Who Will Build a House for God

Good morning, everybody! Good to be back here. We came for our annual visit to see if our youngest son is still living and eating, and he and his wife are actually looking well, so it's always good to see them. A real reason for the trip is to report back to Mrs. Marjorie Ashley, how her two kids here on the front are doing. She's a precious lady there in the Gadsden, Alabama church. She puts out the monthly bulletin calendar and all kinds of interesting things she finds and puts into those bulletins, so I was reading that as she sent it to me electronically last night.

Good to be here. Mr. Ashley did mention that with our work in the Philippines, if I wanted to go ahead and take a little time and give you an update, you may not hear updates from the Philippines very often, but you have 600 brethren over there, and they are precious people. Well, in January, I just returned from my 8th trip there, and I remember a few years ago, my wife didn't even know it, but through my adult life, I've had this interest in going and visiting the Philippines because my dad was there in 1945. He was given an all-expenses paid trip by the United States Army, if you know what was taking place there in 1945, so he caught the last few months.

I hadn't even told Denise that once in a while in prayer, I'd say, You know, Father, I'd like to see where my dad was during the war, and so if an opportunity ever comes along, well, be careful what you pray. But, you know, it really has been a blessing. We first went there for the feast in 2011. Earl and Carol Romer. Carol was living still then. She died a few months later, but they told us in advance, the people will steal your heart. And wow were they right! They really have a way of taking your heart. We'll have three feast sites this fall.

There are about 150. I think it was 153, somewhere around that, up in the north site. The big island up north is Luzon. So up in the mountains, up above Manila, at an elevation of 5,000, so it's the cool site. It's the place to go, although you may get rained on at that season of the year. And then in the central islands, called the Visayas, on the island of Leyte, which is actually where my father was once upon a time. But there's a feast site there. It's into its third year now, and we had about 150 there. And then down south, the big island of the south in Mindanao, there are...we have had over 300 there at the feast site.

Wonderful people. A lot of things have taken place the last two or three years. We've moved the office. It was in an outlying area. It's moved up into the Manila area, which is kind of the center. I mean, you think of doing business with any country of the world, and you think of where is the business center. And the business center is in the Makati area of Manila. So we have the office up there now. It's downsized dramatically. There are basically two full-time people, and then we have a treasurer there.

And they are doing a phenomenal amount of work. The Beyond Today magazine is printed right there in Manila by an outside printer. They're doing a very fine job, and we're saving a lot of money for the work. The subsidy from the home office has gone down the last two years, and we're still having a nice reserve buildup. So we may be able to cut that. Once upon a time, you go back years ago, some of you might remember, years back in the church, we had a lot of people, some 5,000 members in the Philippines, and they were completely, totally self-sufficient.

And we'd love to see that happen again, but I think we're quite a ways away from that. But at any rate, Denise and I already have our plane tickets. We watch the price of plane tickets, and we found them for several hundred dollars cheaper than we've ever gotten them before. So we're planning to go down to the south side and spend the whole feast there. So if you ever want to go someplace exotic and meet some of the most wonderful people on Earth, let us know.

We'll give you some more information. We'd love to have you. I'll go on to the sermon now. I have my wristwatch here. It's for no particular purpose, but it was irritating my wrist. So I was scrolling through an interesting article I ran across online about three weeks ago, and it had to do with some of the building projects on the Panama Canal.

Of course, we know the Panama Canal has been around here longer than we've been alive. It opened in 1914. But the problem is a lot of the larger ships cannot pass through there. So they've had a project for some time where they're building larger locks, and it's getting to the point where they're going to be opening those up.

It was just fascinating. Think back to the building of the Panama Canal. The French started it in 1881. The French actually started the project, but because of so much loss of life to disease from the tropical diseases there, they gave up on the construction project, and it lay dormant for some time. And then the Americans, the days of Theodore Roosevelt as president, the Americans went in beginning in 1904, and a decade later, August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal opened.

What a marvelous construction feat that was. But in looking back at it, I can't tell you the name of one person that did one job on that fantastic construction project. Theodore Roosevelt is the one name that I think of, because he was the one pushing for it, but I know he wasn't the engineer, and he didn't shovel any concrete. There are other great building projects that humans have constructed. The Eiffel Tower. You've at least seen pictures of that.

Maybe you've been able to visit it and go up the elevator. But the Eiffel Tower was opened up in 1889. It was on the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.

