Follow the Instructions

Recap

Foundation/Walls/Roof - Structure

Front Door - Discernment

Living Room - Focus

Bedroom - Relationships

Dining Room - Consumption

Office - Evangelism

Guest room - Generosity

Kitchen - Discipleship

Laundry room- Sanctification

Closet - Surrender

Tonight is the final night of our series UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Our hope is that you examined, meditated, and started working on a room.

Case Study: examine the lifecycle of the Temple of Jerusalem to see what we can learn from it while we build the house of our heart.

Reading

1 Kings 6:12 NASB95

“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father.

Solomon builds the temple.

He uses all the best materials and spares no expense.

Excellence for God is not based on the beauty or grandeur of what you build, it is based on whether the intentions of your heart align with the desires of His.

1 Kings 6:38–7:1 NASB95

38In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it. 1Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

Solomon shows his true devotion by spending almost double the time on his own house than on God’s.

Solomon gives an over abundance of sacrifices and says a grand speech.

1 Kings 9:1–10 NASB95

1Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do, 2that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 4“As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 5then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6“But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8“And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9“And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’ ” 10It came about at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house

In the midst of everything Solomon was doing to build the temple and his own home, God does not give a reaction to any of it. This shows us that these things are not the goal:

Having a plan.

Giving resources.

Saying grand prayers.

While these things are good in and of themselves, they are not the ultimate desire of God: Obedience is.

We are always willing to boldly say to God, “Yesterday’s blessing was for yesterday, I want a new blessing today.”

Tonight God is responding with the following statement: “What you did for me yesterday was for yesterday, I want your obedience today.”

Once a house is built, it requires regular maintenance.

It does not stay pretty on its own.

Constantly fixing things around the house.

The temple was cleaned and looked pretty, but there were cracks in the foundation, leaks on the roof, and infested with pests.

Disobedience happens over time with small excuses or “reasonings” or compromises. It’s a slow fade.

Ezekiel 8:6–10 NASB95

6And He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here, so that I would be far from My sanctuary? But yet you will see still greater abominations.” 7Then He brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. 8He said to me, “Son of man, now dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. 9And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.” 10So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around.

The idols and carvings did not appear over night, they took time and intention.

The Temple’s Ultimate Fate

Solomon’s temple is destroyed by Babylon (Jeremiah 52:12-23).

The temple is rebuilt, but was hopelessly corrupt (Ezra 1-3), and is also destroyed.

The Flood is coming

Matthew 7:24–27 NASB95

24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27“The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Regardless of which route you take in building the house, the flood is coming.

It is not enough to desire the things of Jesus, you must practice them and be in a constant awareness that one little slip can undo much work.

Getting an A vs. Keeping an A

God’s grace and forgiveness will be there, but the consequences of your choices will remain.

Missing on fulfilling my calling for years. Countless others who God wanted me to minister to could be lost.

You do not have to do it alone! You have His Holy Spirit to help if you are willing to listen and obey.

Don’t let your life reflect the life of the Temple of Israel, constantly under construction only to be corrupted or torn down again, and not ready when the flood comes.

Study and obey the words of Jesus so that your life will be built to persevere until the end.