph went to the place where services were held. But where services were held was an army barracks. And our deacon there, who was a retired major in the army, and he's one of the elders there now, arranged for services to be there. But you have to be a local, you have to be cleared in order to enter the barracks premises.

Well, Joseph just walks into the premises and got arrested as he walked in. He said, well, I'm here for United Church of God services. He said, we know nothing about this. And finally, after talking to him, they let him go. But he did not go to services after all these years. But Jonathan Lataba had told our elder about the fact that this man was looking for him, and the elder called Jonathan. This was Saturday night. On Sunday, they met, and they spent all day talking, answering questions, and just going through just all the things of the churches, the history of the church, what's going on, and so forth.

And Jonathan, or Joseph, was so excited. They gave him money to go back 500 miles to the northwest. And he said, he went back triumphant. He went back to Mufumbu. And when he got to Mufumbu, he told everybody, I have found the church! And he said the reaction was like Zambia winning the World's Cup. He said, everybody cheered. We have found the church.

We have found the church. It was just wonderful to see this. I tear up every time I tell this story just about his dedication. Well, then, still wasn't baptized. He then came to the Feast of Tabernacles in 2010. And that's where Bev and I first met him. We were in Zambia for the feast that year. And met him, and Bev just got a little bit of the story. That's the first time that we even heard any of this story. And a number of people were baptized.

I really wasn't in the loop of the local church management, but I was baptized to other women because I was the honorary baptizer, so to speak. They were already counseled by the local pastors. But they were not. I'm not sure why or anything. But something got mixed up, and they were not baptized. So they went all the way back. They were told to study more.

Well, they went back. And then, finally, the division took place. The separation in January, just a few months later. And they were contacted now by the pastor, Wilson and Coma, who was in the United Church of God. And they came down to Lusaka, and Bev and I were there. And at the hotel, we baptized probably eight or nine people or so. And among them, two of these people, Joseph Capitula and one of the brothers, Simeon. So that was really, really wonderful. Bev walked up to him and said, How long did you wait to be baptized?

He said, 25 years. And he was so matter of fact about it. I thought to myself, you know, we want things instantly. We want things right away. We want, through the Internet, we want through Google, okay Google, we want answers right now. Here are people that waited 25 years. They had all kinds of things changed from underneath them.

Doctrines, churches, personnel, and everything. And yet they stuck to the Word of God. To what was true and what God had placed in their heart. It was just truly an amazing story. And that's where Larry Darden went. But to get the whole story, to get it fully accurate, or not fully accurate, but fully complete, I should say. Go to my website, cubic.org, and it's on the left-hand column that shows these three gentlemen from Mufumbwe, Zambia. It's an amazing story of faithfulness.

I get so excited about so many things that we are doing in the church right now. I just feel like we are at an amazing period in our history on the cusp of being able to do things that will really shake the world. I'm not talking through my hat. I truly believe that in the period of peace that we're in, and with the blessings that God has given to us, and the Gideon's army that we have, and the message that God has given to us, we're not ashamed of what we believe.

We're not doubting what we believe. We know what we believe. We won't be shaken from what we are believing. We have been tried, we've been tested, we've been pushed, and yet we have stayed faithful. I'm thankful to look at a group of people who has been faithful to this, to the truth of God. I just have a question for you right now that's asked in 1 Corinthians 3 and 16. 1 Corinthians 3 and 16.

Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? I ask that same question that the Apostle Paul did to the church in Corinth. Do you know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? What does that mean? He says in verse 17, the next verse, if anyone defiles the temple of God, it's not talked about outsiders in particular, it talks about anybody who defiles the temple of God, including himself, God will destroy him.

For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. We are God's temple. The metaphor and the analogy of temple is used quite generously in the New Testament. But also, very, very graphically, and very, very practically in the Old Testament. Here's another New Testament reference. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 and verse 4. 1 Peter 2 and verse 4. Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now, the first instance in 1 Corinthians, we are the temple of God. We are individual temples, so to speak, of God. Here, the analogy is that we are part of a greater temple.

Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture in Isaiah 28, 16. Behold, I lay in Zion a cheap corner stone, elect, precious. And he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame.

So, there is a broader temple, a bigger temple, a more general temple, which includes Jesus Christ as the chief corner stone, and we, as living stones, may be part of that greater temple. Here is yet another reference in Ephesians 2 and verse 19. Ephesians 2 and verse 19.

Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, of God's house. Okay, this house is described now as having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. We're a house.

We're the household of God. We're family, in whom the whole building being joined together grows into the Holy Temple in the Lord. This isn't just nice language to describe some wonderful poetic thought. It has far more than that. It talks about an analogy of what a temple itself really is, how a temple works, and how a temple is being built.

Because that building process, the construction process, actually is where we're at in this temple of God and building that temple. In the book of Revelation, here we have yet a third New Testament writer commenting about the temple. Revelation 3 and verse 12. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name.

So that we're going to be made to be a part, a support structure of the temple of God. Do you want to be a pillar? Do you want to be part of that temple?

What does it take to be a part of that temple of God? We're going to talk today about the building and the maintenance of that temple, primarily about the building process. Because we are a working process, and that process is described and what is actually built in a very beautiful way that's analogous to the tabernacle and the temples that have been built. The first temple was the tabernacle, the big tent in the wilderness.

It was a portable temple that moved from place to place, with the Israelites moved in the desert. And in Exodus 25, this is shortly after the commandments are given to God, there are instructions that run through six chapters about what to do in the building of the temple. There's a lot of detail that goes on. That could possibly read it to you, and probably not even finish before finishing time. But the Lord God spoke in Exodus 25, and this is where it begins, He said, speak to the children of Israel, and say, bring me an offering for everyone who gives it willingly with his heart, you shall take my offering.

He said, we want to build something here. We're starting a capital campaign. This is one of the first recorded capital campaigns, the building of the tabernacle of God. And he said, the first thing I want you to do is to do it willingly. I want you to do this project because you really want to. I believe in new NIV, the translation is, how your heart prompts you. In other words, we don't want to take it from you, we want you to give it, because you want to give it. Verse 3, and this is the offering which you shall take from them, gold, silver and bronze.

I mean, they weren't asking for, you know, extra newspapers, you know, they weren't asking for cheap things. They said, we need gold, we need bronze, we need silver. Also, we want blue and purple and scarlet yarn, fine linen thread and goat's hair. These are things that they probably had had to take with them out of Egypt.

And they spoiled the Egyptians, a lot of it went for the temple, believe me. They took these things with them. Blue and purple, scarlet yarn, it went on and on here. It goes on for a chapter after chapter after chapter, and it describes the mercy seat, how it was to look. It gives dimensions, it gives also the process by how various things were to be done in the construction and in the building of this tabernacle building.

We may read these chapters very quickly, and I don't see a problem that, you know, we probably just don't spend as much time here as we would on Romans chapter 8. But, nonetheless, they are recorded for all history as part of the building of the temple. Exodus chapter 30 and verse 34, the Lord said to Moses, take sweet spices.

Take these other elements in pure frankincense with these spices. There shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these incense a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure and holy. It's pretty specific about what God wanted them to do and how He wanted them to do it.

You know, a blueprint and seeing something that we want to build. A temple, a building, a highway interchange, whatever. We see the artist's tradition of how it's going to look or what we might imagine it to look looks great. But a blueprint is worthless without a listing of specifications of how things are to be done. Right now, just a few miles from where Bev and I live, they're building a huge interchange on the I-275 outside of Cincinnati. And the work is right now in the middle of the process. I mean, they're building tunnels, they're building overpasses, they're dropping beams. They're changing lanes almost every several weeks. Lanes change. We have to be very careful. How in the world they figured all that out? I'm sure they didn't just come to work one day and say, hey, let's just change this lane. How about putting a tunnel in here? How about, you know, it was all prethought that on this day, after we get this done, we're going to change this lane here, we're going to move traffic here. It was all done. And we were just saying, in marvel to ourselves, how in the world can they figure this whole thing out? These people look like they know what they're doing. And they, on our tour, it's a multi-million dollar project in building this interchange. But one thing we found about the temple, the specifications of the temple, it wasn't just, hey, let's go put up a big, big top. It had a list of very, very specific instructions of what the contents were to be, the quality of them, and how they were to be given, and how the capital campaign was to be run. It was to be done with willingness. And then the craftsmen were to take the very best material and to build the temple.

The temple that was built in the days of Solomon was the permanent temple. It had some very interesting features to it, in the building of it in particular.

Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 are chapters about the construction of the temple that Solomon built. First of all, the temple was built in a time of peace. Originally, David had wanted to build a temple. David was a person that was very impetuous, had a lot of things going on, a lot of conquering, a lot of killing that took place, a lot of things that he did right, and a lot of things he did wrong. And God said, David, you're not the person to build my temple.

You've had just too much blood in your time. There's just been too much unrest. Whether it's your fault or not, we want to build it in a different environment. We want an environment of peace. It will be built by your son, Solomon, whose name itself means peace. We will build the temple in his time. 1 Kings 5. I'd like to take a look at a few of the passages here. 1 Kings 5. Verse 1.

Now, Hiram, king of Tyre, was king to the north, where Lebanon is today, and he was a good friend of David's. They were very, very good friends. 2 Kings 6. Sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David. 3 Then Solomon said to Hiram, saying, You know how my father David, verse 3, could not build a house for the name of the Lord, his God, because of the wars which were fought against him in every sight, until the Lord put his foes under the soles of his feet. 4 But now, verse 4, the Lord my God has given me rest on every sight, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence. 5 And behold, I propose to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to my father David, your son, who will sit on your throne in your place, he shall build a house for my name. This temple had to be built in a time of peace. You know, if our church is going to do anything, it's going to have to be in a time of peace. We are in a time of peace right now. I cherish every moment, every day of peace in the church, because it's in this environment that we can build. It's in this environment that we can go forward. It's in this environment we won't be distracted. But we will be focused on what it is that we are to build. I truly believe that we have entered an era of that building process. Verse 6, Hiram, who now is involved as a subcontractor, and probably looked upon Solomon not only as the son of his good friend David, but also he got a good business deal. He got a chance here to supply a lot of timber and perhaps other things to the construction process. Now therefore command that they cut down cedars, verse 6, for me from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants. I will pay your wages for your servants according to whatever you say. For you know there's nothing among us who has skill to cut timbers like the Sidonians. The capital of Sidon was tired. That's our craft. That's what we do good in here. So it was when Hiram heard the words of Solomon that he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day. I have a contract. For he has given David a wise son with this great people.

Verse 13, Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel, and the labor force was 30,000 men. This is the main crew, but that's not all. Just wait. There's more. He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They were one month in Lebanon, two months at home. Then, in verse 15, Solomon had 70,000 who carried burdens, that's on top of the 30, that's 100,000, and 80,000 who quarried stone in the mountains. That's 180,000 people of that time that were directly working on the temple that was to be built in Jerusalem. A highlight representing the presence of God in that nation. Is there not had been one before? Not since the tabernacle.

The king commanded, verse 17, them to quarry large stones, costly stones, and hewn stones to lay the foundation of the temple.

There were 3,300 foremen on this jump. In verse 6, the lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, the third gives the dimensions here. But interesting to hear about this was, for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple so that support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the temple. It was a tongue-in-groove construction where everything was pieced together. There were no nails, no fasteners, it was tongue-in-groove construction. And this was not the usual construction site because here's what actually went on in the building of this temple. Verse 7, the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. So everything on site, the final assembly point, with the tongue-in-groove construction, with the way the wood beams were placed, with the way the stones were brought in, everything was done silently. Out of reverence for God, there was no noise to be heard on the temple. That was part of the construction process, part of the requirement for the building of that temple. The work was done without a lot of fanfare, just like it should be with us. You know, when we are building the temple, what are we building? What are we building? We're building long-standing habits, processes, relationships with God. And they aren't done through talking. They're not done through a lot of noise. And there are people that you know that just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. When a crisis comes along, they're gone, gone, gone. But there are people that make one decision at a time. They have their life is constructed of one prayer at a time, one good choice after another, very, very quiet. They may be the wallflowers in the church, but they're the people who are developing character. They're the ones who are silently building the temple without a lot of fanfare and noise. But building it with one prayer upon another and one good choice after another. That's the way their lives are built. I marvel when we have a crisis as to who flies off and who stays on. The ones who stay on are people who have thought deeply and pondered the things of God and have developed a faithfulness and a resilience that can't amount to this quiet building of the temple. What would it be like that quiet insurance company? What was it called? Northwestern Insurance? The quiet company. Not a lot of noise.

Some may have a lot of noise, but that is not building the temple. In verse 13 of 1 Kings 6, God says, I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will not forsake my people Israel.