And there again, marvelous and beautiful of a tower that that is. I can't tell you one name of the average worker. All I know is old Alexander Gustav Eiffel, because his name's placed on it. But he was the brains behind it, the architect-engineer. The same is true of the Brooklyn Bridge back in the 1920s into the 1930s, I think 1931, as I remember it opened up, and the Rebling family were behind it. But there were tens of thousands of real people who worked on that project. But I don't remember their names. I've never known their names. Same is true of the Transcontinental Railroad or the the tunnel, the English Channel Tunnel, that opened up quite a few years ago now. Tremendous building construction projects that human beings have had. I want to ask you a question here this morning in the sermon. Simply this, who will build a house for God? Who will build a house for God? Now, as we begin thinking about a place for God to live, we realize in the first, oh, two millennia or more, we have stories in the Bible where God would appear. God walked with Adam. God walked with Enoch. The God of the Old Testament with two angels would walk up to the tent where Abraham was in the plains of Mamre. We have places where God would appear. God would speak to some of his servants. But it wasn't until the time of Moses, as Israel came out of Egypt, and then at a certain point God began revealing to Moses, here is a blueprint of a tabernacle tent that I want you to build for me, and that's where I will live.

And yet, again, thinking back to that, you think of names like Moses and, of course, his brother Aaron. There were a couple of craftsmen mentioned. Aholiyab, Bezalil, a craftsman whom God magnified their talents so that they could form and fashion everything that was going to go into the tabernacle and the worship of God. And when it was completed, God moved in. There would be this, the Hebrew word is shekanah, this divine physical manifestation that you knew God was there. It would hover over the holy place, the pillar of fire, pillar of cloud. And for about 400 years, God lived there, so to speak, at that tabernacle tent as it moved all over creation. Eventually, up into the land of Israel, for quite a few years, it was at Shiloh. You know the story of the Ark of the Covenant. Of course, it was taken, was in the hands of the Philistines, and finally came back, and David brought it up to the city of David. Let's turn to 2 Samuel 7, because this chapter tells us that, the time came when King David was the one who had a dream. He wanted to see his God have a more substantial house to dwell in. He had a dream of building a temple.

2 Samuel 7, beginning in verse 1, Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around. The king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. Then Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, Would you build a house for me to dwell in? I think we'll break from reading there, because this really isn't the focus of the sermon, but what a marvelous temple that led to. God was impressed with David's attitude. God gave approval. We realize God did not allow David to be the one to actually construct it and to lead in the efforts of tens and tens of thousands of construction workers. But God allowed David to lay aside a lot of materials, and he contracted with those in Tyre for some of the cedars. But that was saved for his son Solomon. Solomon was the one. After he became king, he was the one. The process began. You remember the stories. What a thrill! It would have been to have been a part of that greatest building that perhaps this world has ever seen. You had thousands who would have been hewing timber, forming and fashioning it to the precise site or shape to bring to the construction site. You had others quarrying rocks to precise measurements to bring them to the city of Jerusalem. Because, you see, it did say there was to be no noise of any instruments of iron to be heard there in that area. And so tens of thousands would have been involved, plus those who would have worked to feed them, to bring water, provide housing. Tens of thousands of individuals. And then you have that marvelous prayer of Solomon that I love to go back and reread from time to time. That as he prayed, as he finished praying, the very Shekinah, the divine presence of God, filled the temple. And God lived there.

And yet, how long did that temple last? Some 400 years, approximately. And you have, of course, the division of the children of Israel into the divided monarchy. Northern tribes went into captivity. And then the house of Judah likewise went into sin. And the time came when they were punished, and that temple was destroyed. The Jews went off to Babylon, and many came back after the 70 years. And there was once again a great effort to build a house for God to dwell in. We look back at Solomon's temple, and it's called the first temple. But then we have the one that was the Reconstruction Temple. And Zerubbabel, Joshua, so many others. You have the stories told in Ezra and Nehemiah. So many were involved there. And finally, that temple. Of course, there's no record in the Scripture that God ever moved in and lived in that reconstructed temple. But that one lasted around 500 years. And then there was another one, the Temple of Herod. I'm just round figures here I'm giving you today, but somewhere around 20 B.C. Herod's Temple, marvelous temple. It was opened. And God, in that sense, we can say lived there for about 90 years because it came down 70 A.D. It was destroyed. And there hasn't been one since. But I ask the question, who will build a house for God? Let's go to 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. The Apostle Paul writes those at Corinth, and he's telling them that you're building the Temple of God. Now, the other day we kept the Feast of Pentecost, and that's the feast that has so many...well, it has four different names. It's the feast that has so many truths that it pictures, like the early harvest, the gathering end of the first fruits, the establishment of the church, the pouring out of God's Spirit with all of its gifts. But it also pictures the time when the building of the spiritual temple began. And a house for God is going up now. It's just a different type of temple, but it is a place wherein God dwells and will dwell. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9. Now, we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are God's building. He's writing the church saying, you're this building where God's dwelling. According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. And that's a very sobering caution there that I hope we all take note of. Be very, very careful. Remember, they're God's people. It's God's house. It's God's building. Be very careful. Treat them with love and compassion and acceptance. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

