0:00 Good afternoon, church family. Good to be with you all. Uh we're going to be starting a series here at NCCF starting next week on new covenant truths from Matthew 5:7. We announced that in the committed members group. And 0:18 the Lord's been putting on my heart the fact that I really believe this is a season for a new foundation to be laid at NCCF. And uh I was really inspired by the testimonies I heard last week of some of our newly committed members. 0:37 And you can see even with some of the ones who are joining us more recently, a sense of hunger like we heard a sense of hunger for the things of God, not a sense of complacency, not a sense of richness. And it is my eager desire that each of 0:53 us, whether we've been here 10 years, 15 years, whether we've been here one month, like we just heard, that we come hungry, and the Lord will fill us, and the Lord will really purify for himself godly families, united families, and a 1:11 holy people in this church. Why did Christ die for us? We know the Sunday school answer. Christ died to forgive our sins. We've heard in this church, Christ died to save us from our sins. There are a couple of verses which talk 1:27 about a much bigger reason that Christ died. Forgive, save. Christ came to the world to be a forerunner. Titus 2:14, you don't need to turn there. In the King James version, it says, "Christ gave himself for me so that he might 1:42 redeem us. Gave himself for us plural. So he may redeem us from all sin." That's the first part. But to purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous for good works. And that's the church of God. The Christ 2:00 didn't just die to forgive my sins or even just to save me individually to be an overcomer. But he came to gather together a peculiar people. That's what the King James version says. And if you look around you, you in this 2:15 church, this hopefully isn't a cool church. It's it's a set of peculiar people. It's a bunch of misfits. That's what Colossians 3 talks about, right? We are called into a renewal. Colossians 3:10-11 talks about a renewal 2:32 that we are called into becoming more like Christ in which there's no distinction between Christ between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and cythian. Barbarian means completely uncultured people. Greek 2:45 means the most educated rich people. If you look around, that's what we see in our church today. We've got CEOs, people doing really well for themselves. We've got people who are living paycheck to paycheck, single moms struggling, 2:58 people who have been delivered from drug use, alcoholism, people who have been delivered from bad habits, people with broken homes, people whom the Lord is delivering from debt. And yet these brothers and sisters together can be united because of their 3:18 common hunger, their common humility, their desire to see the Lord glorified and for him to create take this peculiar people and pur purify for himself a church. So, I want to share today a little bit of my burden for what the Lord is doing 3:37 in NCCF with laying a new foundation and what it means for me and for all of us to build this church. Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 1. 2 Samuel chapter 7. And I want to 3:54 start with the burden of David. It says about David in 2 Samuel 7, it came about when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies. Pause there. What do you do when the Lord has 4:11 delivered you from a trial or you've got a peaceful circumstance right now? You've got the Lord has given your children admission into good colleges and they're doing well in school. They're um you're provided for financially. You're going to a good 4:26 church. They're being raised in with good Sunday school teachers. It's a time of rest that David had been delivered from the Philistines. It was a time of rest. But look at David's burden. In this time of rest, this was his burden. It says in 4:43 verse two, "The king said to Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains." And that must be our burden brothers and sisters to say I am not content with living this life for with God doing 5:02 things for me. God doing things for me is providing these cedar houses, these panel houses uh that I can live comfortably that he can provide my material needs here on this earth. But I want to do something for God. I want the 5:15 house of God to have the same to have that same value to be panled in cedar. I want to have a burden for building the house of God. And that's what David had. When he was in a time of peace, in a time of complacency, when the Lord had 5:30 delivered him from trials, he cried out to the prophet and said, "I must build the house of the Lord." And the prophet said through uh God God said through the prophet that it was not for him to do it, but it was for his son 5:44 Solomon to do it. And it's interesting, we know the progression of David's life, how he had a burden to build the Lord's house, but the Lord didn't use him. Yet, he used his son. And we know the we know the story of Solomon that Solomon was 5:57 distracted with other things. And it's interesting if you turn to one Kings chapter 6 and you look about where this started with David crying out to the Lord and said, "I must build a house for the Lord." A generation later it completes in 1 6:13 kings chapter 6 first kings 6 and verse 38 which is the last verse it says in the 11th year uh in the month of bull which is the 8th month