0:02 family. It's good to see you all again to be back with you. It's yeah 14 years 14th year that I've come and uh each year I feel uh great excitement but over the last few years especially 0:21 um and even especially this year as I've come [sighs] uh I feel more helpless. Uh even this morning as I was laying in bed waking up um the 0:38 the burden on my heart and the sense I had was a complete helplessness in the world. The longer you do things, the more comfortable you get with it and the more the easier it gets. Let's say the first time you had to stand in front 0:57 of the public and speak. You're very nervous and your palms are sweating. Now you do it for 13 years and it's it's easy easier. Uh the first time you drive a car, you're nervous. I have a new car driver 1:17 in my home now. So I've been through that recently. New car drivers, a couple of them. But after you drive for 30 years, you just zigzag in and out. Drive carelessly. That is how it is in the world with everything in the world. The longer you 1:33 do it, the more comfortable you get with it. And that is our greatest hindrance as Christians because we think that the Christian life is the same way that the longer we do it, the easier it is in serving the Lord and walking with 1:52 him. And having made that mistake many year many many times and through much failure in my life, I've come to see it's the exact opposite of that. The longer I've walked with Jesus, 2:12 the more helpless I feel. And the more times I speak now and preach God's word, the more helpless I feel. And I feel more helpless today standing in front of you than I ever have at these weekend of fellowships 2:29 standing right here in this same spot. And that's why I believe it can go well with us this weekend if all of us have that same mindset. Jesus said, let's maybe turn there in Matthew chapter 11. This these things what I just said is 2:57 hidden from the wise and the intelligent and it's revealed to babes. The wise and the intelligent think how could it be that you do something for 13 years and you feel less confident in doing it. The wise and the intelligent cannot 3:15 understand that. That's contrary to our human way of thinking. The babes think, see it, they get revelation. Jesus said, Matthew 11:25, I praise you, Father, Lord of the heaven and earth, 3:32 that you have hidden this way, these things from the wise and the intelligent, the smart people, and you have revealed it to infants or babes. So if you are still confused about what 3:50 I just said, then I I cannot explain it in a more intelligent way or convince you in some human way that you would get it. You can never get it through human understanding. But if you go to God and say, "Lord, is this true what brother Santos just said 4:08 that the longer I walk with you, I will actually feel more helpless and rely less on my own human ability to be who you want me to be as a brother and sister in the church, as a husband or wife, father, mother, child, young 4:23 person, that the longer I walk with you, the more helpless I will be and feel. Is this really true? Then reveal it to me. I come to you like a babe, forsaking all my understanding, forsaking all my 4:40 um high thoughts about myself. I come to you as a babe and you will he will reveal it. And Jesus will again say, "Thank you, Lord. There's another babe there in a influ whom you've revealed this to." 4:59 I believe Jesus still rejoices like he did 2,000 years ago when he sees another babe get revelation and God hide it from somebody else who's more wise and intelligent. And what was it? Yes, father, for this way was well 5:15 pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father. Nor does anyone know the father except the son and anyone to whom the son comes wills to reveal him. 5:28 But I want wanted you to see this verse that we know well. Come to me if you're weary and heavy laden. And I believe the reason so many people, even Christians, are weary and heavy laden is because they're still trying to 5:43 do it in their own strength. And it's not actually working. The Christian life used to be enjoyable for many people the day they were born again. But now after walking with Christ for 10 years, it's not. It seems heavy. 6:02 It seems burdensome. It's not working for many Christians. And it wasn't in my life for some years. And so Jesus until I saw the invitation to Jesus. He says, "So you missed it. I want you to come back to being a babe like you were the day you were born 6:21 again. and I want you to find another way of walking with me. He says, "Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest." Let me ask you, dear family, is your 6:38 life more at rest today than it was when you came to Jesus, however long ago that was. You came to Jesus full of turmoil because of your sin, full of heavy burdens, and he offered you rest and you found 6:57 rest because he took your sins away. Now, how long has it been? 5 years, 10 years? Is your life more at rest since the day you first met Jesus? If it's not, you've been following another Jesus. 7:17 It's some other Jesus who cannot give you rest. The one I know and read about in God's word says, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me and you will find rest for your souls. He said in the end of verse 29, for my 7:36 yoke is easy and my burden is light. It's a good question, dear family, to examine ourselves. I've been a Christian for many years. I became a I believe a child of God when I was a little child. I didn't even know that fully at then. 7:51 And for many years, my Christian life was anything but rest. Oh, I wanted to follow Christ. I wanted rest. And it was a year a constant, ah, maybe one of these days I'll get it. Everybody else seems to get it. And then I realized they were just hypocrites. 8:09 They talked the talk, but secretly they weren't experiencing this rest. And God allowed frustration, disappointment, failure, sin ultimately to lead me to a place where I said, "Lord, it doesn't matter anymore. I'll give up everything. I don't want 8:24 ministry. I don't want anything else. I want to find rest. I want to know the true Jesus." And I know him today. It's my honest testimony. And I don't take credit for that. But if you've been following another Jesus, the real one is alive today and says 8:44 this to you today as well. Come to me. The part I skipped in the middle was this. He says, "Learn from me. I am gentle and humble." Another translation says, "Meek." A meek one is somebody who is just 9:02 completely helpless. Which means if you came to Jesus and you walked with him, the more you walked with him, the more helpless you would feel, the more helpless you would be. Because you're learning when you come to Jesus and walk with him 9:19 for a period of time, you don't learn how to be smarter and more intelligent, more wise, more capable. The longer you walk with Jesus, you learn more incapability, helplessness, meekness. 