Rebuilding the Temple
Notes
Transcript
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the promise of God through the prophet Jeremiah that Israel would be set free from captivity was fulfilled. Cyrus called all the survivors of the Babylonian captivity to return home to Jerusalem. And many did.
Those who didn’t return gave them silver and gold and cloth. And cyrus gave them back all the sacred instruments that Nebuchadnezzar had removed from the temple.
49,897 people left with Zerubbabel, each returning to their own town in Judah, and to Jerusalem.
When they arrived, Ezra records that they quickly built an altar and resumed the sacrifices:
From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
The people arrived already afraid of the surrounding tribes and nations. That’s one of the reasons they built the altar so quickly—to obtain God’s favor and protection.
Ezra 4 tells us that the adversaries of Judah heard they had returned to rebuild the temple and they quickly tried to gum up the works. They said, “Let us build with you…” But Zerubbabel and the rest of the leaders perceived a problem and said, “you have nothing to do with us in building the house to our God.”
The story of the rebuilding of the temple is a long, slow, and meandering one. Ezra 5 tells us that the prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the Jews and Zerubbabel and Jeshua arose and began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem.
Here’s one of the messages of Haggai:
Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
The reason for our meeting tonight is very similar to the story of the rebuilding of the temple. This building does not house the altar or the ark of the covenant, and yet it is the house of God. This structure facilitates the core functions of God’s church family in boundary county—worship, discipleship and witness. We have come to a crossroads.
In the 1970s the church’s attendance was close to 50 and the membership was around 75 or so.That was when we build this church that comfortably seats about 90 to 100 people with a maximum capacity of 120. When you look at our membership and attendance data over the last 10 years you get a sense that we have reached a natural cap.
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You’ll notice that after we did some work to clean our books of missing members back in 2014 and 2015 we have had a steady growth in our membership.
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but that growth has not corresponded to the same increase in attendance. We regularly have over 100 in attendance, but our average is closer to 90.
There is a restriction that prevents further growth and that restriction is the limitations of our facility.
It’s no surprise that there have been thoughts and ideas and suggestions about building a church for the last ten years. For nearly 2 1/2 years now we have been exploring the needs and options around a church facility. Last October we met and the church voted almost unanimously that we need to do something about our facility.
The most significant concerns our church body had were related to parking, access for the disabled and elderly, safety concerns regarding egress and driveways, sabbath school space and seating in the sanctuary. In our October meeting you called for the formation of a building committee that would obtain two plans from an architect as well as estimates of cost; one for a remodel/addition to this facility, and a second for a new
Today we’re here to study those ideas, discuss our options, and pray. Our goal tonight is not to make a decision, but to make sure we are well informed as a congregation. We will send you home with documents to study and pray over further, and in two weeks on April 29 we plan on returning to make a decision about which, if any, of these plans we will begin to pursue.
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I started with the story of the rebuilding of the temple because it brings clarity to the task ahead of you if you choose to embrace it. It is no simple task to embark on a building project. It takes effort, creativity, unity, and resources. It took the Israelites 46 years to build the temple, and they still hadn’t finished the walls and the gates—that’s what the book of Nehemiah is all about. When they finally got to the walls and gates they all pitched in and worked on part of the wall closest to their house. Nehemiah struggled to keep them focused. He armed them so they could defend themselves against enemies who didn’t want them to do the work.
Both in Ezra and in Nehemiah we find that God blessed his people in proportion to their willingness to commit to His cause. When they prioritized their homes and their crops over the work of God, they struggled. When they gave all they had to the temple and invested their time and effort in its rebuilding, God blessed their crops and herds and homes. I’ve heard it said, and experienced it myself—you can’t out-give God. As you consider a building project make sure you remember that this is not just a building we are talking about—it’s a center of mission and discipleship and outreach—it’s God’s house.
The cost for this project is bigger than you are, but God’s plan to grow His kingdom in Boundary County is limited by this facility, then His solutions to the problem will always be possible if we trust in Him and step out in faith.
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At this time let’s separate into groups of two or three and spend some time in prayer. I’d like you to begin by asking each other what one or two things you would like to pray for. Then pray for each other, and pray for God’s spirit to be present in our meeting tonight. Pray for unity of purpose and pray for God’s will to be revealed.
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I’m going to hand the mic over to David Hess, now. David is the chairman of the building committee, and has guided us through a diligent process to come to the plans we have today. I have a deep regard for David and his integrity. Thank you for leading out in the process to get us to this point.
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