the house was finished the temple of God was finished according to all its plans and 6:31 it was seven years in building it seven years to build this temple of God that was whose burden not Solomon's burden it was David's burden A generation later, seven years to build it. And here's the sad part. The very next verse, it's sort of the opposite of 6:45 what we read in 2 Samuel 7:1. This is First Kings 7, one book later, same chapter. First Kings 7:1. Now Solomon was building his own house for 13 years. And he finished his home. And what a sad testimony that Solomon was spending twice as much time building 7:04 his own home, his own kingdom here on this earth. Twothirds of his time building his own kingdom and seven years building the house of the Lord. Sounds like a good thing. We we know the story. Solomon built the temple of God, but his 7:19 priorities were misaligned. David, meanwhile, the Lord had provided for and he had only one burden. He's like, I must build the house of Lord. I must dwell in the house of Lord. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of 7:30 the Lord than be a king elsewhere. That was his burden. And that must be our burden today. Not what can God do for me? What can I do for God? What can I do for the church of God? What can I do to encourage these brothers and sisters who 7:44 have recently committed? These ones who need my help to practice hospitality like Romans 12 talks about what the church is supposed to be to give preference to one another to honor in honor to see the weaker members given 7:59 more abundant honor and the ones who are lacking in honor of given more honor. This is the burden that the Lord has to build his church that we must have. There's a similar verse in Haggi chapter 1. Keep in mind, Haggi is writing this at a 8:16 time when there is a burden for these exiles in Babylon, the Jews who are in exile in Babylon to come back and rebuild the temple, rebuild the ball, to rebuild the wall, which is what Ezra and Nehemiah talk about. Hagi 1:4 it says, "Is it time for you 8:32 yourselves to dwell in your panled houses while my house while the Lord's house lies desolate?" Verse 7, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountains, bring wood, and rebuild the temple that I may be pleased 8:51 with it and be glorified, says his Lord." And therefore, because of you, verse 10, the sky is withhold its due and the earth has withhold its produ produce. If you're if you're in a season of drought in your life, perhaps it's because 9:04 you're building your own house, your own kingdom, and the Lord is saying, "Go up to the mountains and gather wood." Every day we have an opportunity, spiritually speaking, to go up to the mountains, to go up to the Lord and gather wood. What 9:18 are we praying for? That's our gathering of wood, so to speak. What are we asking the Lord for? Are we asking for a peaceful situation, for a immigration situation to be sorted out? All good prayers. That's good for our home, so to 9:33 speak. Are we praying to the Lord for our wives, for our children? That's part of building the church, which I'm going to talk about today. For their for them to grow up to be disciples, for us to be united, for this church, 9:48 for this church to be purified, to be a spotless bride for him. That's gathering wood to build the house of the Lord. So I want to share today about the progression of three ways that we can build the church. And I'm going to use 10:05 four H's, four four words which start with the letter H that talk about uh that can help you understand how I see us building the house of God. The first way is that the Lord will use humble and hungry people. We already 10:22 heard that from brother Wenhai about hungry people. The second is he will use harmonious families. And the third is he desires a holy church. So we'll start with the first one which is what we're called to be which is 10:40 humble and hungry members. Isaiah chapter 57. Isaiah 57 verse14 it says and it will be said build up build up this is about us think of this as us building up the church 10:57 build up prepare the way remove every obstacle out of the way of my people examine your hearts what is like we heard last week about distractions what are the obstacles in your heart today that are preventing you from focusing on the Lord 11:15 building you up. We're called to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. There's a picture of us individually being the house of God. The Bible says we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. There's a picture of our families being the temp 11:26 being the house of God. And there's a picture of the church being the house of God. What are the obstacles in your life that are preventing you from building up what the Lord intends to be the house of the Lord. Perhaps it's your pride 11:39 >> recording in progress. Perhaps it's the area of your life that you think you're an expert in and I can do this on my own. I don't need God's help. Perhaps it's working out somebody else's salvation because you're looking at your 11:51 spouse and saying, "I wish they would take care of this." Do you trust that the Lord is working in your spouse? Or perhaps it's the pursuit of money, your worry, your anxiety. These are all obstacles that the Lord is saying, 12:04 "Remove these things which are encumbering you." Verse 15. For thus says the high and exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy. I dwell in a high and holy place and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of 12:21 the lowly and to revive the heart of the the heart of the contrite. The Lord desires to build his home. When David cried out to say the the Lord's ark is living intents, the Lord has a desire to build his house in your heart, but he is not going to 12:39 come and take up residence in your home and build up that home. If you come with pride, you resist the proud. He wants to take residence with the contrite and the lowly. What does it mean to be humble, contrite, and lowly? 