9:38 This is hidden from the wise and the intelligent and revealed to babes. So I pray that that will be your experience as well. Dear brothers, dear sisters, and dear children, if you can learn this at a young age of leaning on Jesus and learning from 9:56 him, it will go so well with you. You turn with me please to Luke chapter 21 when the the difference between 10:19 Christianity and all the other religions true Christianity that is and all the other religions in the world even the religion ions that speak about Jesus. Cuz I see that there's true Christianity and there's a whole bunch of other 10:35 religions including some religions that call themselves Christianity. I'm not here to say who is who. But there is one true church, one true Christianity which is not a particular denomination or anything like that. It is those whose 10:54 simple and pure devotion is to Jesus Christ alone. That's it. The difference between true Christianity and all the other religions that exist in the world is this. Uh one of the differences I would say is this that God can prove 11:11 among those who are truly his children that he can take them through adversity, through suffering, through difficulty, through trial, through perplexing circumstances. In a sense, he could pull the rug out 11:28 from underneath them if that's what it takes and prove that they are still trusting in him. That's Christianity. False religions will tell you you worship this God and he will do everything for you. He will heal you. 11:46 He'll give you he'll make you wealthy. He will allow your business to succeed. He will take care of your children. That's false religions. And sadly, many Christians are following that God. Whether it's a God of some other 12:03 religion or a God named Jesus, another Jesus, like I said, who will when you go through a little bit of a difficulty, he'll rescue you from it and so you don't have to have a hard time. Or he'll prevent you from suffering 12:18 financial loss. He'll protect you from ever getting sick. Our God is capable of doing that. Absolutely. I mean, he created the world's absolutely capable of never allowing me to ever face any difficult trial. He's powerful enough to do that. But the 12:36 God I believe in is powerful enough to say, "Stosh, I'm going to take you through that and prove that I'm even greater than what you thought I was. Cuz I am so great that you can go through that trial and come through pure. 12:52 And so we read here in Luke 21 about what it's going to be like towards the end of time. There will be signs in sun. Luke 21 25. There will be signs in sun and moon and stars and on the earth dismay among nations. 13:10 If you thought 2025 was a hard year, it's going to get worse at some point. If so, if if you're going through a hard time right now, I it's predicted, prophesied, dismay among nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves. 13:29 Men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world. I've had times in my life where I'm I'm I'm I'm seeing I'm I'm I'm facing some uncertainty and u 13:48 uh fear and expectation of the thing. What's going to happen? I've had times where it's like, whoa, what's going to happen? Or I read the news report about how the economy is and all that. What's going to happen? It's never gotten so bad where I fainted 14:03 as a result of that. But it's going to happen if it's in your Bible as it is in mine. It things will get so bad that the you'll get the news and you'll just faint from shock. At least some men will for the powers of the heavens will be 14:23 shaken. Not just Wall Street and uh stock market and all that. The powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the son of man coming in a cl in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to 14:39 take place when you see the earth shaking and you know next thing the sun's going to shake, the moon's going to shake, the stars are going to shake. It hasn't gotten anywhere close to that bad. When you brothers, sisters, you who call 14:55 yourselves the church, followers of Jesus, when you see these things begin to happen, what should our response be? straighten up. Lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near. That's how you know that you're 15:12 following the true Jesus. That when you see things going on in the world or in your life or things shaking circumstances, you're like something better is coming. That's why the theme for our conference is God has provided something better for 15:29 you. Now the reality if you just listen to what I was saying the reality is probably that it was not quite like that when the things started to shake you also were shaken and you started to doubt and have unbelief and anxiety and worry 15:48 you've been following another Jesus then and the Jesus who we read about in the Bible when things get difficult and uncertainty comes in and perplexing circumstances causes me to lift up my head 16:06 and straighten up. You know, I like that it says like that. Straighten up. Because when you know, sometimes I meet Christians, they're kind of bent over like this, like, oh, you can tell they're going through a hard time. Don't 16:16 even have to ask. Just bent over, furrowed brow, just heavy, sad. And because because of the difficulty instead the true Christians who are following Jesus they face a trial they 16:33 straighten up they lift up their head. I encourage you dear brother dear sister if you're facing a trial if you walked in this room a little downcast with a heavy head ask Jesus to show himself to you. Come to him. Weary, heavy laden brother, 16:52 sister, child. Straighten up. Sit. You know, it's good for your back also physically. But it's good for your soul. It's good for your spirit to straighten up. Sit with confidence. Why? Because something better is coming. God has 17:08 provided something better for you. Now, if your interests are in the things of this earth, I you probably should be bent over because I cannot guarantee what things will look like here on this earth. What will the job market look like? What 17:25 will the housing market look like? I cannot guarantee any of that because it's not guaranteed. In fact, what is guaranteed is that it will pass away. Heaven and earth, the world is passing away and everything that is in 17:38 it. 1 John 2. That's what I can guarantee. But what our hope is in is lift up your head. So what is the last year been like or the last few months or years been like? If it's been trial, if it's been difficulty, if it's gotten as bad as 17:58 heaven's shaking, which hasn't actually happened, my encourage, my hope for you brothers, sisters that I want to share with you is lift up, straighten up and lift up your head. Let's change the way we walk. So that when I walk there on the street or 18:13 interact with somebody in the workplace or somebody sees me in the grocery store straightened up and with my head lifted up, they say, "What happened? Did you win the lottery ticket or you made a lot of money suddenly?" No, my redemption is 18:25 drawing near. That's why let's turn to Hebrews 11. This the theme for our conference comes from this verse. We can straighten up lift up our heads because