Verse 16, do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. We look back at great construction efforts of human beings. We tend to think of just one or two names, or maybe we don't even know a name of those who built great works in the past. We think back to the tabernacle tent, and we think of Moses and some of the others, but most of the names we do not know. We think of Solomon's temple, and we don't know the names. And yet, here we are building the spiritual temple. And we have a book that God has given to us. It's a book. It's a history book. I love the way it's written, because a lot of people complain that history is dull, and it's dry, and it's boring. It never has been to me, but at any rate, I'm different, I'm told. But history in the book of Acts is written and told the way I think history ought to be told. It is by this never-ending unfolding of stories of average, everyday, real people who were out there building the temple of God. And we see what happened through them, what happened in their lives, how they acted, reacted. And I believe we can find lessons that we can draw, because here we are building the same temple of God. It's a process that will go on through this life, and on through the millennium, and on into eternity. But I'd like to look with you at some of these somewhat obscure names that are given in the book of Acts. I'm going to skip over the big names, like Peter. The first 12 chapters largely focus on Peter and the work done through Peter. And then you've got chapters 13 through 28 that focus primarily on Paul, and his ministry, and his travels, and what God did through him. But hidden away here and there, we have a name, or maybe we don't even have a name. And it's an average person who's out there building the temple of God, just like you and I are doing. And we see what happened, and I believe there's something we can glean from each person that we look at. Because all of these individuals were holding up the hands of the others who were doing the work as well. You may remember back in the time of ancient Israel, where it was a time of warfare, and as long as Moses held up his hands, they were victorious. But then he got tired, and his hands were drooping down how Aaron and her came and held up his arms, and the battle was Israel's. Holding up somebody else's arms is an honorable profession. It's a wonderful thing. It's not about us. It's all about God. It's all about working together to build the great temple that God has given to us. So I'd like to look at the book of Acts, and let's meet together, or maybe meet once again, some of these key people who are there, from whom we can learn as our work continues. The first one is in the first chapter, and she is a mother.

We know a certain amount of her in the Gospel accounts. But mothers are special. They remember everything. They keep everything. They see the best in us. They nurture us. They cuddle us. They sing to us. They chastise us, yes.

Once in a while we need that. But they're special people. In Acts 1, we have the story where the church is gathered. Forty days, we're told, have transpired before the ascension back to heaven. He told them to wait, wait for the power from on high. But let's go down to verse 12. Acts 1, verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. When they had entered, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying, Peter, James, John, and Andrew.

All of the lists always mention the two pairs of brothers first. Then Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James.

Now, he's sometimes called Lebius or Thaddeus in other places in the Gospels. But 11 names, because we have not quite yet had the story where Matthias was added to take the office that had once been Judas's chariots. Notice what it says in verse 14. These all continued. We'll come back to that word. It's hard to imagine how they would have felt in those weeks after they had had their lives rocked to the core.

The Christ had been killed. He had been buried. Then they came. The tomb was open. From time to time, he appeared to them, even 500 people at once. But they continued in one accord. Another word we'll come back to. In prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

There is a place in the Gospels where it mentions his brothers. It gives four names. We know a lot more about James and Judas because they came along and were called and used powerfully of God later on. But there were a couple of others, and it mentions his sisters, which would mean at least two, but maybe more. But his mother, Mary, was there.

She is one of those who continued. She is one who was there in one accord, and the word means of one mind. What a remarkable time it was! They forgot about all the petty bickering that sometimes human beings can have, and they were just together, unified, and holding fast, and waiting for the promise from on high. I looked up in Strong's Concordance. You could look up the word for continued, proscartareo.

