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2017-03-05 Dedication of the Temple


Whisper Transcript | Transcript Only Page

00:00:00.000 | If you can turn your Bibles with me to 2nd Chronicles 6, verse 12, and I'm just going
00:00:09.920 | to read a short section and the rest of it I'm going to read as we go through the passage.
00:00:15.640 | This is where Solomon and Israel, after they're done building the temple, dedicated it to
00:00:21.080 | the Lord.
00:00:22.080 | So what I want to do is follow the pattern that Solomon gives and use that as a pattern
00:00:25.520 | for us to come before the Lord and ask for His blessing over our church and over what
00:00:32.840 | we are doing.
00:00:33.840 | So 2nd Chronicles 6, verse 12-17.
00:00:39.880 | Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all assembly of Israel
00:00:43.800 | and spread out his hands.
00:00:45.920 | Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high,
00:00:51.720 | and had set it in the court.
00:00:53.240 | And he stood on it, then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel
00:00:56.920 | and spread out his hands toward heaven and said, "O Lord God of Israel, there is no God
00:01:01.400 | like you in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants
00:01:06.440 | who walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with your servant David my father
00:01:10.920 | what you declared to him.
00:01:12.920 | You spoke with your mouth and with your hand have fulfilled it this day.
00:01:17.260 | Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you
00:01:21.480 | have promised him, saying, 'You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne
00:01:26.200 | of Israel.
00:01:27.200 | If only your sons may pay close attention to their way, to walk in my laws as you have
00:01:31.560 | walked before me.'
00:01:33.080 | Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, let your word be confirmed which you have spoken to
00:01:37.240 | your servant David."
00:01:38.240 | Let's pray.
00:01:42.520 | Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for today.
00:01:47.040 | We thank you for this week and as crazy as it was and just through human eyes, just what
00:01:53.480 | we as a church together went through.
00:01:56.880 | We thank you for all the servants.
00:01:58.160 | We thank you for the people that you brought together.
00:02:01.120 | We thank you for the facility that we have where we can focus our energy, Lord God, on
00:02:07.200 | the things that matter.
00:02:08.640 | We pray, Father God, that this would not be a distraction, but only cause your church
00:02:12.760 | to be focused even more.
00:02:14.820 | Help us to understand your heart as we search your word.
00:02:17.280 | In Jesus' name we pray.
00:02:19.280 | Amen.
00:02:20.680 | The dedication of the temple that is listed here in 2 Chronicles and also in the book
00:02:25.400 | of Kings is a very important part of Israel's history.
00:02:30.120 | Last week we saw that one of the benefits that the Israelites enjoyed was that Paul
00:02:36.640 | said theirs was the glory and theirs was the worship.
00:02:40.920 | And one of the most tangible things that he talks about, obviously he's talking about
00:02:44.600 | the temple, that there is a physical place that they were able to come and serve and
00:02:47.660 | worship God.
00:02:50.420 | We want to follow the pattern of this wise man's blessing and there's some prophetic
00:02:56.040 | things that he says here that I think would be beneficial for us to just kind of go down
00:03:00.240 | the list and I want to follow this pattern with you.
00:03:03.200 | So first thing is after he dedicates the temple, what he does is he builds a bronze platform
00:03:11.160 | and he stands on it and he kneels before the nation of Israel to make a public prayer asking
00:03:15.960 | the Lord to bless it.
00:03:17.120 | And that was the dedication ceremony that he has.
00:03:20.400 | That's the passage that we read.
00:03:22.020 | And so after he does that he breaks out into public prayer asking the Lord's blessing.
00:03:27.220 | And so the very first thing that he prays for in verse 18, and then we're going to go
00:03:32.520 | down the list of things that he prays for.
00:03:34.280 | Verse 18, he says, "But will God indeed dwell with man on earth?
00:03:40.080 | Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that
00:03:47.080 | I have built."
00:03:49.520 | First thing that Solomon does, he acknowledges what the temple is not.
00:03:54.820 | Before we get distracted to think that somehow we're a better church because we have a building,
00:03:59.380 | has a nice facilities and technology, that somehow we've arrived, that that is not the
00:04:04.580 | case.
00:04:06.300 | Whatever problems that we had before we came into the building, we still have it.
