Don't worship the building

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Let that sink in for a second.

Imagine people coming to Jesus on the day of judgement saying, ‘I’m a Christian’, and Jesus saying ‘depart from me. I never knew you.’

Does Jesus know you? Do you know Jesus? Are you walking WITH him or are you just coming to church?

If Jesus is right (and spoiler alert - he’s never wrong) then that means that there MAY be people in our churches who might just get a shock on the day of judgement when they’re standing before the Lord.

Because there MAY be people, in our churches - and in this very place this morning, who think they are on the way to Heaven but instead they’re on the way to Hell.

I’ve mentioned this in passing quite a few times…today we’re going to look at it in detail.

Because, believe it or not, I don’t want to see anyone go to Hell - especially if that person thinks they are on the way to heaven.

So listen up, because today might just be the turning point in your life.

Let’s look at our passage.

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First, a tiny bit of background to our passage today...

At this time of this chapter, The nation of Israel had been split in two. This happened after Solomon’s reign a few hundred years earlier. There was the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom of Judah.

Israel and Judah had lost their way somewhat - both of them had taken their eyes of God and were worshiping other gods and disobeying the commandments of God. Both kingdoms were warned about impending doom if they didn’t repent and turn back to God.

Israel went first. The Assyrians took them over and destroyed the nation. And one of the places that was destroyed was a place called Shiloh.

Shiloh was the place where the ark of the covenant was kept and where God himself dwelt before the temple was built in Jerusalem (which was in the Southern kingdom of Judah).

So to put it in simple terms - Shiloh was the Israel version of the temple in Jerusalem in Judah.

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And at the time of Jeremiah - the southern kingdom of Judah is being warned about their behaviour and the way they are treating God.

And Jeremiah is bringing the same warning to the people of Judah…HELLO guys. Wake up and repent otherwise you’re going to be destroyed.

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Now, here’s the thing - the people of Judah thought that because they had the temple in Jerusalem, and because God dwelt in the temple, that they were untouchable. They thought they were ‘good with God’.

And they thought this because God had promised to protect them as part of his covenant with them.

But God’s promise to his people wasn’t unconditional.

The problem is that the nation of Judah thought it was. They honestly thought that they could live the way they wanted and God would still protect them and bless them because they had the temple and that’s where God dwelt. As if the temple building itself was some kind of lucky charm, and if they went there on the Sabbath and on festival days then God will bless them.

And Jeremiah is commanded by the Lord to tell them that’s not the case.

And God’s message to them is this. Let me read it and then I’ll paraphrase it...

Jeremiah 7:5–10 NIV

If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. “ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?

You guys need to change your ways of thinking and of how you treat me, because I’ve had enough of this. You’re breaking pretty much all my commandments - you’re oppressing the foreigner, the widow, the orphans. You’re stealing, murdering, committing adultery, lying, worshiping other gods and YET you THINK you can come into my house - the house that bears MY name and say ‘we’re saved’ only to to BACK to breaking my commandments and neglecting your worship of me.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

And then God reminds them about Shiloh - the place that was destroyed in the Northern kingdom of Israel...

Jeremiah 7:12–15 ESV

Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

In other words - look at what happened to Shiloh…that’s going to happen to you too, because guess what…you’re NOT untouchable. People thought that Shiloh was special and that they could do whatever they wanted as long as they came to Shiloh, but guess what…I destroyed it - because I don’t want you worshiping the ‘building’, I want you worshiping me!

You may be my chosen nation but I’ve had it UP TO HERE with you so get out of my sight. I don’t want to even look at you.

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Matthew 7:21 NIV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

And in Jeremiah 26, we see the results of this sermon that Jeremiah preached. The people wanted to put Jeremiah to death. Possibly for a number of reasons.

They may have thought, ‘how dare he challenge us for the way we’re living - who does HE THINK HE IS?’

Or maybe they thought, ‘let’s silence this guy so that we can keep on living the way we are. If we get rid of Jeremiah then we don’t have to listen to him going on and on about repenting.’

Regardless, this didn’t go down well.

And I don’t want to spoil the story, but Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was destroyed and the nation was captured and exiled in 587BC.

And God had warned them. They thought they were untouchable. They thought they were the chosen people of the Lord. They thought that could have the covenantal blessing without the covenantal obedience.

But they were wrong… But they were warned.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

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And people say the bible has nothing to say to us today! Look around at our churches today and what we have is exactly what was happening in Jeremiah’s day.

Jeremiah’s message was delivered to a religiously observant group of people - church-goers, who worshiped the building but not the Lord.

Today, it’s exactly the same - we have churches bunged with religiously observant people who worship the building but not the Lord.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

And there MAY be…possibly... some people, in this very church, who love Hillhall church. They love the old pews and the wooden ceiling. They love the traditional building and the organ, but they have very little love for the Lord.

And they think that coming to church is a lucky charm. I’ll come every Sunday morning and do my time and punch my card and then I’ll go to heaven when I die… ‘I’m saved’, they say, only to go out and ignore God for the rest of the week.

It happens in other churches - statistics tells us that it happens here too.

I’m sorry to be the barer of bad news, but if that is how any of you think then you are gravely mistaken.

Listen to the words of Jesus - Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Only those who do the will of the Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.

And what’s that?

Micah 6:8 NIV

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Funny, that’s the PW verse for this year.

To walk with your God - to walk with Jesus. Not to visit a church once a week, but to walk with Jesus. And walking with someone means walking BESIDE them, taking the same steps they take…As they step, you step…walking, in sync, TOGETHER!!!