The temple was to represent the presence of God in the nation of Israel, Him living in us. Is God living in us in the church? The temple itself was like God's house. It had a reception room for the court of Israel. It had a kitchen where the sacrifices were offered in the dining room. And God had His private place in the Holy of Holies. It was built like a house. It had representations of a house. It was where He lived. And the people knew that when they entered into the temple, that is where God's residence was. They knew the high priest went back there once a year to sprinkle a mercy seat with blood. There was a private meeting with God. But the temple was a representation of where God lived. The analogy to us is that we are building a temple, but it's really involving God living His life in us. We're to become like Him. We're to learn His methods. We're to understand what the specifications of His way of life are and what He sets out for us. And we're to do it quietly. Are we building this kind of temple? Here's more. 1 Kings 6, verse 18. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar and there was no stone to be seen. Now, there were stones that were brought out of the quarries, and they were placed, pillars were made. But, you know, those supports, as necessary as they are, are not particularly beautiful. Everything was covered with cedar wood, with all these other items that are spoken of here, with gold. And the beauty of the temple was shown by the ornamental aspect of what was covering the stones. Now, in the building of the temple, our personal temple, we have to have strong support and a strong foundation. It's important that we know what's right and what's wrong, and be able to stand up to what's right and wrong, and do what's right and what's wrong. What's right and not what's wrong. That's very, very important. But is our character also wrapped around with mercy, kindness, and beauty? Is there a beauty about us as well? Of things that reflect God's love, mercy, judgment? Kindness are all these aspects of character and part of the construction of the temple of God. Again, the temple was solid building. It was stones that were quarried by 80,000 people who were chipping away in the mountains. And they were put together and pieced together exactly, correctly, in Jerusalem, on the temple mount. But they were all covered by ornamental wood and precious stones and gold. The temple was really, really wonderful.

We're all called upon to be private contractors in the building of a temple. You know, when I talk to people about baptism, I don't counsel too many people for baptism. In fact, not many at all now. But one thing that I've made a special point of doing when I talk to people, and different ministers maybe focus on different things, but this is one that I particularly focused on, was the building of a tower in Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, people came to Jesus, whom they had found to be a very, very powerful, charismatic, interesting, and motivational speaker. And some wanted to become part of this movement. Part of being, hey, I want to be a part of this movement. And Christ said, you know something? You need to think about what you're getting into. And he said, you've got to put me first, and you've got to count the cost of what it is to be a Christian.

In Luke 14, verse 28, Christ said to people that said, hey, what can I do, or what will it take to be one of your followers?

And he says, for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he have enough to finish it?

Now, are you thinking about your life, are you thinking about your being a Christian as a construction process that has a certain chronology to it, and a certain budget to it, and a certain desire to get to the end of it? We called upon to be independent contractors. He says, do you have enough to finish it? Unless, he says, if you don't, you'll start something, not finish it. All the people that will walk by, seeing this half-finished house, are going to markets, saying this man began to build, but was not able to finish. Do you have in your mind where you're going? We pretty much know that we're going to have an end. We're going to die, all of us. That's our end. Between now, whatever age you are, end at end, do you have a plan? Do you have a certain sense of, do I have enough to finish whatever it will take? Now, looking backwards, believe me, I take a look at various things that have taken place. I'm thankful to God that he brought me through a lot of things, and saved me from all types of things that could have been very harmful to me. Actually, it makes me more wary about now how to anticipate things that may come ahead of us before the return of Jesus Christ, or the time when we die, and see him again in the resurrection. But do we consider the cost? Have we counted the cost? And you know, the cost is this. It's very simple. It's your life. That's the cost. It's not two days a week. It's not Sabbath-keeping only. It's not just doing good things, good works, you've got to be sloppy about other things. It's your whole life. And so when I talk to people about becoming baptized, and go to the county of the cost, I say, are you ready to make this commitment? Are you ready to give your life? This is not a hobby. This is not a pastime. It's not a place to try out. Let's see how it goes. Are you ready to make a commitment for the rest of your life?