00:04:10.920 | Whatever things that we need to work on, having a building does not fix it.
00:04:14.540 | It doesn't cause us to love Christ more.
00:04:16.500 | It doesn't cause us to be better disciples.
00:04:19.020 | It's a building.
00:04:20.700 | So first thing that Solomon acknowledges that our God is much greater than anything that
00:04:25.140 | he could have possibly built.
00:04:27.300 | Can we truly contain God in this small building?
00:04:31.180 | First and foremost, he acknowledges and he confesses that it is just a building.
00:04:37.740 | It is just a building.
00:04:38.740 | It is a better building, nicer building, larger building, better equipment, you know, these
00:04:45.860 | things, you know, my voice is bouncing off the wall right now, but we'll fix that, right?
00:04:51.580 | But it's a building.
00:04:53.020 | We know that in the end, the church is not the building.
00:04:55.660 | If people are attracted to come to church because we have a nice building, that is not
00:04:59.620 | the church that ultimately honors God.
00:05:03.300 | So first and foremost, we have to recognize what it is not.
00:05:07.920 | It does not make us better.
00:05:09.620 | It does not make us stronger.
00:05:11.460 | It doesn't cause us to have to have better disciple making.
00:05:14.860 | It doesn't cause us to be better organized.
00:05:17.220 | We do have better facility, right?
00:05:19.520 | And don't get me wrong.
00:05:20.700 | I'm excited.
00:05:21.700 | I'm excited to be here.
00:05:23.420 | And part of the reason I'm excited really was this week because this week physically
00:05:27.620 | watching the church physically build the church.
00:05:30.820 | And I remember I think it was Jason who said he showed up one night and he thought he was
00:05:34.300 | going to do some cleaning and light touching and maybe screwing some screws.
00:05:38.220 | And then he realized, shoot, we're actually building the church.
00:05:42.100 | You know, we had to put beams inside the church building and really we could not have done
00:05:47.020 | it without the church.
00:05:48.100 | I'm more excited about that, you know, that we can take ownership together of this church.
00:05:53.620 | But in the end, we need to first and foremost acknowledge before we do anything else that
00:05:58.580 | it is a larger room with better facility.
00:06:02.080 | But despite that, the second thing that he says in verse 19, he says, yet, although there's
00:06:07.340 | no way that we can capture your glory just because we have a better building.
00:06:10.980 | So yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, oh Lord, my God, listen to
00:06:17.020 | the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, that your eyes may be open
00:06:21.820 | day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name,
00:06:26.180 | that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place and listen
00:06:30.420 | to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place and
00:06:35.140 | listen from heaven, your dwelling place.
00:06:37.100 | And when you hear forgive the benefit of having a larger building that we can have more people
00:06:45.460 | praying and seeking the Lord, that despite the fact that it's just a building, building
00:06:50.220 | is a blessing.
00:06:51.220 | It is a blessing because our children can be taught Sunday school.
00:06:55.180 | Our parents don't have to worry about our kids running around in the parking lot.
00:06:58.340 | We have a place where we can have prayer meetings.
00:07:00.460 | We have a place where we can have Bible study.
00:07:03.340 | But more than anything else, that if the church is not a place where we meet God, then it
00:07:09.740 | just becomes a building.
00:07:12.020 | Then it just becomes walls.
00:07:13.460 | It just becomes superficial.
00:07:16.820 | It has to be first and foremost a place where people come to meet God, to cry out to God,
00:07:22.700 | to meet with him.
00:07:24.780 | I remember when I was back in college, there's this particular chapel at Biola.
00:07:29.460 | I was on that campus for four years undergrad and a couple years in grad school.
00:07:33.500 | I was on that campus for about seven years.
00:07:36.020 | And during those seven years was probably when my faith was challenged and I grew the
00:07:40.100 | most.
00:07:41.100 | I was discipled and there were periods of hardship in life and loneliness.
00:07:46.860 | And I remember that there's a particular chapel.
00:07:49.300 | Those of you guys, I don't know, some of you guys may know this campus, Rosemayor Chapel.
00:07:54.040 | When I was going there, they had it open 24/7.
00:07:57.420 | So I remember countless number of days and hours I would spend in the morning and the
00:08:01.940 | afternoon and sometimes just sit there.