God has provided something better for us. 18:43 Hebrews 11:39, you know, Hebrews 11 is the chapter of faith. And all these men and women who did amazing things in their lives, God did amazing things through them. And God approved of their lives. We read in 19:02 verse 39, all these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us. [sighs] God has provided something better for 19:19 us. I'd like to speak in um in these three messages that I'll share this weekend about some of those things that God has provided. It could be an endless list of what God has provided that's better than what you have now. That's the essence of this 19:37 conference. Dear brothers, dear sisters, whatever your experience has been like. Even if you say, "Well, Santosh, actually, I've had a pretty good life and things are going well." Okay, that's great. God has provided something better 19:49 for you. And if times have been rough, times have been difficult, times have been uncertain, and you've got questions that you're never going to get the answer for, perhaps that's fine. If you've got unanswered questions, God has provided 20:02 something better for you if you would know that. And the first thing I would like to us to think about is that God has provided the true church. And maybe wherever you come from, different parts of the world or whatever 20:19 your experience has been like, you've been attending a gathering of people and if it if your experience in that gathering has not been quite what you thought it would be, it's disappointed or that expectation hasn't quite been met, I want to tell 20:35 you, God has provided something better for you in the church. But we must understand what the church is. And often our disappointment and our feeling let down comes from a false understanding of what the church truly is. 20:54 So let's examine why. And I wondered why you came here this weekend. Why you are part of the church that you're a part of. Let's turn to Malachi chapter 3. The church, the true church of Jesus 21:10 Christ is built as a dwelling place primarily for God. The church is primarily a dwelling place for God. And that's where I think some of the 21:29 disappointment or the failure in churches comes from is that often it can be thought of as a dwelling place for people. We want to have a church so that the lost, the the sinners can come in. That's what I hear a lot in Christendom. 21:47 It sounds good. Let's let's build a church where sinners can come in and feel welcomed. the lonely. God does build a home for the lonely. That's in his word. But primarily the most important reason for building the church is I want to build a dwelling 22:05 place for God. Is that your desire in coming and being a part of this church or whatever church you're a part of? He said, "Lord, I want to be a part of the place where you have a dwelling place. I don't nothing else matters to me who 22:25 else is coming doesn't matter to me how they treat me doesn't matter to me what I get to do in this doesn't matter to me but will you be there then I want to be a part of that work even as I meditated on that in thinking 22:39 about sharing it this morning I had to examine my heart as one who was very involved in my church and I'm an elder there I have a teaching min responsibility and other things that I take care of and said, "Lord, is it really my only ambition 22:56 that this church will be a dwelling place for you?" It's good to examine our hearts, dear brothers, dear sisters, and dear children as well. Is that your motive in being a part of this church that it would be a dwelling place 23:13 for God? In Malachi, I encourage you to meditate on this book, book of Malachi. It's only four chapters and pretty short chapters at that. But it's a very very powerful book. It's significant that it's the last book of the Old Testament. 23:31 And then there's around 400 years where there's no prophetic word in Israel. Um and then the next thing you see is John the Baptist 4 3 400 years later. But in Malachi 3, we see the condition of Israel. This is after they've been 23:51 through many periods of revival. You can say they came out of Egypt. I mean God gave the promise to Abraham gave them the land. Then they went into captivity in Egypt 430 years and they came out. They dwelt in the land went through 24:04 kings most of whom were bad. Judges and kings most of the kings were bad. But periods of spiritual renewal during kings like David and Jehoshaphat, Josiah, Hezekiah and others like that. uh and but then they went into captivity 24:20 into Babylon and then after 70 years there they came back and God placed them back in the land. They rebuilt the temple. you read through Hagai and um Zachchariah uh and um and then they've rebuilt the city and uh now they've kind of established 24:39 and along comes Malachi and I think this is some maybe a few decades or so after things have gotten back to a sense of normaly they've they came out of Babylon they reestablished now things are starting to go well and he says I got to shake 24:55 things up a little bit says says, "I I see you've kind of got into a routine. You got a name that you know, yeah, I can remember back when things were bad, but you've got into a routine. Things are pretty good." And God says, "I got to shake things up." 25:08 What does he mean? Let's actually turn to chapter 1. He says in Malachi 1:10, he says,"I wish that you all who are about to have this meeting, I wish that at least one of you would shut the door and lock it so that you cannot have the 25:28 meeting." Have you ever heard God say, "Oh, you're going to have a church meeting." Yeah, I wish somebody would just shut the door and not have the church meeting. I know you're going to sing to me and I know you're going to take my word and you're 25:40 going to listen to somebody speaking, but I actually wish you would just shut the door. Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says 25:57 the Lord of Hosts, nor will I accept an offering from you. Oh, that you just turn off the music, turn off the mic. No, don't have a message. Just shut the door. This was the condition of Israel back in the promised land having come out of 26:13 Babylon. Let's read verse 4. Malachi 1:4. In the last part, he says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and men will call them the wicked 26:32 territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever. Though they may build, I will tear down." You see God working against people who are taking his name. They're not offering to Baal anymore. They're offering to God, 26:46 Jehovah. But he says, "No, I wish you would just lock the door, lock the gates." Uh, we read verse 10 11. For from these, this is what God is after. From the rising of the sun, from the beginning of the day, even to its setting 27:05 across the whole face of the earth. From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations. And in every place incense is going to be offered to my name and a grain offering that is pure, that is in my 27:22 name alone. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. And this is what God is looking for. This is what God has prepared for us. Something better. A church where the name of God is honored. 27:41 Where the name of God is lifted up. where God is present, where God finds a dwelling place. And if you skip to down to chapter 3, we read about a meeting that God said, "No, yes, this is a meeting I want to be a part of. I want to have a dwelling 28:00 place in this meeting." Verse 16, Malachi 3:16. Then those who feared the Lord, revered the Lord, those who had a reverence for the Lord came and had a meeting. And the Lord gave attention 28:19 and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who reverence the Lord and who esteem his name. And he says, "That will be my church. They will be mine." Brothers and sisters, this is what God has prepared for us. Something 28:35 better, a church where he found a dwelling place where he writes, "Oh, they're having a meeting." Yes, the angels. And he tells the angels, "Angels, write it in the book. They're having a weekend of fellowship. I'm going to write it down. Who? Those who 28:51 rever my name. They're not here to have a good time or have a good time singing or do this or do that. They revere my name and say Lord we want to gather so that we can reverence your name together. Ah angel write it down a book 29:06 of remembrance because these people rever the Lord and esteem his name. He says verse 17 they will be mine says the Lord of hosts on the day that I prepare my own possession and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will 29:23 again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. What is the basis? It's not are you reading from the Bible as opposed to some other religious book? Are you taking the name 29:38 of Jesus as opposed to the name of some other God? Are you singing these types of songs? Do you preach this particular type of doctrine about the new covenant? No, it's not that. The righteous and the wicked are distinguished in this context 29:53 purely on the basis of do you rever the name of God? Is that why you're here? Or is it for something else? Or do you mix it? We read in Malachi 1 that God is looking for a pure offering where 100% my motive is Lord I want your name to be revered 30:12 in my life in my marriage in my home and in this weekend in this conference and in our church it's pure Lord and if I've had some other motive mixed in with it that I want to have this ministry or I want it done this particular way or 30:25 anything else then Lord crush it out of me cleanse me so that my offering is pure for. And what delight, dear family, when God can look down and see those who reverence the Lord gathering and they're speaking to one another 30:42 about it, brothers and sisters, maybe the the words are they're talking to each other and saying, "Man, I feel like there's a a lack of reverence and somebody's confessing and say, "Brothers, I got to admit, I walked in 30:53 this door and it was all about me and how I looked and who I was going to get to talk to and what people thought about me because and that and I was maybe going to do the singing or I was going to preach the message. So I thought 31:03 about me and me and me and me or they nobody said hello to me. Me or they they treat me like this or that person walked past me without their smile. Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me 31:13 me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me 31:14 me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me and the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes and you you walk into this room and you find that people are more interested in reverencing the Lord and that's why they're not as keen to say 31:26 hello to you. Let's be friendly to each other, of course. But it's, you know, so much of what goes on in churches is about how we treat each other, and can I find a home in this church? Are they going to be nice to me? Is this 31:38 where I want to be? I I don't I'm not, you know, I I I don't I'm not sure if this is the right place. And all of that goes out the door. I say, Lord, is this where you have found a dwelling place? Otherwise, we'll just build a club. 31:53 We'll build a good CFC club. And there are plenty of those I think sadly or I don't say plenty there may be some of those. The church of Jesus Christ. God has something better for you. Dear brothers, dear sisters, dear children, 32:07 God has something better for you. And that is the church where he has a dwelling place. Let's turn to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. This is Steven's speech 32:34 to the religious leaders of his day, the Jews, who worshiped another god, the God of the Old Testament, which is Jesus. He was the God of the Old Testament as well. And these people who were worshiping, they didn't call him Jesus, of course, 32:53 called him Jehovah. Jesus is Jehovah of the Old Testament, right? He is God. It's only one God. So in their worshiping of this Jehovah, it was another Jehovah they were worshiping because the real Jehovah came and they killed him, crucified him. So 33:12 in this worshiing of this other god that they called by the same name in the same way as today there are people worshiping another Jesus who happens to have the same name as the true Jesus completely different god he Steven ultimately is going to be 33:26 killed as you know for saying this is the true Jesus that Jesus you've been following is some other person he's not god this is the true god they end up killing him for it but he walks them through how their the god who is Jesus 33:41 was manifest through the Old Testament. And he says in verse 44, Acts 7:44, our fathers had the tabernacle. Tabernacle just means dwelling place. Dwelling place, home. Our fathers had the home or the dwelling 33:59 place of testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it known according to the pattern which he had seen. And then having received it in their turn, our fathers, the next generation, 34:16 brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. So he says that first we had the tabernacle with the ark of covenant in it. That was the dwelling place of God. 34:31 Moses and in the wilderness Moses described it to them. They built it exactly and God dwelt there. God dwelt there because Moses built the tabernacle exactly as God said it should be done. And God said, "Oh, your people who rever 34:47 me, when I say something, they do it exactly like that." And because Moses did it exactly, read it in Exodus 40, did it exactly as the Lord had told him. God said, "I can come now. I'll be that's going to be my dwelling place." 35:00 And then that tabernacle was brought in through the promised land and established somewhere in Israel. We don't know exactly where until the time of David. And then verse 46, David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find 35:16 a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. He says, "I want to build a dwelling place for you, God of Jacob. I live in a house." We I'll show you that in a moment. But you seem to just live in a tent. I want a real home for you. 35:28 David's burden was I want a dwelling place for you. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. 35:47 So this this tabernacle, I don't know where it is to this day. You know, at some point the tabernacle must have been destroyed and somewhere in the ground in Israel deep down is probably the left leftovers. whatever is not rotted and 36:00 it's just the that spot is somewhere and the temple has also been destroyed and somewhere in broken down somewhere in Israel in Jerusalem is the the the remnants of the temple maybe the some of the stones are still there I don't know so all of that 36:17 that work that dwelling place that God had that was built by hands has eventually fallen away and been destroyed now God is he says but but um Steven reminds them that the the dwelling place that God is 36:36 looking for is not something that you can build with human hands. The reason this is important is because it we must see very early in our Christian life and as early as possible that my effort to build a church to make a dwelling place 36:53 for God is going to come to nothing. Because think about it. If you if all God wants is a house, cuz he goes on to say in verse 49, "Heaven is my throne and earth is the foottool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for 37:10 me?" says the Lord. "Or what place is there for my repose?" Was it not my hand which made all these things? So if I think, "Well, Lord, I'm going to build a dwelling place for you. Let's do it. Let's call it this name, and we're going to build a dwelling 37:24 place for He says, "You really think you can do it? I have heaven as my home. I rest my feet on earth. And on this earth is a continent called North America. And then in North America is a state as big as we think it is. It's actually still 37:40 quite small called Texas. And in that Texas is a little town called Austin. And in that Austin is a little building called whatever you call it. And in there is your you're going to build that as my home." You see how he drills down? He says, 37:54 "How could you do anything that's bigger than heaven?" And he draws this picture of I put my feet up on earth and you in that tiny little town in tiny little building think you're going to say, "Ah, God, you're here. We built your church. Look 38:09 at how many people have come." And so this must be a dwelling place, right? You see the insignificance of what we think is great. You take even the biggest mega church in the country in the world, whatever. And and Texas has 38:23 plenty of those big churches. Even the biggest of them, they pride themselves on the size of their parking lot and the size of their building. And how many people come in every Sunday and they think they're doing some great work for 38:33 God and says, "This is just the speck on my foottool that you think is such a good work." It's so important for us to see the insignificance of all our great works first. It starts there. But he says this place the in verse 49 38:53 ad the place of my repose. What place is there for my repose? Where can I come and be at rest? And here's the thing. God does want to build a dwell us for his dwelling place to be among us. He says the dwelling place of 39:11 God is with man. That's the purpose. That's why Jesus why that's why God came down to this earth so that his dwelling place could be with us and he wants that the king who the king of heaven the lord of heaven the king of kings the lord of 39:25 lords the god above all other gods who dwells in heaven says I want to dwell with you and I want this church to be a dwelling place for me and even though you're a speck on a speck on a speck on a speck I want that to be a place and have you 39:42 thought about it we sing in one hymn that um there's room in my heart for you, Lord. Have you thought that that that the the king of heaven who has all who's so big that even the heavens can't contain him says, "I want to come and 39:55 dwell with you." Is is that is that a privilege? And you see the high calling we have to build a church for God. And God finds delight when he can come and say ah it's not the size of the building. It's 40:13 not the number of people that are there. But is God comfortable being in that midst? Then he says I'll come and I'll dwell with you. And verse 51, after describing this, Steven says, "You men are who are stiff necked and 40:30 uncircumcised in heart and years are always resisting the Holy Spirit." In other words, you're so busy making the the church bigger and having more meetings and having another conference and inviting somebody else and somebody 40:42 else and somebody else, but you're resisting the Holy Spirit. How much time have we spent in our churches, brothers and sisters, saying is the Holy Spirit comfortable here? One the moment you you see that he he I mean up to this point 41:01 up to this point up to about a few seconds before this everything was good. He was just telling them the history of their wonderful you know it's kind of like oh we've been a church for so long here's look at what God has done. We put 41:11 the PowerPoint up and say, "Look, we back then we started with this tiny little thing, you know, it was a little tabernacle. We were in the wilderness. Oh, but then we had the tabernacle um in in Israel and then we had the temple. 41:22 Maybe you have pictures of Solomon's temple and all that." And they're they're probably sitting, "Yeah, that's our God. We're a good church. Look, we've been around for so many years, an annual celebration." But then he says, 41:33 "You missed the point." Steven, as it were, if I could say, was saying, "You have all this wonderful history, but the Holy Spirit has been resisted through these years." All of a sudden, they're like, "What?" Kicked him 41:45 out and stoned him to death. And that's that's a burden on my heart for myself, first of all, and for us as a church also, is that we don't resist the Holy Spirit. You've been resisting the Holy Spirit. And here's the thing. 