The definitions that Strong's offers are to adhere to, to be his adherent, to be devoted, to be steadfastly attentive unto, to continue all the time in a place, to persevere and not faint. Then it said, to be in constant readiness for one, to wait on constantly. Mary is one of whom it is said she waited constantly.

She was patiently waiting there. The one accord, again, the word there means in the Greek with one mind. What a remarkable woman Mary had to have been! Because 30-some years later, as God looked down, he specifically chose this wonderful woman to be the one who would bear the Christ child. What a glory! What a joy it will be in the kingdom to be able to sit down and hear some of these stories. You may remember at the end of the story where Jesus was left behind at age 12, and they came back and found him.

He was speaking with the great teachers of the law. At the end of the chapter, it just simply says that his mother kept these things in her heart. That's why I say mothers remember everything. I'd like to hear some of those things. She's got tucked away in her heart, some of those stories from the earlier years of Christ, because we really don't have that much. Mary was there at a number of events during her son's ministry. In fact, she was there at that wedding at Cana, and she just said to her son, they have no wine. From his reaction, I think the way I would have ordered it, because my mother said things to me like that when I was young, and I'd say, Mom, what am I going to do with you?

That's what I get from Christ's reaction as what he said back to his mother. But then you notice he went, and the miracle was performed. John said this was his first miracle, and the wine was better than the wine that had been being served earlier. But she was present from conception to birth to the time when they fled to Egypt and back. All the times they traveled to feasts, she was there all the way through to the time when he went on with the family business as being the carpenter of Nazareth.

She was there all the way until he was betrayed. Yes, she even saw her son there on the cross, as painful as that must have been, when John was told, This is your mother. Essentially, take care of her. Even after his death, she was still around. She was waiting for that power from on high. When Christ was a baby, Joseph and Mary, according to the law, took the child to present him. Remember the older man Simeon, who had waited. He had spent his life waiting for that time when he would see the Savior, the Messiah.

He is the one who told her that a sword will pierce your heart also. Surely, as her son was killed, what greater pain could there have been? I think of Mary quite often. Keep your place here in Acts. We'll be right back. Let's go to Luke.

Luke chapter 1. I think of Mary quite often at times when my phone may ring. This may be surprising to you, but my phone may ring, and I'm given an assignment that I don't want to do.

Something in a seismic, No! I don't want to do that. There are times I have to give myself a sermon that probably doesn't cover it, maybe a series of sermons, that I need to do what is expected of me. There was one time when I was pouting about an assignment I was given, and I'll be very vague with that. But I went back, and something in prayer told me, What was it that Mary said when she was told, You're going to bear the Christ child?

I went back here to Luke 1, and the story you could pick it up in verse 26, but the angel has explained to her, You'll conceive. Verse 31, this child, you'll name Jesus. He'll be the son of the highest. He'll reign over the house of Jacob. She wondered, How can this happen? I have not known a man. How can this take place? But notice, she's told in verse 37, For with God nothing is impossible. And then notice the next verse. Then Mary said, Behold, the maidservant of the Lord, Let it be to me according to your word.

And that's the statement I think of quite often. Whenever deep down within me, I just think, Why do I have to do that? I think of those words. Let it be to me according to your will. Thy will be done. Get up and get on with the work that we're given.

1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15. Notice right at the end of the resurrection chapter, verse 58.

Verse 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain. So when I think back to chapter 1 of Acts, and I see that little phrase there, With the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, I think about a woman who was steadfast. She continued, Come what may, the heat of battle comes and it goes, You turn around, the dust settles, and there's Mary, and she's still at it. She's waiting. And I suppose it's only, that's the last verse that mentions Mary in the Bible. But I suppose that a few days later, the Day of Pentecost comes, and she's there among that group at that time.

Let's go to Acts chapter 3 and introduce ourselves to another one of these early workers in building the temple of God. Before I go to this story, I might just ask you, do you remember the time when you knew that you had to respond to this calling? I do.

I remember being at a feast at Terribanackles, my birthday's in October, so oftentimes my birthday falls during the feast. But it was the feast that I either had turned or was about to turn 16. In Big Sandy, Texas. And it dawned on me, I have to do this. Now, that's been more than 20 years ago now. Quite a bit more than 20 years ago now.

And I remember that. Now, it was a long time before I was going to be ready for baptism. But here in another week and a half or so, I have an anniversary of my baptism. That's been a long time. Forty-some years, I'd have to count it up.