00:08:04.500 | I don't have anything particular to say, but it was a time, it was a place where I could
00:08:08.180 | go to fellowship with my heavenly father.
00:08:10.860 | And there were many, many times I would just sit there and say, I have nothing to say,
00:08:14.020 | but I just want to be, I just want to commune with the father.
00:08:18.200 | So when I think about meeting God, that place, that particular place has special meaning
00:08:25.500 | for me because I spent so much time in that room.
00:08:30.460 | I pray that our church facility will have that kind of impact on you.
00:08:36.180 | That when you think of the church, you don't think about the nice facilities and different
00:08:39.860 | things that you have, but this is the place that you would come to meet God.
00:08:43.500 | That many, many years from now on, whether you are still attending this church or not,
00:08:47.860 | when you think of these years, that you can say, I remember sitting there crying out to
00:08:53.100 | the Lord.
00:08:54.420 | I remember going into that room, having deep conversations where I met with him and I cried
00:09:00.540 | with him.
00:09:01.620 | And when I was lonely, this is the place I went and I pray as Solomon was praying, that
00:09:07.940 | despite the fact that it's just a facility, that God would bless this facility as a place
00:09:12.940 | where we'd have deep spiritual meaning and memories of meeting the Lord.
00:09:19.140 | That this truly would be a house of prayer.
00:09:22.880 | He continues to pray in verse 22.
00:09:25.740 | He says, "If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and
00:09:32.260 | swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear from the heaven and act and
00:09:36.980 | judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head and vindicating
00:09:41.580 | the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness."
00:09:45.500 | His second prayer, and he opens up a long list of different prayers, particularly dealing
00:09:51.980 | with sin.
00:09:53.720 | And the first thing that he mentions is fellowship, because there's nothing that ruins genuine
00:09:58.720 | worship and meeting God when there's contention in the church.
00:10:02.020 | Now, obviously, whenever there's contention, it's always the other person's fault.
00:10:06.880 | There's a reason why Jesus says in Matthew 5, 22, "Before, not during, not after, before
00:10:12.300 | you come to the altar, if the brother has something against you, go and deal with it.
00:10:16.660 | Reconcile with him before you come, because it's going to hinder your worship."
00:10:21.060 | There's nothing that ruins the church's prayer, the church's worship, the church's singing,
00:10:27.620 | disciple making, than contentious relationships.
00:10:31.300 | And that's why the first thing that he prays and recognizes, "Lord, hear our prayer."
00:10:35.660 | The first thing that he prays is, "Help us in our community that we would love one another."
00:10:43.180 | In Matthew 6, the Lord's Prayer, he says, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
00:10:49.260 | That is a requirement of coming before the Lord.
00:10:52.900 | That if I want my prayers heard, first and foremost, learn how to forgive, learn how
00:10:57.420 | to receive forgiveness.
00:11:00.660 | Then he goes on and he talks about when disaster, when God disciplines because of sin, and we
00:11:07.700 | recognize that that is the case, that we would have enough sense to come to the Lord and
00:11:11.980 | repent.
00:11:13.340 | And when we repent, that God would hear our prayers.
00:11:16.780 | If you look at the bulk of the content of Solomon's prayer and dedication, it's about
00:11:21.220 | dealing with sin.
00:11:23.300 | Dealing with sin against each other, dealing with sin because we've disobeyed God and disaster
00:11:30.420 | comes and we go to fight and we are defeated.
00:11:33.340 | There's famine that's coming, there's a drought that comes, and he says, "When these things
00:11:37.460 | happen for the purpose of disciplining and you recognize the problem is our own sins,
00:11:44.380 | and to recognize that the only solution to these things is to come before the Lord in
00:11:47.980 | prayer, say, 'Please forgive us.'"
00:11:52.060 | See, the greatest purpose of this building, of our congregation, is reconciliation with
00:11:58.740 | our Father.
00:12:00.960 | We can build great communities, we can have great children facilities, and we can have
00:12:05.540 | great social justice programs and all of these things.
00:12:10.300 | But when Jesus says, "My house will be a house of prayer," first and foremost, it's a calling
00:12:16.720 | for reconciliation, to be reconciled with God.
00:12:20.560 | Everything in Israel's history, all of their system, all the temple worship, every prophet
00:12:24.740 | that prophesied, all of it, at the core of it, is about reconciling with God.