You know, these people in Zambia waited 25 years. They had made a commitment, and God brought them through 25 years of waiting, waiting, waiting. But they had made a commitment. To me, that's an amazing story about people that stuck with it. And then my wife and we spent about two hours with them when we were there last April in Mufumbu'i to get their story straight. I really wanted to get their story written down exactly correctly, and I wrote it up and put it on the story on my website. And my wife said, what word would describe your waiting this 25 years in your local language, in Kekunde? They said, ukakachira. That was persistence. They knew that they were persistent. They were going to stay with it. They were going to stay with it. They were going to find the church. They were going to stay with the church. Nothing was going to move them. Change of personnel, people doing crazy things, you know, whatever. They're not going to be moved personally. You know, we have to make that kind of commitment as well. When I take a look at when I was baptized, I did make a commitment. Except that I didn't realize all the things I'd have to go through in the future. But I wonder how many people read they make a commitment when the first hot sun came up and they shriveled up. Or when their lives became overgrown with the cares of this life. I hope that we are growing on good soil, mixing metaphors here. But I hope that we are building because we have a commitment and we're going to finish the job. We have a vision of the building that we want to see. We have the artist's conception of the temple of God. That's us. But now we're going through all the process of building it.

Have you considered the cost? Are you willing? Have you decided that this is going to be so important that you're going to adjust your time to put God first? To put the priorities straight? Are you going to say, I just don't have time? I just don't have time to do all these things? Well, then it's like trying to build a huge house, but you're only giving 20 minutes a day or 20 minutes a week on it. You're not going to finish it. It will fall down before you even finish it. How much are we committed to the construction project? There are several stages of construction in the temple that were of interest. It took four years. It took 11 years total to build a temple, but four years we're in the building of the foundation alone. 1 Kings 6, verse 37. In the fourth year, these are interesting chapters. I used them as a study guide this coming week. 1 Kings 6, verse 5, actually, verse 8, which is a dedication prayer of Solomon for that temple. In the fourth year, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in the month of Ziv. In the eleventh year, in the month of Bull, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details. According to all its plans, all the specks were read, everything was done, so he was seven years in the building of it. It took four out of the eleven years just to lay the foundation, make sure it was rock solid. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7, verse 24, talking about laying a foundation in our lives. What kind of a foundation do you have? Is it a rock solid foundation that you can build anything on it? It is so solid that when something heavy puts on it, it won't crack it. It won't cause it to shift. Or when rushing waters come at it, it won't wash it away. Have you considered your foundation how strong it is? Christ, one of his most famous discourses, sermons, was a sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. He concludes it with these words, Matthew 7, verse 24. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, referring to what he said in 5 and 6 and 7, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, on a strong foundation.

That's a person, that strong foundation, represented by the fact, by the action of whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them. Not a person who, hey, that was a great message, that was a great article, that was a great Beyond Today television program. And they merrily go on their way, making no changes, not really doing anything that much of what was said. The rain descended, the floods came, which has done in our lifetime. The winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Nothing was going to knock it down. Now everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them, he will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain descended, floods came, the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. I hope that our personal temple is built on a very, very powerful, strong, I should say, foundation. Another building who has tremendous foundations is the Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid, you know, I just had these huge trenches of water all around it. And that was just to be the level. It had to be absolutely, perfectly level. The foundation was built. If the footings are unlevel, if the footings of your foundations are not level, anything that's built on them is going to not be right. The block layers, framers, sheetrockers, finishers will not be able to do their jobs right. My wife used to have, I used to have a drape-making business. When I married her, she was making drapes.

And I remember my first months of marriage were hanging drapes.

She was very, very careful about how she started the drape. She says, if I got it wrong and tried to compensate for it, it would never work. The best thing is just to rip it apart and start all over again until I had everything straight. Unless the foundation in the construction of the drapes is perfect and solid, and the foundation is right. It just will be too hard to add on, it won't be right, and it just will not be good at all. So that's important, is to have our foundation right, because everything that's built on that foundation will have to be on a solid foundation.