As a lad, I remember when I was about seven, this magazine started coming in the mail. And it was called The Plain Truth. My dad had got to the end of a Reader's Digest article. Sometimes the article would end, you know, they'd have a little quotable quote or a few, maybe something that was funny. Once in a while, there was an advertisement, and dad finished an article. At the bottom, it said, Are you interested in The Plain Truth? All capital letters. Here's a name and an address. And the words leapt off the page. And he wrote, began receiving, and then there was this Bible course that started coming. And then, as I get nine, ten, eleven, I remember so many times going into the breakfast table. Go get something to eat, do chores, get dressed, go to school. Dad and mom would be sitting there at the table, looking tired, looking a little bleary-eyed, but there was an excitement there. Because something had happened. And they would begin telling the four of us kids, Well, here's what we stayed up to one o'clock reading this, and we were studying that. And we cannot believe that we went all of our lives without seeing that in the Scripture, and yet it's been there all along. And they were filled with an excitement that continued through their lives. But they're a part of that great body called the dead in Christ now.

In Acts chapter 3, there is a man we are introduced to a little bit, but we aren't even given his name.

For more than 40 years, he had had those bring him to the area of that one gate called Beautiful, and he would sit there begging for alms. That was his job. He asked people for handouts. It's the only way to support himself. And so in Acts 3, Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. A certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms for those who entered the temple. And you know the story. We don't have to read all of it.

Seeing Peter and John, he was asking for help. And Peter said, verse 4, fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, Look at us. And think about that phrase. We'll come back to it. Look at us. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, Silver and Gold, I do not have, but what I do, I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And it is what happened afterwards.

And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, this is the man who had been lame, so he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Now, the story goes on. You know, it caused a great deal of excitement, a lot of stir. You have the apostles in prison. Lots take place. You get to chapter 4, verse 4. It tells us that many who heard the word believed and the number of men came to be about 5,000. So tremendous, tremendous growth came about. Through this man, God had allowed, God could have healed him when he was 6 months old, or age 23. But it said he was over 40 years old. You think of this man, and I think of the word praise. The time came when God, through his servants Peter and John, said, look on us. There was that distinct moment of a calling.

And when, well, in one sense he would be a type of all of us, who were spiritually, rather physically and spiritually, yes, impaired. We didn't have a relationship with God. And the time came when God, through his servants, said, look here, I have something for you. How did this man react? Walking and leaping and praising God. That's what I get out of this fellow laborer and the temple of God that went before us. Sometimes we let life get away from us.

We forget to be as thankful. Some of us go back. I remember Herbert Armstrong at one time, probably many times, he said that the older he gets, the more he finds his prayers. He thought maybe 90% of his prayers were just simply those of praising God, thanking God for what he had been given.

I think that's a tremendous example to follow. There are places in the Psalms. In fact, we won't even turn back there, but just the last six of them is a little subgrouping of Hallelujah Psalms. It starts out Psalm 146, praise you, the Lord. That's from the Hebrew, Hallelujah. All of those in the last one starts out with Hallelujah, all the way through the last verse of the Psalms. Let everything that draws breath praise you, the Lord. Now, we look at our lives, and we too need to be those who praise God as we go about building our part of the spiritual temple.

God gave us the breath of life as long as there's life. As long as we have time, we can continue to grow, to overcome, to struggle with the human nature we all have. We have so much to be thankful for within our own families, physical families, but you know then there's also the spiritual family. There's that old phrase we've heard that blood's thicker than water, which basically means, like when I was a kid, I had two older brothers and two boy cousins older than them.

It meant that if it comes to going to Knuckle City, they're going to say, you know, that little kid's got some big brothers and cousins. We might want to leave him alone. And it was a nice thing because they knew that if somebody gets into a battle, we're all together, all for one, one for all. But I think it's also even more true to say that spirit's thicker than blood. There is a bond of the Spirit of God that ties us together as a part of the very body of Christ.

There are times when... so many times we're closer to those we share the Spirit of God with than those we share genetics with. And we see that over and over. We have the Church of God that we've been given.

We have Home Congregations. What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to come and dwell together in peace. We have members who live in scattered areas where they might be the only person in the entire country. Once upon a time... oh, it was 2002, a few months after 9-11.

I had an opportunity to go on a trip over into Europe with a dear friend. And we ended up in Czyski Budovice of the Czech Republic. And we were able to go visit the couple. There was one couple there in God's Church. And once upon a time, they used to live in Texas, and we knew them from there, but it was wonderful to renew those bonds. We have God's grace, God's forgiveness to be thankful for. We have a part in God's work. We have a beautiful creation. So much. You live in a beautiful area.