00:12:29.380 | So the dedication of the temple is a dedication to come before the Lord is, "When I repent,
00:12:34.500 | would you hear?"
00:12:36.800 | Every single Christian that comes to this room must first and foremost come humble before
00:12:41.540 | the Lord.
00:12:43.440 | Not with the idea of somehow I'm going to improve the church by doing this or doing
00:12:46.740 | that.
00:12:48.980 | First and foremost, to humble themselves and seek his face.
00:12:53.620 | See, in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 9, it says, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline
00:12:59.020 | of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
00:13:01.860 | For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives."
00:13:06.300 | Do you realize that when Solomon is praying these things, that he is admitting the propensity
00:13:12.260 | of Israel to sin?
00:13:13.880 | This is the beginning of Israel's history.
00:13:15.600 | This is at the peak of Israel's history.
00:13:18.900 | During Solomon's reign, Israel was the most powerful.
00:13:21.840 | They were the most wealthy.
00:13:24.000 | So humanly speaking, they would have naturally thought that the Lord blesses us.
00:13:27.840 | We must be doing something right.
00:13:30.680 | We're able to go and conquer.
00:13:32.580 | Solomon did not experience much defeat among the enemies.
00:13:36.180 | So when he's praying these things, it's because he recognizes in his wisdom the propensity
00:13:41.200 | to sin.
00:13:42.800 | And that's exactly what it says in verse 36, "If they sin against you, for there is no
00:13:46.500 | one who does not sin, and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they
00:13:52.680 | are carried away, captive to a land far or near."
00:13:56.820 | Remember when he prays this prayer?
00:13:59.520 | It was hundreds of years before Israel was taken into captivity.
00:14:03.280 | It is at the peak of Israel's success, he prays this prayer.
00:14:09.400 | Because we have a propensity to sin, and when you bring judgment upon us, and we are taken
00:14:14.080 | away to the foreign land, and we recognize that it was our sin, and when we repent, would
00:14:18.760 | you forgive us?
00:14:20.680 | It is our propensity to sin why Christ came and died for us.
00:14:26.240 | It is our propensity to be proud, to seek after things that do not honor God.
00:14:34.520 | And this is the reason why Christ came.
00:14:36.280 | This is why he established the church, and he said, "I will build my church, and the
00:14:39.800 | gates of Hades will not prevail against it."
00:14:42.440 | See, this dedication of the temple in his wisdom recognized, we need Jesus.
00:14:50.800 | Now Solomon never mentions the name Jesus, because it was hundreds and hundreds of years
00:14:55.960 | before that is fulfilled, but everything about the temple was about the preparation of the
00:15:00.640 | coming of Christ.
00:15:03.040 | And so he says, "When we sin, not if we sin, not if we mess up, but when we sin, and we
00:15:08.840 | recognize it, would you hear our prayers?"
00:15:12.360 | You know, but what's also interesting, he doesn't stop there.
00:15:14.560 | He goes even further in verse 32.
00:15:16.720 | He prays, "Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people, Israel, comes from
00:15:21.160 | far country for the sake of your great name, and your mighty hand and your outstretched
00:15:25.640 | arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, hear from heaven your dwelling place and do
00:15:30.320 | according to all for which the foreigner calls you to do, in order that all the peoples of
00:15:34.520 | the earth may know your name and fear you as do your people Israel, and that they may
00:15:39.080 | know that this house that I have built is called by your name."
00:15:44.920 | Israel's constant problem was they became insulated.
00:15:47.440 | In fact, the whole book of Jonah is a rebuke to the nation of Israel.
00:15:52.560 | What's it to you if I want to be merciful to the Ninevites?
00:15:56.480 | And so the book ends in rebuke, and it wasn't just a rebuke to Jonah.
00:15:59.640 | It was about the whole nation of Israel.
00:16:02.440 | God said, "You are my holy nation, a royal priesthood to declare his glory."
00:16:08.520 | To where?
00:16:09.520 | To the world.
00:16:11.520 | Solomon, recognizing the propensity for the nation of Israel to become insulated and forget
00:16:16.960 | the foreigners, not realizing that God is for the world, not just for them.
00:16:22.960 | He prays for foreigners that when they come, that they would be received.