12:54 Jesus is that example where he says I can't do anything on my own initiative. I am giving up Philippians 2. I'm giving up all of the things that I have claimed to at the throne of heaven and I'm coming down to be a human being. Not 13:06 only that, I'm coming down to become a uh servant to you and I'm coming down to die a death of a criminal abandoning it. Abandoning all of the things that I might be entitled to and saying I'm going to live a life of total dependence 13:19 on my father. That's humility. Humility is saying I can't do a single thing on my own. It's like a baby crying out for milk. The baby doesn't have time to to look at the other baby and say, "Hey, how come that baby is not crying 13:35 out for milk? How come my husband's not crying out? I am so hungry to depend on the Lord. I don't have time to compare my how often I cry compared to the other baby that cries. I just I want to cry out to the Lord because I need to be 13:48 fed. And I want to trust the Lord that the baby next to me is getting fed, that my wife, that my children, and I want to cry out for them as well, but not condescend, not look at them and judge them. And this is the heart of humility 14:02 that the Lord wants to take residence in. And it says here that he wants to revive. I love this word revival. We talk, we talk about revival. The church must have a revival. Who is the one that experiences a revival? This word says that the revival of the 14:17 spirit only comes to the one who is lowly. The revival that the Lord is looking for comes to the one who's contrite. The Lord says if you come hungry, it's the same verse we heard that uh when high shared from Luke 1, if 14:31 I come hungry, he will revive me with good things. If I come lowly, he will revive me and lift me up. And then tomorrow I'm hungry again and again he revives me. That's the fullness of the Holy Spirit that I must seek for which 14:44 starts with humility. A few chapters later in Isaiah chapter 66, similar verse. Isaiah 66:1 says, "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my foottool. Where then is a house you can build for me? Are you interested in building the Lord's house? 15:03 Where is a place that I may rest? For my hand has made all these things." Thus all things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look. This is the one who can build a house for me. To him who is humble and contrite of 15:17 spirit and who trembles at my word. Have you thought about that last part? Do you tremble at the word of the Lord? Do you come on Sundays eager to hear a word or not eager to hear a word but just showing up here because you've always shown up and 15:36 saying ah that word was okay. It was not meant for me. I think it was targeted at somebody else. Or do you come with an attitude of Lord I want to come here and I want the word of the Lord to cause me to tremble to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit to 15:53 cause me to shake with the fear of the Lord because it's not true in my life. Brothers and sisters, every word we hear here must be personally targeted to me. I'm saying me, but each of you should be able to say me to yourself. 16:12 Otherwise, we're missing out. And otherwise, it's not the church for you. Otherwise, you're stagnating and you're missing out on the double-edged sword that is meant to pierce you. If you come here on a given Sunday and 16:25 you've not received a word that is targeted for you or you take offense that the word feels targeted to you, you are in danger. The word must be targeted for me. The word must cause me to tremble, must cause me to be called 16:43 up higher. It's not a word of condemnation. It's a word of conviction that says Lord I can't do it on my own but I can do nothing on my own but with Christ I can do all things that through I can do all things with Christ who 16:55 strengthens me you will give me the power of the Holy Spirit to come to you in humility and receive grace receive your power to fulfill the spirit of every word I hear here and that trembling must be something that we that 17:11 is in our hearts from every word that we hear you. Join with me to Psalms 107. Psalms 107 verse uh 35 talks about what the Lord is going to do for the hungry people, for the ones who come hungry. It 17:31 says, "He changes a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry land into springs of water." And who does he do this for? Who does he do the changing of wilderness into a pool of water and a dry land or springs of water? There he causes the hungry to 17:47 dwell so that they may establish an inhabited city. And that's a picture of the church that the Lord wants to establish with ones who are hungry. And verse 41, Psalms 107:41, he sets the needy securely on high away from affliction. 