We have to practice faith in our building. Not everything is clear about how things ought to be done. But they are based upon what we already know, and on the solid teachings of what God's principles and truths show. Mostly dealing with how we behave towards God and towards our fellow man. Not upon the vagaries of some prophecy or speculation or some things that we think some people's faith is built upon very, very vague things. I hope that our faith is built upon the solid things that God promises to us. I built one house, and only one house, and I didn't really build it. I was working with a deacon on it back when I lived in southern Illinois. It had a very peculiar cathedral ceiling that was very high-pitched, pitch 12. We honestly didn't know how we were going to do it. We sat there and joked about how in the world are we going to get that one up there, and how are we going to work on this? We looked at it, and we looked at it. We didn't want to give up, obviously, because that was the plan. There really were no instructions on putting up that high a thing with the equipment that we had, but we figured it out. We knew that we were going to make it work, and we finally improvised and really made it work, because we really believed that the plan was good. Houses like this had been built, this type of construction was used, and we put it together. Also, what I've already mentioned, but I'd like to mention again, is temple and construction not only has to have form and function, it must have beauty. It must have beauty. Matthew 23, 23 is a scripture that supports this. As I mentioned, the temple was covered all with beautiful cedar wood and ornaments and precious gems. Here's a condemnation Christ had towards the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 23. You pay tithe of mint and anise and come and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. You've got to be balanced. For the house to look beautiful, it just cannot be just a solid piece of monolith representing strength. That's not beautiful. That's not appealing. I don't want to live there. You want it to look beautiful, have form, have beauty to it. However, you can't have beauty without strength. You can't just be a beautiful, easy-going person and just loving everyone, but being very sloppy about what the law is about. About the boundaries that are set by the commandments of God, compromising them, but being beautiful. That won't last. That'll collapse. The temple that we are building has to have strength and beauty. So, what's your temple like? What's the temple that God dwells in you? Does it have strength of the values that you espouse, believe and practice? And does it have beauty? When people come to you, when people innervate with you, they sense kindness. They sense love. They sense a person who understands understanding. And yet, a person who does not compromise values relating to the commandments of God. Oh, one more thing about the construction of a temple. It's a critical time for every trade to do its job. And not everything can be done together. You can't just have the people who build the basement and lay the footers and have the sheetrockers on the job at the same time. Everything has to have a different time in which it's done. There's a time when the foundation is laid. And hopefully, this group here has gone through a lot of foundation-laying process. There's a time of framing when you frame up the walls.

There's a time to when the plumbing and electricity is put in. When the sheetrock goes on. When the paint and stain, when the carpeting is put in. All that has to be done in a certain order. There's trouble when too many things are done at the same time.

We are laborers together with God building this temple. And there are different things that are done as part of a process of building this temple. I take a look at my life as something which has been a work in progress. There was a period of time when a foundation was being laid. Very basic things. When I was a child, I thought as a child. As I was growing up, I thought as more of a group. Hopefully, now we are coming to maturity and seeing things in that way. I look upon my career in the ministry as a time when I had different people with whom I interacted with. My very first boss is a person that taught me a lot about patience. He could sit with a widow for one or two hours when I'm an impetuous person. Yeah, okay, okay, okay, let's move on. And he taught me patience, he really did. I still think to this day about how much it meant for him to sit with and to be with someone and to really listen to them and hear them out. That was important. The next person I had, and I only worked with him for a little over a year, I was whisked away to somebody else who was a real work demon, so to speak. Boy, he worked hard. He was fastidious about all the things that had to be accomplished and was very exacting. He had me write letters. He was hard on me. You know, I really learned a lot from him about seeing a job to the end, taking responsibility for a job that was given to me and doing so. I look upon that as a very important period of time in my development. My third boss was actually the father of Joel Thomas here, who taught me organization, who taught me how to delegate. He was a manager, a district superintendent over a number of ministers, probably more than a dozen ministers in his district. But I remember coming to his basement and Monday morning jobs that we had, all the ministers from the area came, and he had all the things all lined out on the big table, and he gave these visits to this person to make those visits to that person. He had visits categorized by people who were sick, people who needed encouragement, people who were elderly, and he was so organized. To this day, I used some of his techniques. In fact, a very funny thing, I used this funny scrolling pad, which you can't even buy anymore, that I write things down on, and I could just move things up the road. I bought, like, ten years worth of supply of paper rolls for it, because they don't even exist anymore. But I learned that from Keith Thomas. I still have two of them, one at home and one at work at the home office. Because when I write down my telephone calls or a business that comes up through the day, it's all in chronological order. I can see through the day where it all went. Then I could put it into other formats. But he taught me those things.