00:16:27.480 | Our church has entered the 20th year.
00:16:31.000 | We're going to have our anniversary, and I think that one of the biggest temptations
00:16:36.040 | and the struggles that we need to watch out for is that after a few years, we no longer
00:16:40.800 | function and have vision as a church plant.
00:16:45.160 | You know, when the church is first planted, we have this vision of reaching out to the
00:16:48.440 | lost, bringing non-Christians, and we evangelize and tell our friends and our neighbors and
00:16:53.600 | coworkers.
00:16:54.600 | But at some point in the growth of the church, we get to a point where we say, "Well, that's
00:16:59.320 | enough about outside.
00:17:00.560 | What about us?"
00:17:02.760 | And we forget why Christ established us.
00:17:06.000 | See, I think it is a grave danger when we forget that we're here as Christ's church.
00:17:13.840 | He established this church for His glory and ultimately for the gospel to go out to the
00:17:18.880 | remotest part of the world.
00:17:20.440 | That's why if you look at the book of Acts, chapter 8, you know the conversion of the
00:17:24.640 | eunuch?
00:17:25.640 | And it's a strange part in the story because gospel begins to spread, and all of a sudden
00:17:30.760 | randomly this eunuch, Ethiopian eunuch appears, and he's reading Isaiah 53, and then he says,
00:17:37.400 | "Well, who's going to tell me this thing?"
00:17:38.640 | And Philip the Evangelist says, "Well, that's talking about Jesus."
00:17:41.480 | And, "Well, if that's the case, I want to believe."
00:17:43.600 | And he gets baptized and he's gone.
00:17:46.600 | And this is all the history of how the early church started, and all of a sudden in Acts,
00:17:51.480 | chapter 8, eunuch appears and he disappears, gets baptized, and he's gone.
00:17:55.800 | What was the point of that story?
00:17:57.360 | How does that fit into the narrative of the early church?
00:18:00.920 | In fact, if you look carefully, you'll know that the conversion of the eunuch was very
00:18:05.920 | symbolic because there is prophecy in the book of Isaiah that specifically says that
00:18:12.360 | when the gospel comes, the kingdom will be open to the Gentiles and to eunuchs because
00:18:18.040 | these were people that were considered unclean.
00:18:21.540 | So it was symbolic in Roman.
00:18:23.040 | If you know the outline of the book of Acts, the gospel begins to go out from Jerusalem
00:18:27.600 | to Judea, to the remotest part of the world, in Acts, chapter 9.
00:18:32.840 | So in Acts, chapter 8, is where the eunuch gets converted and a Jew reading this would
00:18:38.320 | automatically realize the gospel has been opened to the world.
00:18:43.040 | See, God's intent was always the world.
00:18:48.160 | People constantly ask me, "At what point will you be satisfied with the growth of the
00:18:54.120 | church?"
00:18:55.120 | And I know there's a tinge of sarcasm in there asking, "When will your ego be satisfied?
00:19:00.920 | Are you looking to make a mega church?
00:19:04.160 | At what point are you going to say it's big enough?"
00:19:09.400 | Sarcasm is my gift, so I usually respond in sarcasm and I'll say, you know, "7.4 billion."
00:19:17.880 | That's the number I have in mind.
00:19:22.600 | Obviously, what I mean by that is the church wasn't planted ultimately so that we can
00:19:28.440 | have a nice community of people, raise our children together, and then our children will
00:19:31.840 | marry each other, you know what I mean?
00:19:34.080 | And we're all family and great.
00:19:37.840 | Like local church, everybody's here and generations of people living together.
00:19:42.800 | The church was not planted for that reason, ultimately.
00:19:45.700 | Those are all blessings that we have, those are all benefits that we experience, but in
00:19:49.640 | the end, it was for the world.
00:19:53.440 | And we should not be satisfied until the world is reached.
00:19:57.400 | He said when the gospel has gone to the most part of the world.
00:20:01.480 | We have to be careful that we don't create an environment or culture in a church where
00:20:06.000 | only certain people are welcome, people who are like us, who's going to add to us.
00:20:11.400 | A church, a real church, a church that God blesses, should be filled with all different
00:20:16.480 | kinds of people that we would never run into each other if we weren't Christians.
00:20:22.000 | People that we would never talk to if we weren't Christians.