I hope the sun clears and we can see those mountains while we're here, before we head home Monday evening. But at any rate, what a beautiful world you live in here. We have a wonderful country, ridden with lots of problems and sins, yes.

But it still is the greatest country this world has for now. Let's see what the news says tonight, but for now, things are changing. Let's look at Hebrews 13, and then we'll go on to another one of these personalities from the Book of Acts. Hebrews 13, verse 15. Verse 15, therefore by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. In building the temple, let's remember it's all about God. It's not about us. Let us always give the glory to God. Back in the Book of Acts, we are introduced to actually quite a few in Acts 6.

There were some ordinations that took place. There was a certain neglect of some of the Greek-speaking widows, and so it was only right and good as the apostles realized that we were given the primary responsibility to preach the Word. It's not that they were unwilling to serve tables, but Christ had given them their responsibilities. Others were set aside, and the church was brought in, and they were asked for recommendations. Notice Acts 6, verse 5. The saying, please the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit. That's a nice thing to have written about you in the Bible. Sometimes I say, I'm working on my own tombstone. I'm going to need it one of these days, maybe. But it ought to be a nice thing to have written on your tombstone. The name, and then the dates, and then sometimes the old parts of the cemeteries, they had this other writing. That'd be pretty nice to have. And Philip. We don't even need to read the other names, because their names are all we have. We really don't know anything about Parmenas and the other men who were mentioned here. But let's focus first on Stephen. Full of faith. What a remarkable man he truly was, although his life didn't last long. In Acts 6, we should read just a little bit further.

Verse 6, Whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. So here, when others were set aside to take care of some of the physical issues, we have great...it's one of the places, different times in Acts, you'll have a similar statement. The number of the disciples multiplied, and this is one of those places. But a great company of the priests became obedient to the faith. That's fascinating to think about. That those who may have been there all through the ministry of Christ, those who had spent their life like John the Baptist's father, when certain courses, when his course would come, he'd go up for two weeks to work at the temple. Now, verse 8, and Stephen, full of faith and power did great wonders and signs among the people.

Well, then. Then the Word of God spread. Later on in the book, it said that these are about to turn the world upside down. And it's kind of like throwing a...if you have a calm lake, pond, take a rock, throw it out in the middle, and it comes down, and then the ripples go all the way to the sides. And the Word of God began to do that. Now, Stephen's life was not to last long, because certain things happened, and he was called in before the council, the Sanhedrin. And in chapter 7, the high priest asked him, are these things so? And wow, what an answer did he get! He began with Abraham. I'm pretty certain he didn't have a teleprompter. I'm actually pretty certain he didn't have what you and I take for granted. And of course, some of you have those little gadgets that you have, your Bible on that. I have one too, but at any rate, it came from the heart.

There's a book, You Are The Message. Let's see. Should have written down the... See, that was Lee Ayers. But You Are The Message. You Are The Message. If you're a salesman, whatever you're doing, you need to be a living, breathing advertisement for who and what you are and what you're doing. Stephen was that way. From Abraham all the way through, he brought them up to present and said, You took him and you killed the Messiah. And you know the rest of the story. It cost him his life. The remarkable thing is that his death was not in vain. Because as we get to chapter 8, we see that the disciples were scattered. Verse 4, Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the Word.

Well, as far as we'll read on Stephen. Wherever the disciples went, they preached the truth. That led to Paul's conversion, some of the persecution. That led to Peter's trip down to Joppa, where the three men came. And he ended up there at Caesarea with Cornelius. That led to all kinds of things happening. Some of them went up to Antioch, and the church was established up there. And they followed through the book of Acts. But Stephen was a servant. He just simply gave. A lot of times, building the spiritual temple of God takes the form of giving to others who have need. No matter how tiny that need may be, how great that need may be. Signing that card is a service. Going and helping someone move is a service. But that's how we are first introduced to Stephen. He was a servant.

Acts 8, notice the next verse, verse 5. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord he did the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

Now in Acts 1, Jesus, before he ascended, said, Wait here. The power is going to come upon you. You start here at Jerusalem in Judea. You go to Samaria, and you go to the ends of the earth. But for some time, we find that they tend to hover around Jerusalem until persecution forced them to leave. And here we have Stephen's life ending and Philip's work picking up. He was one of those... there's an old saying I've heard. It's something like, some see what is while others see what can be.