18:05 If you have any insecurity of any type, the Lord is your source of security. If you have, come to him with your sense of neediness and he will secure you. Hide away from affliction. And the beautiful part of this last part 18:17 of this verse which says, "And he makes his families like a flock." And this takes me to the second point which is the Lord desires to build his house through harmonious families. Ask yourself today, is your family a flock? 18:35 Do you feel like your family is a flock? And perhaps the reason your family is not a flock, if you have infighting between husband and wife, children and parents, children with each other, it's because you're not needy. You have not come to 18:49 this point of where your security must be found in God and says, "Lord, I am needy for my children. I'm needy for my spouse. I'm not going to point the finger at my wife. I'm not going to point the finger at my husband. I'm 19:01 going to trust that you are working in them and I'm going to intercede for them in prayer and I'm not I'm going to look at my own need and cry out to you and trust that you are going to make my family set aside on this hill secure 19:16 from affliction as a flock. Brothers and sisters, if we are a church of hungry, needy husbands, hungry, needy wives, hungry, needy children, the Lord will make our families a flock. And we will have harmonious families 19:34 that the Lord can then use to show up in this church. And the fragrance of Christ that comes from a harmonious family will build the church in individual ministries in the church. I want to talk a little bit about what building the church is through the eyes 19:52 of the example we've heard recently of uh the ones who were sent back to build the wall uh from the book of Nehemiah. So if you turn with me there I'm going to be traversing a few of uh the chapters a few of the verses in uh through uh uh 20:09 chapters in Nehemiah. Let's start in Nehemiah chapter 3. And I'm not going to go through this uh entire this is a chapter that if you've read you've probably skipped right over because it's just a bunch of names and genealogies of people who did what. But 20:25 there's some important truths to be learned here. What's interesting if you just browse through these verses, if you just eyeball these verses in uh Nehemiah 3, it talks about different names, who their parents were, who their father 20:41 was, and what they did to build the church. And that to me was a picture of a family that the Lord didn't have to mention who the families were. But I see a picture here of a family. Use the son of Haraya. Verse 8, Rafa, the son of Hur. 20:58 And I see here a picture of people representing their families doing some ministry in the church. And there's one interesting person which it talks about. It says, "Oh, this person did this part of the wall. This other person did this 21:11 part of the wall. this person repair the gate. But there's a couple interesting thing I want to point out here. Verse 20, there's one person of whom it said he did it zealously. Verse 20, everybody it says they did this uh these different pieces of work 21:30 after him. Baroo the son of Zabi zealously repaired a section. Can that be said about us or our families? Tony, the son of Thomas, zealously contributed to the Sunday school 21:47 ministry. Daniela, the son of Arnaldo, zealously encouraged her siblings. Sorry, I'm looking at those are right in front of me. That's a danger of sitting up in front. I might use your name. That's the calling of the Lord that he 22:03 can say these sons and daughters of this family zealously did their part to build up the body, to build up their family, to encourage their siblings, to contribute to Sunday school, to play the music, to take care of the AV. They did it 22:20 zealously. And here's another person I'll talk about. And I think this is the only passage which talks about we we often the you've heard my dad speak about how the elders are meant to be toilet cleaners. When somebody comes to the church and 22:36 ask for a ministry, we start them out with saying, "Hey, why don't you clean the toilets?" This is a passage which talks about which recognizes the person who helped fix and repair the toilet. Look at this in verse 14. I've never seen a verse 22:51 like this. And I'll I'll share how how it refers to in the King James version. Malijah, the son of Reab, an official of the district. Imagine he was a son of an official. He's a senior person, son of a senior official, repaired the dung gate. That was his 23:08 job. The refuge gate, the dung gate. He is the son of a senior official. And he's his he decided, I'm going to go fix up the toilets and repair the toilets. What a beautiful ministry. These are names we should take note of when we get 23:25 to heaven. Let's go and meet Malijah, the guy who fixed up the toilets in the house of God. And Baroo, the one who works zealously in the house of the Lord. This is a picture of harmonious families coming together doing whatever 23:40 is needed in the house of God to build up the church. But it didn't come without opposition. And if we move on to the next chapter, Nehemiah chapter 4, it says as Nehemiah was starting to build a wall. In verse two, it says uh 23:58 it came about in in verse one said it came about when San Balat heard that that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria 24:09 and said, "What are these feeble Jews doing?" And you might have others around you, others not in this church. Perhaps you're one with the spirit of this in this church that says, "Oh, this oh bunch of feeble people, what are they 24:21 doing? It's not going to succeed." Do you have that attitude of criticism or accusation to your brother and sister, to your spouse? Do you look down at them as feeble, as weak because they're falling number of times? Do you look down or or despise 24:36 your elders because you disagree with the way they are leading this church? Do you have a spirit of accusation or criticism? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish it in a day? Can they 24:50 revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones? Is that the way you look at your brothers and sisters who are weaker, who only have dusty rubble to offer? And if you're one of those who says, "Lord, I don't have anything to offer. 25:07 All I have is this dusty rubble." Well, guess what? The Lord is going to use your dusty rubble and those burned bricks. Even a dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish. Those burned bricks and that dusty rubble of what you think is your 25:23 life today. The Lord is going to build this church. And he's going to build your family harmoniously with dusty rubble and burned bricks. The more dusty, the more burned you are, the more he can be used of you because you will 25:36 be hungry and humble. He doesn't need polished shiny bricks to build this church. He needs he wants a church of misfits, ones that are dusty rubble, burnt. He can use that. And Tobaya the Ammonite was near him and he said verse three, when they were 25:52 building, if a fox would jump on it, he would break their stone wall down. And that might be the attitude some of us might have. Or even if we're on the other end of it, we might say, "Oh, I can't contribute anything. If something 26:03 jumps on this, it will it will break." But the Lord is saying, "I'm going to build a house, the house of God, your family, as weak and as fragile as it looks right now, that if a small animal jumps on it, it'll break our home. I'm 26:18 going to use it because I'm going to be the one that unites this home. I'm going to be the one that unites this temple." And this is how the Lord did it. It said, "These men came against them in accusation and in criticism, and 26:30 Nehemiah gathered the men." Verse 13, it says, "I I station men in the lowest parts of the space between the wall, the exposed places." And I love this second part of this verse. I st how did Nehemiah station the people? I stationed 26:45 the people in families. He could have easily brought his greatest warriors and put them in charge of different exposed sections of the wall. But he said the Lord instructed him say you are going to station people in the exposed portions 26:58 of the church in families with their swords and their spears and bows. And this is a great picture of how the Lord wants to build this church with united families who are stationed in a ministry and in an exposed part of the church 27:12 with their spears in one hand ready to fight off the enemy. The thoughts of accusation that are creeping in, the thoughts of compromise, the words of compromise, the words of gossip that are creeping into our homes, words of judgmentalism, words of unkind 27:29 words that are showing up in our teenagers or our young children. And that's God is positioning us as families to take a sword to those. And when our enemies when I saw their fear, I arose and spoke to the nobles. Verse 14. And the rest of the people, do 27:46 not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who's great and awesome and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. That is the message of the church. The Lord is great and awesome. And 27:58 therefore, I will fight for every one of my brothers. I will fight for every one of my children. I will fight for my wife and my home. I will take up the fight. This is how the Lord intends to build his church. From verse 16, from that day on, half of 28:18 my servants carried on the work, while half of them held spears, shields, bows, and breastplates, the armor of God, so to speak, and captains were behind the whole house of Judah. Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who 28:30 carried burdens took their load with the one hand doing the work and the other building a weapon. It's a beautiful picture of how we build a church with a sword that is meant to protect ourselves against. We don't wage war against flesh and blood. We wage war 28:48 against attitudes and thoughts and the schemes of the devil that are attacking us, our flesh, the compromise that's invading our homes. A sword against those. A sword of the fear of the Lord and a brick of encouragement. 29:04 a charred brick, a dusty rubble brick. It's okay. The Lord will use it to build it. A beautiful picture of how we should be as fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters in this church, siblings, sword in one hand, brick in 29:19 the other to build up the church. Finally, I want to share how the Lord intends to build his church with as a truly holy people. Nemiah chapter 10. And he does it through these small contributions. 29:38 Nemiah 10:39, a few chapters later, it says, "The sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring their contribution of grain." Think of this as the, you know, we we know the story of the boy who brought his loaves and fish. This is 29:52 a calling for each of us in the church. Bring your contribution of grain and the new wine and the oil to the chambers. That's a picture of us being filled with the Holy Spirit with wine and oil. Just bring your little contribution of grain. 