00:20:24.560 | People who we would never live next to if we weren't Christians.
00:20:27.680 | That's the beauty of the church.
00:20:29.560 | All age, all culture, all background, whoever that we're surrounded by, that we're not here
00:20:33.620 | to be insulated so that we can create a nice Asian American community.
00:20:39.920 | Hopefully, that we would recognize that and even Solomon at the very beginning of the
00:20:45.000 | opening of the temple, he went to pray that they would not forget that vision.
00:20:49.920 | That when the foreigners come, that they too may be able to worship you.
00:20:55.320 | After his prayer, it is concluded where God shows up in 2 Chronicles 7.
00:21:00.680 | As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt
00:21:04.200 | offerings and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
00:21:08.640 | So God responds.
00:21:09.640 | How does he respond to his request?
00:21:11.040 | I mean, this was a good, godly prayer.
00:21:15.160 | Recognizing their sin, recognizing their calling, asking the Lord to bless and humbling themselves.
00:21:21.000 | It was a good prayer.
00:21:22.860 | And so God, recognizing this, responds.
00:21:25.300 | And his response?
00:21:26.460 | He shows up.
00:21:28.600 | God shows up.
00:21:30.800 | When God shows up, worship happens.
00:21:34.920 | You know, we can talk about all the problems in the church.
00:21:36.960 | We can talk about all the communication, all this stuff, and all of these things that,
00:21:40.240 | you know, we want to do better, we want to work on.
00:21:42.840 | But in the end, what makes a church a church is God's presence.
00:21:49.120 | It's God's presence.
00:21:50.600 | God shows up in his glory, fills the temple, and the priest could not enter the house of
00:21:54.640 | the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house.
00:21:57.840 | When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord in the
00:22:01.600 | temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshipped
00:22:05.520 | and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures
00:22:10.520 | forever."
00:22:11.520 | It's great that we have a great sound equipment.
00:22:13.840 | It's great that we have this building.
00:22:15.240 | It's great that we have talented people, dedicated people, the finances to do what
00:22:19.400 | we want to do.
00:22:21.120 | But all of that would be for nothing if God is not here.
00:22:27.160 | What makes a church a church is that this is a place where we come to meet the Lord.
00:22:30.920 | Now, of course, we know that God is omnipresent, that he's not just here.
00:22:35.520 | But there's a special blessing when the congregation gathers together for corporate
00:22:39.320 | worship, for corporate prayer, to work together toward missions, to evangelize, to build a
00:22:44.080 | church.
00:22:45.960 | But in the midst of all of that, worship, that we try so hard to get right every single
00:22:50.280 | week.
00:22:51.280 | There's a lot of people laboring so that worship can happen.
00:22:55.000 | Parking attendants, those of you who are here today enjoying this, there's tons of people
00:23:00.560 | who've been here all week cleaning up, setting up.
00:23:03.480 | Every little thing that's going around here was set up this week.
00:23:06.360 | There are people here late till yesterday cleaning up, getting this ready.
00:23:10.640 | And even now, we have dozens and dozens of people running around the church making sure
00:23:15.160 | that it happens correctly.
00:23:17.520 | Sound room, these speakers, all of these things were hard labor.
00:23:24.200 | What we are working so hard to have, and all of these things, again, it's because God
00:23:28.160 | has blessed us that we're able to do this.
00:23:31.440 | But in the end, true worship is when we encounter God.
00:23:37.800 | When we encounter God, when God shows up, they just fall down and worship.
00:23:43.200 | And let me conclude what he says in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, 15.
00:23:47.200 | In response to Solomon's prayer, God says to the nation of Israel, "If my people who
00:23:52.560 | were called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their
00:23:58.400 | wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their
00:24:03.160 | land.
00:24:04.160 | Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place."
00:24:09.120 | As we dedicate not simply this building, but our church, you and me, using this church
00:24:15.480 | as an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the Lord, that we would follow the same
00:24:20.440 | pattern first and foremost, before we gear up and say, "I'm going to do it," first
00:24:24.200 | and foremost, humble yourselves and pray.
00:24:29.600 | Recognize that all our hard work would be for nothing if we do not humble ourselves
00:24:33.840 | and pray.
00:24:35.800 | Humble ourselves, pray, seek his face.