And then it ends by saying, may both be compatible. There are those who see what is, and we need all types of people. Those who see the status quo, what is around us, what needs to be taken care of, maintained. But we also need those who have vision. And that's what I get from Stephen.

I'm getting my deacons mixed up here from Philip. Stephen has just been executed, and Philip asks the question, I wonder what will happen if I go down to Samaria to preach Christ. But you know, Samaria was different. The Jews didn't want to have anything to do with them. That's why the Samaritan woman at the well was so astounded when Jesus came and asked her to get him some water. They were peoples from Mesopotamia that had been planted in there after the Israelites had been taken off. And the Jews looked down on them. And yet Jesus had told them, in fact God made it clear from the very beginning, that the fact that we're in the likeness and the image of God involves every last human being. So Philip goes down, he begins preaching. There's tremendous response. He starts baptizing. We still puzzle about that. Here's a deacon who's down there. He must have had a ministerial charge to go down and baptize, but then he didn't lead the prayer and lay hands on them. Headquarters in Jerusalem, here's what's going on. So they send Peter and John down. And when they get there, they realize, well, they've got the Spirit of God. We better lay hands on them and pray for them. And it was a remarkable story. And yet, you could follow Philip on through. Philip ends up at the end of chapter 8. You have the story with the Ethiopian of great authority, who probably went back home and were left to wonder what might have been the impact of that. This story was put here for a reason. We have him ending up in Caesarea down on the Mediterranean, which is where Cornelius was. And we find many years later, many years later, the Apostle Paul, on his last trip toward Jerusalem, he comes there. And where does he stay? He stays at Philip's house with his four daughters, who were prophetesses. But here, Philip had to leave Jerusalem because of this Saul. And now, many years later, as the Apostle Paul, he comes back and he stays with Philip. So these connections in God's church have always been fascinating. But Philip was one of vision, who just simply dreamed, what will happen if I go down there and start preaching Jesus? And we see what happened.

Acts 10. We are introduced to a soldier, a Roman soldier, a centurion, a man who had the oversight and the command of 100 soldiers. Generally, he would be sent out and served for a period of years and then come back maybe to Rome, or maybe he would be sent elsewhere, unless warfare changed the plan somewhere along the line. But in Acts 10, verse 1, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man. I'm writing, I'm getting ideas for my tombstone. Here's some more. A devout man, and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always.

Well, he's praying, and it's revealed to him in a vision. Send some men down to Joppa and find this man Peter. And here again, you know the rest of the story. Meanwhile, Peter's down in Joppa, and he's praying. The vision of the sheet coming down three times from heaven and then three men at the door, and he connects the dots and he goes with them. And the church that basically was Jewish learned that God, that Christ, really meant it when he said, Go to the ends of the earth. And this Roman centurion became a part of the body of Christ. It's interesting that later on we find there's a church in Rome.

And yet Paul writes to that church, but Paul had not been there himself yet. How did that church get there? Did Cornelius' tour of duty end and he goes back? We don't know, but it's interesting to ponder. Cornelius, a man who was diligent, a man who had the deepest fear of God, a man who was a man of prayer. And these are lessons for us as we build the temple of God. Acts 12.

Let's introduce ourselves to a deserter. A young man, a young man, he went with Paul and Barnabas a certain distance, and then he ditched him. He deserted. He went back home. Sometimes you might think, well, write him off. He's no good. And in fact, that was the approach Paul took. But Barnabas took a different approach. Acts 12. Verse 12. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. So John Mark's mother, Mary, was obviously one of the pillars, and they were meeting in her home. Down to verse 24, the Word of God grew and multiplied. One of those places in the book of Acts where it uses that term multiplied. Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, and when they had fulfilled their ministry, they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark. Well, again, I won't read all the story, but they went so far. John went back home. Paul and Barnabas were going out once again later on, and they ended up parting company, because Paul said, I won't take that young man with me. Barnabas insisted on taking him. We have other places in the Bible that tell us that Barnabas was the uncle of Mark. And that gives us a little more insight. He was willing to take another chance. And what a tremendous benefit came from taking that chance. And the beautiful thing is to see at the end of John Mark's life, well, no, not his life, the end of Paul's life. As in his second letter to Timothy, he has been condemned to death. And he writes to Timothy, and he tells him, well, when you come, bring Mark with you. I have a service for him to perform. I'm paraphrasing.