30:06 And the priests were ministering and the gatekeepers and singers. Thus, we will not neglect the house of our God. Nemiah 10:39. The way we neglect the house of God is by not showing up with our contribution of grain. by not showing up with a word 30:21 to encourage our spouses, our children, our brothers and sisters. By not showing up with an eagerness to be filled with the wine and the oil of the Holy Spirit. That's the way the Lord wants to build his church is by these small 30:36 contributions. And yet he he has this high standard of calling for the church that we should not take lightly. I'll show you one more verse in Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 43. There's an interesting sequence of 30:55 passages in Ezekiel where the Lord is dictating the specific instructions like we heard a few weeks ago of how the Lord has the wall to be built, the exact measurements that needs to be built, the high standards of the church, the high 31:09 calling of holiness. And it culminates with a beautiful passage in Isaia in Ezekiel 43:10. And he says, "As as for you, son of man, describe the temple of the house of Israel, so that the people may be ashamed of their iniquities and let them measure 31:24 the plan. If they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structures, its exits, its entrances." So what is the calling to the one who is ready to repent of their sins and receive forgiveness? It's not just 31:39 receive forgiveness and chill. If you are ashamed of what the Lord has convicted you of and if he's called you into repentance, then the Lord has a desire to make known to you the high standards of how he wants to build his 31:54 house. And that's why when we hear a difficult word from the pulpit here today over the course of the next few weeks, don't take it as a word of condemnation. Take it as a word of being called up higher. The Lord is setting a new 32:08 foundation. And if you are truly repentant and you seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, he will use you to measure these exact length and width and the designs that he has called for us in the church. Going back to what I said in the 32:24 beginning, why did Christ die for us? To purify him for himself, a peculiar people. Ephesians 5 talks about that as well, which said husbands are supposed to love their wives the way Christ loved the church. How did he love the church? 32:35 By laying down his life. Here's another verse which talks about why Christ died. He laid down his life to sanctify to make holy. That's what sanctify means. And to cleanse and to present to himself a church that is holy without spot and wrinkle. 32:54 So when we take seriously as a church and you as brothers and sisters might look at it and be critical and say, "Oh, that's a minor thing. Why are they emphasizing such a minor thing?" Well, the Lord has a desire to make sure that 33:09 we get rid of spots and wrinkles. He wants to present a pure and holy church. And that is our calling. He died so that he may present us as a church, not just individuals, not just families, but the entire church holy and 33:24 blameless, without blemish, without even a spot and wrinkle. That's the desire of the Lord. And as the Lord's laying this foundation, I just want to share one verse in closing. There's two responses we can have to this. If you go back to 33:40 me to an earlier chap, the earlier book uh behind before Nehemiah, which is Ezra, Ezra chapter 3, Ezra Ezra chapter 3 11 and 12. This is a picture of as the foundation of the new temple is being built or you 33:59 can say as the foundation of our NCCF is being rebuilt. Ezar 31 and 12 says they sang praising and giving thanks to the Lord saying for he is good for his loving kindness is upon Israel forever. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they 34:16 praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. That must be attitude of joyful rejoicing as the Lord is establishing a new found foundation. But here is a counterpoint to that. Yet many of the priests and the Levites and 34:31 the heads of the fathers households, the old men who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes. So that the people could not distinguish verse 13 between the sound 34:43 of the shout and the sound of the weeping. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is calling us up higher. He's laying a new foundation in this church. Do not weep for the good old days. Rejoice for what the Lord is going to do 34:59 in his church today. Rejoice for the fact that he's calling us up higher. The phrase good old days should not be in the Christians vocabulary. There is no such thing as good old days. There's only better days. Tomorrow is today is 35:13 the day of salvation. Today is the day the Lord is calling us higher. Maybe rejoice in the foundation that he's laying down for us here in this church. That starts with humble, hungry, contrite hearts that he's going to 35:27 revive. And then unite husbands and wives and children. Turn the hearts of children to their fathers and mothers. Turn the wives of turn the hearts of spouses to each other to have harmonious families that he can set aside as a flock 35:43 together with to do any ministry that he calls for in this church so that we can be purified to be a holy spotless bride of Christ without blemish and without wrinkle.