00:24:39.960 | That this is a church, this is a place, Bible study, Sunday school, our fellowship time,
00:24:46.080 | anytime we gather together, our primary purpose is to seek him and then ultimately turn from
00:24:50.800 | our wicked ways, our propensity to sin and stray away from God.
00:24:55.280 | And God promises, "Then I will hear from heaven, then I will forgive your sins and
00:25:01.560 | I will heal the land and my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is
00:25:07.360 | made in this place."
00:25:10.560 | At Rosemary Chapel at Biola, I don't have to make much effort to pray in that room.
00:25:18.120 | And I know it's emotional, because I have some ties, but I have so many memories.
00:25:23.900 | And sometimes you know how you go to certain places and certain smells and certain things
00:25:26.520 | kind of trigger memories.
00:25:28.340 | I sit in that chapel and I remember years of praying and weeping at times in that chapel.
00:25:36.600 | And I would sit there and the moment I sit down, I sense the Lord.
00:25:42.240 | I pray that this church will be that for you.
00:25:46.120 | That this is a place where you can meet the Lord, that where you seek him, where you pray
00:25:50.240 | to him.
00:25:51.920 | And I know we have problems, I know things we have to work on, but let's not be distracted
00:25:56.900 | for the real reason why we're here.
00:25:59.880 | You know, normally I don't write out my prayers, but I wrote out my prayer today and I want
00:26:05.440 | to follow the pattern that Solomon gave.
00:26:08.960 | And I want to pray for the Lord's blessing, following the pattern that he gave.
00:26:14.280 | And then afterwards our prayer team will come up and I'm going to invite you to take some
00:26:18.200 | time to pray along with us.
00:26:20.080 | But again, follow along with me, you know, pray with me as I pray this prayer.
00:26:31.080 | Dear Lord, thank you for being patient with us and so faithful with all of your promises.
00:26:36.900 | You truly are a God of compassion and mercy.
00:26:39.520 | Your righteous judgment and decree is true from generation to generation.
00:26:45.080 | We want to dedicate this church to you for your glory.
00:26:48.800 | Let this place be a place where we truly love one another as Christ loved us, that the world
00:26:53.920 | will know we are his disciples.
00:26:56.760 | Help us to make every effort to live in peace and unity with one another in genuine love
00:27:01.720 | before we come to worship each week.
00:27:04.600 | I pray that our fellowship will be a reflection of your patient love for us.
00:27:09.080 | Protect us from the devil's work to divide and conquer.
00:27:12.480 | Protect us from our own pride that causes us to want to be heard rather than to hear.
00:27:17.600 | Help us to desire to serve rather than to be served.
00:27:21.580 | We pray that Berean Community Church will be a place where sinners will find forgiveness
00:27:25.960 | and refuge in you.
00:27:28.200 | Help us to embrace and love the outcasts and hurting sinners.
00:27:31.640 | I pray that you would protect us from becoming self-focused, but to look upward and outward
00:27:36.720 | at all times.
00:27:38.520 | Help us to recognize that you are sovereign over all things, that we may turn to you as
00:27:43.480 | our primary answer.
00:27:45.680 | Help us to walk in the spirit at all times and not grieve the spirit in how we live and
00:27:49.200 | build this church.
00:27:50.940 | We pray that when you send the lost and heavy laden, that they would find a home in your
00:27:55.640 | earthly kingdom.
00:27:57.480 | Help us to never forget why you've established this church and sent your only begotten son
00:28:01.720 | to die for this church.
00:28:04.040 | Help us to love whom you love and to bring the light to the dark world we live in who
00:28:08.400 | are desperate in need of reconciliation with you.
00:28:12.400 | Help us to recognize that true victories in Christ can only be had in abiding in him.
00:28:18.300 | We pray that the leaders will be humble servants more than dynamic leaders, men of righteousness,
00:28:22.960 | above reproach, first to serve and last to react in anger.
00:28:27.640 | We pray that we would be first lover of Christ and his church before lovers of anything else.
00:28:34.040 | We pray that Berean Community Church will be a house of prayer above all things where
00:28:37.520 | people can come and meet with you.
00:28:40.720 | Hear our prayers and be attentive to the singing and worship given to you in this place, Lord.
00:28:46.560 | Amen.