42:02 The moment the Holy Spirit feels uncomfortable, feels like he's not needed because yeah, maybe maybe 10 years ago I needed him because I was helpless. I didn't know what to do and there's only a few stragglers gathering. But now we've 42:16 matured into this. Almost every seat is full and our church has got programs and ministries and we're doing this and we're doing that. We don't need the Holy Spirit anymore and we resist him. and he's convicting us about secret sin that 42:28 we've been hiding for so long, but I put it away and say, "No, I don't have time to think about it. I've got another meeting to plan and go to." The moment the Holy Spirit feels uncomfortable, he walks out the door so quietly that 42:41 you probably don't even notice it unless you're looking for it. And unless if you're blinded by all the other successes around us that and you don't notice the Holy Spirit leaving, walking out the door quietly, so quietly you 42:54 can't even hear the door shut behind him, that church is in trouble. Would you know it, brothers and sisters, if the Holy Spirit walks out from your house, from your marriage, and you're having a good time with your wife, with 43:07 your husband, but the Holy Spirit's gone in your home and in the church. Now, the meetings will go on. You read the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Those churches continue to meet, but the Holy Spirit standing outside saying, "Can I 43:21 come back in? I know you've got a full weekend of meetings planned and games and activities and fellowship and this and that, Q&A, all that, but can I come in? Do you have time for me? I'm knocking at the door." God is looking for a dwelling place, 43:40 the church as a dwelling place primarily for him. It's not about who else needs to come to this church. How many other sinners can we reach? That is secondary. That's important. Yes, but that's secondary. The church is primarily a dwelling place 43:57 for God. And if it's not been that, then it's time for us to start over. Say, Lord, whatever we built, it's been on a foundation of who else can we bring? Who else can we spread the good news to? the new covenant message and 44:14 pass on some CDs and tape books and all that stuff and have more conferences and have more gatherings and more all all of that. It's become about that, Lord. It hasn't been primarily about a dwelling place for you. Let's 44:27 close the gate and start over. Let's turn to first chronicle 1 Chronicles chapter 17. We see this in the example of David. David was a man after God's own heart. 44:47 Even in the Old Testament, wonderful man. He had failures. He we know about his failures. Not just the one the adultery and the murder that came alongside. Other times when he failed, he was a broken failure. He was a bit of a mess actually 45:02 when you think about it in some ways. And yet he was a man after God's own heart. And I say that to encourage you that you and I who often focus so much on our failings and our shortcomings can take from heed and take courage from the 45:19 example of David who because he was a man after God's own heart is an example for us. So it came about when David 1st Chronicles 17:1 dwelt in his house that David said to Nathan the prophet, "Behold, I am dwelling in a house of cedar, but the 45:36 ark of the covenant of the Lord is under curtains in a tent." And Nathan being the undiscerning prophet, he he sometimes was I think he was usually a discerning prophet, but at this moment he was a little bit uh deceived 45:56 by, oh, the king is asking for a a dwelling place for God. Of course, it makes sense. Oh, you want to have a weekend of fellowship or meetings? Of course, it's a good idea. Yeah, go ahead, David. That's what Nathan says. 46:08 You want to have another meeting? Oh, you're going to meet for prayer early in the morning. Of course, it's a good idea. Any undescerning religious person will say, "Yeah, sure. Why not have a meeting?" "Oh, you've got the time. 46:18 You've got the space. Yeah, well, you're not going to go do something worldly, right? You're not going to have any sinful things going on, but you're just going to have a meeting. Of course, go ahead." Nathan said to do all that is in 46:29 your heart, for God is with you. No, God wasn't with him. And it came about the same night Nathan went to sleep and God said, "How dare you tell David that I'm with him in his plans? I'm not with him in his plans." The word of God came to Nathan saying, 46:47 "Go and tell David, my servant, thus says the Lord, you shall not build a house for me." What happened to Nathan? Have you ever had that? I've had it happen sometimes. I said something which I thought was a nice thing to say. Sounds right. Sounds 47:00 spiritual. and go back away. And God says, "How dare you say that? I didn't tell you to say that. That man respects you because you're a prophet and you he respects you and you said something that's misleading him. Oh, that we had 47:13 more prophets like that." And I'm sure the next time Nathan was tempted to open his mouth in a nice way to David because he's the king. He's like, I I got David comes up with this great idea, good idea to build a dwelling place for God. Have 47:27 a meeting, have a conference. Why not? says, "Let me pray and ask God, is God going to be here?" Otherwise, David, what's the point? God would rather dwell under curtains in in a in a tent. If that's what he would rather do, then 47:42 let's just keep it that way. But if we're going to build this spend all this money and and do all this big work for him, let's make sure he's going to be there before. And essentially what Nathan would have said with David, I don't want 47:55 you to waste all your money coming to the doing all this. And I would say the same for us family. You spent a lot of money and devoted amount amount of time to be here. Let's make sure we haven't wasted our money thinking that well what did you do 48:09 last weekend? Oh I went to this conference and we had good fellowship. The food was good. The teaching was good. We had good some exercise as well. Played games. It was a great wonderful time but was God there? Then you wasted 48:20 your money. You wasted your time. And Sunday after Sunday you have meetings and you have Bible studies in the week and prayer meetings and this and that. Was God there the whole time? Otherwise you might as well gone and 48:32 watched a movie or played some football game or something like that. You will you shall not build a house for me to dwell in. Have you heard God say that? We read it in Malachi 1. You shall shut the gates. I wish somebody would 48:47 shut the gates. You shall not build a house for me to dwell in because I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day. But I've gone from tent to tent and from one dwelling place to another. I just wanted 48:59 a dwelling place. If all you had was a living room with three people meeting or two. That was fine. Now you've got the building and you've got more people and you've got more equipment and a microphone and you've got all this other 49:11 stuff. But I left. Oh, that you would go back to that living room where you were nobody's, helpless, and all you wanted was, "Lord, we don't have a mic. We don't nobody will, we don't have a sign saying this or anything like that, but we want you. 49:27 If you're here, that'll be all we need." Back when it was just your family meeting and praying and seeking the Lord and fasting and prayer and and and seeking him with all your heart. Back then, he was there. But now that things 49:40 have become more established and you know how to run the conference, you know how to run the meetings and everything is flowing pretty smoothly and you've got all the chairs filled, you don't need the Holy Spirit anymore. 49:52 And uh verse six, in all places where I have walked with all Israel, verse 6, have I spoken a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, why have you not built for me a house of cedar? David, it was 50:07 your idea. That's what he's saying. I didn't come up with the idea. You did. Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts. Who were you? You think you're going to build a house for me? You have 50:22 the money. You have the your the authority. You have the space. So, you think you can build a church for me? Have you forgotten who you were? I took you from the pasture. You were picking up sheep dung, David. I'm sure you can 50:35 still remember the smell of it. What is that a picture of? Your sinful life. You who think you're going to build a church. You remember who you were when I picked you up? Wretched, sinful, broken, failure, smelling like 50:49 sheep dung, manure spiritually. From following the sheep. I took you from following the sheep to be a leader of my people. And because I've blessed you and because things have gone well with you and I've blessed you in some 51:03 way, somehow you think, "Ah, I can do something great for God. Verse 8, I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off your you thought you did well and all that success you realize it was because of me. I cut off all your enemies from 51:19 before you and I will make you a name like the name of the great ones who are on the earth. I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and not be moved again. 51:33 Moreover, in the middle of of verse 10, I tell you that the Lord will build a house for you. I'm going to build a house. God says, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, I will set up one of your descendants after 51:49 you, who will be of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build for me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son and I will not take my loving kindness away 52:02 from him as I took it from him who was before you. But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever and his throne shall be established forever. Nathan wakes up the next morning and goes to David and says, "Hey, David, I'm 52:13 sorry. What I told you yesterday, God is with you. He's actually not. He's got a different plan. I'm going to do differently from what you thought." So he goes, "Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord and said,"Lord, 52:27 I'm sorry. Who am I? I just" And I love that that David's response like he, you know, David was like Peter a little bit like he's always like, "I I can do this. I can do that, Lord." And his heart is good like Peter's was. I will never leave you or 52:44 forsake you, Lord. Even though all these other 11 will leave you, I'm not going to, Peter said. And David said, "Lord, I I'm burdened that I I want to build a nice house for you. You know my heart is right. And then God shows him his pride 52:56 even in that sincere desire and says, "Who do you think you are, David? Your sincerity has blinded you from seeing how I do things." A lot of sincere Christians in the world messing up God's work. A lot of sincere Christians misled to doing things that 53:15 he never wanted them to do. Sadly, that's the same even today. And David, I love his response. The moment he hears the convicting word, he says, "You're right, Lord. Who am I?" When the when Nathan said that, I'm sure David flashback went to sitting in the 53:31 pastor writing Psalms, and the only people who could hear it were the sheep and the occasional lion and bear that came this little guitar playing 16-year-old boy. God says, "Come. I want you to be a king of my people. Now, you 53:45 think you're going to do a great work for me." The most important thing, dear brothers and sisters, is for us to recognize how small we are, how incapable we are, and to remain there. In fact, to grow in that. That the longer we walk with Jesus, the more we 54:00 recognize how incapable we are of doing anything that is of eternal value. And then he says, "Now I can use you." And uh he goes on eventually, you know, David builds the church, builds the temple. And I've thought about it that 54:16 if God came, let's say I had this great idea, the vision and like Lord, we're going to do this. We want to build a name for you and you know my heart is good and God says, "How dare you think you can do something for me, but guess 54:27 what? I'm going to allow you to do it, but I want going to use somebody else for it. You had this ministry that you want to do and now I'm listen I'm going to have somebody else do it. What will you say?" See, this goes on in 54:38 Christendom. Most other churches if somebody was the preacher and now somebody else is going to be the new preacher instead the first preacher says what about me? How come I what happened to my ministry so they leave? They join 54:49 another church where they can be the the preacher be the minister or music leader or whatever it might be. If our only ambition in the church is that that this would be a dwelling place primarily for God, not a place where the music is good 55:04 or the preaching is good or the events are good or anything else that is absolutely inconsequential. Lord, this must be a dwelling place for you. And if it has not, I fall on my face and repent. Lord, let it be from now on that this church will only be 55:18 primarily a dwelling place for you, not for any other thing. God says, "Ah, now I can use you." And the proof of that for David was David. You said, "Okay, I just showed you how insignificant you are. You agreed with me. Now I'm going 55:32 to tell you, I'm not going to use you. It's going to be called Solomon's temple, not David's temple. You're going to do all the work. You're going to design it all and then I'm just going to have you hand it off to somebody and 55:42 they're going to run it and everybody's going to give the glory to Solomon for it." For thousands of years after that, it was called Solomon's Temple. Even in Jesus' day, Solomon's temple, did they know that every I mean, Solomon 55:56 basically had it gifted to him. Here, you do this, do that, do that, everything. Do it exactly as is written. And Solomon gets the credit for it. This is the proof that you've understood the work of God that you can do something, 56:08 somebody else can get the credit for it. And you say, "Lord, it wasn't about me anyway. All I wanted in the church was that this would be a dwelling place for you." Oh, that we would come back to that. If you've had a ministry in the church or 56:23 not, perhaps you covet a ministry in the church and you don't have it yet. Say, "Lord, cleanse me. Forgive me that I made this church something about me in some way and what I do in the church. And maybe you feel insignificant in the 56:37 church because you don't do anything that's publicly visible." Maybe that's the majority of you here. You feel, well, what's my role in the church? I don't do this. I don't do that. They've got somebody to lead the singing. 56:47 There's somebody to preach the message. somebody to handle the food. What's my place? Your place, dear brother, dear sister, dear children, is to make sure with all of your heart that this is a dwelling place for God. You have a role in that. 57:01 Pray for it. Intercede for it. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Constantly seek for the power of the Holy Spirit so that God would be here. And children, oh, if I speak to you for a few minutes, if you take that to 57:13 heart, you may think, well, I'm just a child. All I do is sit here and write some notes and I get my friends and I don't really get everything that happens in the meeting. But I can tell you one thing that you can do, dear children 57:23 that will change this church and change any church that you're a part of. You pray and say, "Lord Jesus," very simple prayer. Come and be in this meeting. Every time you go to a meeting, children, you pray in your heart. You 57:36 don't even have to pray out loud. Lord Jesus, come and be in this meeting. We want you to be here. We want this meeting to be a dwelling place for you. And you will find that perhaps you did more through that simple prayer in God 57:49 actually coming and being in that meeting than all the others who knew what they were doing and had such outward gift. But think what a difference it will be if all of us adults as well come like babes and say Lord give me revelation of 58:04 the church. I missed it. I thought church was this and that and the other thing. Sure, I know about all the other Babylonian churches, but I forgot that I become a part of Babylon with my mindset, with my mentality and thinking 58:15 that somehow I have some place to play in this and it's about you that you would have a dwelling place that you're comfortable in. Um, turn over a few chapters to chapter 22. Now, David gets it and he's now prepares 58:38 for building the temple and he hands it off to Solomon. 1 Chronicles 22:1. Then David said, "This is the house of the house of the Lord of God. And this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel." And you can read the story 58:54 before that. There was pestilence and David is afraid. He's crushed. He's humbled. He's messed up big time. And then he goes to the uh to this house of Oran. Um and in let's go back to chapter 21 59:13 verse 22. David said to Oran, "Give me the sight of this threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord for the full full price you shall give it to me that the plague may be restrained." And Oran said, "You're the king, David. 59:25 You do whatever you want. You don't have I don't you have to buy it from me. You can have it. It's yours. Take it for yourself and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings 59:35 and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering. I'll give it all. David could have thought, "Oh, that's kind of you. You will put your name on a stone since you gave so much as part of a part of the the the the church. You 59:51 see this? Send so much. If you send beyond a certain amount, you'll have your name written somewhere on the building." But God, no, we don't need him here. your name will hear because we need your money. David knew this. 1:00:02 David's been crushed. He's made messed up so much that at this point he says, "Lord, there's only one thing that matters to me." Sure. Oh, it would be so much more efficient if ordinance giving me the place for free and he's giving 1:00:14 the wood and the oxen and everything is here, man. We should be able to get this thing up and going in a month. He says, "But God won't be there." He's learned his lesson. Verse 24, David said to Orna, "No, I will surely 1:00:29 buy it for the full price. For I will not take what is yours for the Lord or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing." Has being a part of the church cost you something 1:00:47 but hasn't? Maybe what you're doing is not where God has a dwelling place. God will find a dwelling place in the gathering of the people who re reverence him and for whom it has cost them something. They've had to give up something. 1:01:03 They've had to relinquish certain things and give up those things. And David got it. He says, "Orin, you you can offer to me, but I'm not going to take it. It's got to cost me something." And in those secret sacrifices in the 1:01:16 the in the secret areas of your life where you take up your cross and follow Jesus and you're sacrificing your life, laying yourself on the altar, offering your body as a living sacrifice day after day after day and you say, "Lord, 1:01:30 I'm giving you my body because my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and I'm giving it to you. You fill it, use it however you want, whatever you want to do with my life, Lord." For those of you who are single, maybe you have 1:01:40 aspirations to get married. Say, "Lord, I lay that on the altar. Marriage is up to you, Lord. I know it would be nice, but my body is yours. I don't have any right over it. I gave up my rights to my body when when I gave my life to you." I 1:01:52 hope that's what you did when you asked Jesus into your heart. My whole life is yours, Lord. If you choose for me to get married, that's great. If not, that's great. But I want my whole life to be a dwelling place for you primarily. Your 1:02:05 life, dear young people, is not your the goal in life is not to get married. is that your body would be a dwelling place for God. And now if you're married, the purpose of your marriage is not so that you will have enjoyment and fulfillment in 1:02:17 marriage. That's secondary. Your it's primarily that your marriage would be a dwelling place for God. And then if you have children, okay, that's great. You have a home now. It's not so that you can raise up another generation that will go and be 1:02:30 successful in life. Your home God has given you is so that it would be a dwelling place for God. And then in the church as well, the true church of Jesus Christ is a place that is primarily a dwelling for God. This is something better that God 1:02:48 has planned for you. Let's close in prayer. Place where he feels comfortable. Heavenly Father, I pray that you will refine our hearts, purify our hearts of every false motive we've had. Lord, any other ambition we've had that has 1:03:05 conflicted or distracted us from this your purpose in building the church. Oh Lord, I pray that you will establish the churches represented here as those places where you feel comfortable, where you have a dwelling place. Lord, 1:03:22 you're there. Thank you, Lord, that such a life is possible. It doesn't matter what the past has been like, forgetting the things that lie behind, pressing forward to what lies ahead. Lord, I pray that we will press forward for the prize 1:03:36 of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Lord, that from this day forward, our lives, our marriages, our homes, our children, and our gatherings, our church gatherings, Lord, will be those that are primarily for you to have a dwelling 1:03:52 place, a place where you can feel comfortable, a place where you can be at rest. Do it, Lord. I pray in this church and the homes represented here and the individual lives represented here, Lord, that we our lives will be dwelling 1:04:05 places where you can be at rest. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