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These people were dishonouring the name of God by they way they acted and even more so by coming into the temple to ‘worship’ God and then go off and continue disregarding him. They were bringing SHAME on his name.

And you might be thinking - well I’m not doing that.

On Sunday evening, I mentioned, as an aside, about how we break the third commandment - you shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain.

And I said that if we call ourselves Christians, then we take on the name of Jesus Christ. We take on the name of Jesus if we call ourselves Christians. The clue is in the name.

And we think that taking God’s name in vain is saying, ‘oh my god’ - but it’s much much more than that.

These people in Jeremiah’s day were breaking this commandment. They called themselves God’s chosen people and yet they were bringing dishonour to his name by the way they were living and then coming to the temple on a Sabbath or on religious festivals to ‘worship’ - whatever that meant.

Do we not do the same? How many people in our churches live however they want and do whatever they want - spend the whole week with little thought for Jesus - NOT walking with him in anyway - and yet come to church on a Sunday or at high-days and holidays Christmas or Remembrance Sunday and yet they EXPECT to go to heaven on the back of that?

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

God told Jeremiah...

Jeremiah 7:9–10 ESV

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?

Will you come into this place that bares MY name and bring dishonour to MY name by coming in and saying, ‘we’re saved’ only to go and continue living a life with no regard for me and my commands?

If we call ourselves Christians we bare the name of God himself...

So if we, who call ourselves Christians, think we can live however we want and maybe come to church for an hour on a Sunday and then go on and live with little regard for Jesus or his commandments then we are bringing dishonour on HIS name and we are taking the name of our Lord in vain. Forget saying ‘oh my god’ - this is much worse.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

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This is a call to everyone here - whether or not you call yourself a Christian - to examine your walk with Jesus.

How are you living from Monday to Saturday? How are you worshiping the Lord with your lives and your bodies? Are you constantly sinning and bringing dishonour to the name of Jesus by your lifestyle, or by the way you treat your husband or wife or our children?

Are you worshiping the building? Are you coming here to sit in this place of bricks and mortar, thinking that coming to church on a Sunday will save you?

Let me tell you the building can’t save you, only Jesus can. Only by placing your full faith in Jesus Christ can you be saved and guaranteed a place in heaven.

Only by walking humbly with Jesus, step by step - can you be saved - this building can’t save you.

I've heard people say this about the church... ‘This is MY church!’

Actually it’s NOT your church - It’s God’s church. The building might be of significance to some people, but the church belongs to Jesus Christ and only those who do the will of the Lord will be part of it.

We cannot - we dare not worship the building. Church is not some lucky charm that you can come to on a Sunday or holidays and expect that to save you... only Jesus Christ can save you. Only a personal faith in him can save you. only a life devoted to him which means more than a pilgrimage on a Sunday to church - only a life filled with Jesus can enter the kingdom of heaven.

Don’t worship the building, worship Jesus. Because God might destroy this building. He might turn this building into Shiloh and then what? If you’re worshiping Jesus it makes no odds - if you’re worshiping the building then you’re in trouble.

And don’t think that God doesn’t notice if we live for ourselves from Monday to Saturday and then come along to church to ‘worship’ only to go back to living for ourselves for the rest of the week.

He notices, and this is a warning to you…good grief this is a warning to ME too.

We can’t expect covenantal blessings without covenantal obedience.

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People wanted to string Jeremiah up for the message he brought. But he brought it from the Lord.

Please don’t string me up - don’t shoot the messenger, because I’m simply telling you what’s already written in the bible, and the bible isn’t there to condemn us - it’s there to warn us of where we’re going wrong and to point us to Jesus.

But if you’re feeling a little uncomfortable this morning then don’t ignore that - take it and run to the Lord with it.

The people of Judah were warned time and time again and yet they didn’t listen and in the end the nation was destroyed.

Don’t ignore God’s warning on your life. If you know you’re not in the right place with Jesus then listen to the warning...

Matthew 7:21 NIV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

And turn to Jesus and fall at his feet and ask him to save you and to fill you with his Spirit to help you live for HIM.

Because if we’re striving to do the will of the Lord then the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is more than sufficient for us, and in our weak and feeble attempt at being a Christian, Jesus gives us the grace to top up where we fall short.

So it’s not about trying harder to be a Christian - that’s NOT what I’m saying.

It’s about being honest with ourselves of how we let Jesus down and how we do our own thing and worship our own gods and take the Lord’s name in vain by our actions and our thoughts.

And when we’re honest with ourselves and the Lord about these things, it’s about bringing these things to the feet of the cross and asking for forgiveness of the things in our lives that are hindering our walk with Jesus...

And it’s about placing our FULL trust in HIM and him ALONE to save us, because the building can’t save us. Coming to church can’t save us. Putting money in an envelope can’t save us. So don’t worship the building - worship Jesus.

Trust in Jesus - the one who went to the cross to save us from all this stuff. The one who simply longs for us to be devoted to him - the one who pours out his grace on our lives when we fully put our faith in him. The one whose love knows no bounds. The one who gives you life and life to the full.

A building can’t do that - coming to church thinking it’s a lucky charm won’t save you, but Jesus can.

Matthew 7:21–23 NIV

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Jesus wants to KNOW you. And that means walking with him, stepping where he stepped, staying close beside him and worshiping him.

If God is speaking to you this morning, hear his voice - heed the warning. Don’t be stubborn like the people in Jeremiah’s day who ended up being exiled and the temple destroyed because they wouldn’t listen. Instead, leave all your sin and your shortcomings at the foot of the cross and seek the forgiveness, mercy and grace of Jesus Christ to save you, because the building can’t.