Barnabas. Barnabas was not his name originally. His name was Joseph. And the apostles renamed him the son of encouragement. William Barclay, when he writes about that account at the end of Acts 15, where Paul and Barnabas end up separating parting ways.

And speaking of John Mark, he said that there is a great thing for a person to have someone who believes in him. And Barnabas filled that role. So with John Mark, I think we can learn. Here's one who repented. Don't ever count the score at halftime.

The Church of God is probably filled with a lot of people. That if you go back 20 or 40 or 60 years, somebody in the church may have written them off at one time. I wonder what people in the Oklahoma City Church thought of me when I was 14 and 15 and 16. But we can't know that. So from John Mark, we have someone who turned his life around. And through Barnabas, we have one who encouraged. And we should never underestimate the power of encouragement. Now, there are so many others we could go to.

And no, I'm not going to go to every one of them we can go to. But Silas, we could look at Silas. When Paul and Barnabas separated, Paul took Silas, who was a prophet, we're told. And they ended up in prison. The story is told in Acts 16. They're not just in prison. They're back in the interwar of the prison, and they're in stocks. And what are they doing? Absolutely. At about midnight, they're down so low, you might think, that they couldn't see over the top of their shoes. But they're in prison, in bonds, and they're praising God. They're thanking God when the earthquake breaks it up, and that led to the events where the jailer was about to take his own life, thinking all the prisoners have escaped. But Silas was a man who kept his eyes on the big picture. He saw what was most important. Priscilla and Aquila. You'll find them later in Acts. A married couple. Mentioned six times every time they're mentioned as a couple. There's a great value that can come from a Christian home. What a blessing it is! And everyone doesn't have that blessing. But for those who do, it's a wonderful blessing to be called as a married couple to be about our Father's business. Let's go back over to Ephesians. Ephesians 2.

And we'll read verses 19 through 21.

Ephesians 2 verse 19. Now therefore, you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So we today are the ones who continue the building of the spiritual temple. We have those who have gone before us. We can learn from them. We can, like Mary and that group of about 120, we can continue. And we can be of one mind. We can learn from men like Silas, who went about praising God for all the wonderful blessings. We can learn from men like Philip, who had vision and just dreamed of what might happen through this door. We can learn from men like John Mark, who, yes, made a mistake. We aren't told what all was involved, but he got back in the game later on and was used in a powerful way.

I'd like to retell a story. I've heard several versions of this story, and so now you'll hear my version, if you've heard it before as well. It's a story of a great construction site in the city of St. Mary. It was built by the city of Chartres in France. Those who began the building died long before it was ever finished. It took that long. They were building a cathedral. And the story is told, after the site had been in construction for many years, a representative was sent from Rome up to the city to assess how it was coming and later come back and report. The visitor arrived toward the end of the day, and yet people were still working. He went back into the building. He heard a noise, and he would turn and go and then hear another noise. Well, first he heard someone pounding on metal. He found an iron worker. He had a piece of metal, his hammer, an anvil, and he was forming and fashioning the iron that would go on the bars of the windows. And he asked him, sir, what are you doing on this building? And the man said, I work with metal from early in the day to late at night. I pound on metal. I form and fashion these bars. So the visitor went on a little further. He heard another noise. And he went and he found a man working with beams of wood. He was forming and fashioning wood. And he asked him, and you, sir, what do you do? He said, I'm a carpenter. I'm all day long, morning to night. I form and fashion wood in building these stairs. He went a little further. He heard a different type of noise. And he went over there and he found a glacier, a person working in glass, forming the little pieces that would go into the stained glass windows. And he said, what are you doing here? He said, I'm a glacier. I'm working from early in the day to late at night. I work in glass. I form and fashion. I cut pieces of glass. That's all I do. The visitor went a little further. He heard another noise, a soft noise. And he came across an old woman. And she, with her broom, was sweeping up pieces of metal and wood and glass. He was cleaning up. And so he thought, well, why not? So he went over to her and he said, And you, madam, what are you doing here? And as she paused and looked up at him, the fire was burning in her eyes. And she said, I am building a cathedral to the glory of Almighty God.

So four people, three going through the motions, but one fueled with a vision because she could see what would be when all of their labors came to realization. And you and I are working on a far more important building. I asked the question, who will build a house for God to dwell in? And the answer is, you will. I will. We will. Day by day, act of service, act of kindness, prayer, diligent act, one after another. We build the temple of God. Wonderful Sabbath to all of you.