I have learned other things from other people that developed my character. What things have you learned in life? You may have had a fantastic, friendly minister that taught certain things. Then you might have had maybe more of a sourpuss minister that really wasn't that way. But he may have had other qualities. He was a good researcher. He had depths in his messages. He had things that were important for you to learn. We used to trade ministers out more and more, partially for that reason, to give exposure to a congregation of different ministerial styles. We don't do that as much anymore. But that was one that we did when ministers, for the most part, were very young, very young, like pastors in their mid-20s. And we moved them around far more than we do right now. We don't have any pastors in their 20s. Everybody's old. But there are different times in our lives where we have to have different things being done in the temple of God. And it's not a wise thing to compare, oh, he was good, he was bad. No, just say, I learned this from this person, I learned that from that person. That's an important part of the growth process or the building process of the temple of God. Another reference to the Old Testament, as I'm coming to a conclusion here, is in Psalm 15. Psalm 15 is considered the second most popular psalm among the Jews. The first one, both were Christians and Jews, is the 23rd Psalm. But the 15th, Psalm 15, is oftentimes dubbed by the Jews as God's gentlemen. And it answers the question in the first verse. Psalm 15. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who can live in your house? Who's going to be a family member? Who may dwell in your holy hill? Who's going to be in your kingdom? He talks about the rest of the verses. It's one of the shortest psalms of all about the character of a perfect spiritual gentleman. It's actually also called God's gentlemen. God's gentlemen, Psalm 15. And then it goes here, I'm not going to go through the psalm word for word, but a people who walks uprightly, who works righteousness, who speaks truth, who doesn't backbite nor does evil to his neighbor, whose eyes a vile person is despised. You know, all these aspects of character are brought out in a person who's going to dwell in God's house.

Are we going to be dwelling in God's house?

I'd like to conclude with 1 Kings chapter 8. I would love to read the whole chapter, but it would take longer. But it's a very beautiful chapter because Solomon, it's the words of Solomon, and it's his dedication, prayer for the temple. And it's interesting, this psalm, 1 Kings 8 has really stuck with me, because we bought a new church building in Terre Haute, Indiana. We bought a building that we got a very good price from. It was a former tanning salon, and we turned it into a church building.

Seats about maximum of 70 people, but it's a really nice brick building. We had a dedication ceremony. And I was telling Robin Weber about this, and he said, You know something, Vic? He says, Why don't you read the 8th chapter of 1 Kings at this dedication ceremony? He said, That was Solomon's prayer and his dedication for the temple of God. We did that. Actually, we did that. We read much of 1 Kings 8. We actually made a little video. I'm going to post it on YouTube after this week. It was too long back when I had made it. And we scrolled the words of 1 Kings 8. But in this psalm, or in this prayer, I should say, of Solomon in the dedication of the temple, he speaks about what the temple means. It's about the dwelling of God in our lives. And it's a commitment to do righteousness in good and keep God's laws. And to be beautiful, to be gorgeous, to be a stunning representation of God's grace. And love for mankind. I'll just read the latter part, actually, which is just past the prayer. But it's just what he kind of concludes with. And again, in your weekly Bible study, read the whole chapter 8, because it is beautiful. And if you think of it in analogous terms to our building the temple, it's even more beautiful. 1 Kings 8, verse 54. And so it was when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose before the altar of the Lord from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. He stood up and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. You know, I just want to believe that God is giving us rest and peace and blessings.

There, verse, the latter part of the verse, There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us nor forsake us. That he may incline our hearts to himself to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day may require. These words are so beautiful relating to day-to-day life as us being pillars in the temple of God, as our responsibility in the temple of God, the dwelling of God in our lives and in our church, which I truly believe God is in our church. That all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, there is no other. This is the preaching of the gospel. We are wanting to represent us as the temple of God that was one of the wonders of the world, literally. The temple of Solomon was one of the wonders of the world. The queen of Sheba came up to see Solomon, to see what he had built. It was a spectacle to all the nations. It was a high time in the history of Israel when they were fulfilling their mission and commission to the world, albeit brief and albeit incomplete. We should be the temple of God that represents that value, that power, and that message to the world. Let your heart, verse 61, therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in the statutes and keep his commandments as this day. And the king in all Israel was him offered sacrifices before the Lord. A very beautiful story about the temple. You are the temple of God. The Apostle Paul makes no equivalence, the dame say that equivocably. You are the temple of God. We are the work of his hands. We have a part and process in the building of that temple. Let's finish that job, which is our mission in life.