Building the Walls: Becoming a Pillar in the house of God
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Our Theme is “Rebuilding the House of God”
5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.
Is your spirit stirred?
Is your foundation strong?
Are you just one stick holding up the roof or are there many?
Are you ready to rebuild the house of God?
Today we are building the walls
Walls are important to a house. Something has to hold up the roof.
This afternoon we talked about healthy boundaries.
We want our walls to be healthy and strong!
Each of us has a part in this building.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
When it comes to building metaphors, the Bible does not speak of becoming walls in the house of God, but it does speak of becoming a pillar.
A pillar is where the load is concentrated on to certain places that are strong and can bear the weight of the roof.
Pillars are often decorated, in roman architecture they were made of carved stone with capitals and bases.
The leaders of the church were also described as pillars, because they are the ones who are carrying the greatest weight of responsibility.
When I was an Associate Pastor, second in charge of the church. Our senior pastor would leave me in charge when he needed to go somewhere. Every time he travelled away I would feel a weight come over me when he left and I would feel it lift again when he returned.
Over the years I became accustomed to this weight and after some time it was no longer difficult to bear. That is how I knew that I was ready to be a senior pastor. I had learned to bear the weight of responsibility while under the care of another pastor.
Are you ready to bear the weight of responsibility?
Have you learned to come under authority?
Then I will tell you the functions of a pillar and you will learn to do them.
A pillar remembers, a pillar upholds the truth, and a pillar is an overcomer.
A pillar remembers.
A pillar remembers.
A pillar is a memorial.
When Jacob was fleeing from his brother Esau after having deceived him, he had an encounter with God.
He saw the heaven opened and angels ascending and descending.
And God reaffirmed the covenant that He had made with Abraham and with Isaac.
So Jacob took the rock that he was sleeping on and set it upright as a pillar to be a reminder of what he had experienced.
18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
Rocks to not stand upright unless someone has made it to stand.
If you are wandering through the wilderness and you see a rock standing upright you will think, what does this mean? Who has made this rock to stand?
It is a memorial to remind you and as a testimony to what God has done.
So Jacob has faith that God will bring him back to his homeland because of the covenant.
When he comes back the way that he went, he will see the rock and remember the encounter with God and the experience will be confirmed because it has come true.
So a pillar is set up to remind us of what God has said and what God has done.
When Solomon built the temple, he erected two pillars.
It is unclear whether these two pillars were part of the structure or if they were just for decoration.
They were at the entrance of the temple and they each had a name.
21 He set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple. He set up the pillar on the south and called its name Jachin, and he set up the pillar on the north and called its name Boaz. 22 And on the tops of the pillars was lily-work. Thus the work of the pillars was finished.
Jahcin - God has established.
Boaz - In him is strength.
So if you are going to the temple, like the people were to do three times a year, and you see these two pillars and you remember their names, what will you remember?
You will remember. like Jacob did, that this is the house of God.
God has established this house.
God has established his covenant with me.
God has established me, he has called me to be on of His people.
Whatever I am or whatever I become, it is God who establishes me.
You will look at the other pillar and you will remember where your strength comes from.
In Him is strength.
If it is God who establishes me, then He will also give me the strength.
Now as I looked for the meaning of this name, some books have different meanings, because the Hebrew root word is not clear.
One possible meaning is “flexible”
But strong is also flexible.
Like the palm tree, it will bend but it will not break.
Always remember that it is God who has established you.
Your ministry is His ministry.
He has made His covenant with you.
Always remember your encounter with God, come back to that place often and refresh your memory.
There is where your strength comes from.
You minister out of your relationship with God.
For those of you who are elders in the church, you are also pillars which are set as a memorial to what God has done.
Our job as leaders is to bear witness to the truth.
The apostles that were appointed by Jesus, their first job was to bear witness to His resurrection.
There are things that God has done in your midst,
prophetic words that were spoken
miracles that have occurred.
people’s lives have been transformed.
It is your job to remember and to bear witness.
Tells the stories of what God has spoken and what God has done.
Tell them to future generations.
When your children’s children come to the house of God they will see two pillars - Jachin and Boaz - and they will know:
God has established this place.
God has established his covenant with us.
God has established me and my strength is in him.
A pillar upholds the truth.
A pillar upholds the truth.
So a pillar is there to bear witness by remembering, and in bearing witness to uphold the truth.
Our society is always changing.
There are always new ideas; some of them are good and some not so good.
If you have lived as long as I have you have seen some ideas which were thought to be great at the time, turn out to be not so great after a while.
When I was in high school we would put gel in our hair to make it stand up. People would go around with spiked hair. One girl had hair so high that if I sit behind her in class I cant see the teacher.
Why did we do that? Because new products were being invented and we could do things that could not be done before. Was it a good thing? Apparently not, because we don’t do it anymore. It was a fad.
In the church we also have fads.
There are ideas and practices which will come and some will also go away.
But a pillar in the church remembers what is true in the midst of changing times.
When Paul was taking the gospel to the Roman provinces and the Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ it was a profound change to the mostly Jewish church.
So Paul and Barnabas went to the church in Jerusalem to talk to the pillars of the church.
They has already confirmed that Paul, who used to be Saul, the persecutor of the church, had a genuine conversion.
But now, even though they went to the Jews first, so many Gentiles are coming to Christ.
This is causing a stir because the Jews were allowed to practice their religion under Rome, but will so many Gentiles attract too much attention?
And what about the law? Paul is teaching that the Gentiles do not need to keep all of the Jewish laws because they are saved by faith in Christ.
But what do the pillars say?
9 In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.
The pillars recognized the grace of God.
Peter remembers the vision that God gave him and what happen at Cornelius’ house.
They remember that Paul, as a member of the sanhedrin was zealous for the law.
They remember when Jesus healed the centurions servant, he healed the woman from Syria, and he talked to the woman in Samaria.
God wants the Gentiles to be saved.
It has always been so!
Even though times were changing and there was shift in methods, they recognized and upheld the truth of the gospel.
When Paul traveled throughout the regions and started churches, he would appoint elders in the churches to be pillars which would remind the people of the teachings of scripture and uphold the truth of the gospel.
Timothy was one of Paul’s coworkers that was left behind to lead the church.
Paul writes to him and reminds him of his responsibility.
1 Timothy 3:14–15 (NLT)
14 I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, 15 so that if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.
What is Paul telling Timothy that he should remember?
First, he gives Timothy some thoughts about what to look for when appointing leaders in the church.
He want’s them to be of good character and able to handle the weight of ministry.
But he also wants Timothy to bear witness to the reality of Jesus and the truth of the gospel if anyone should say that it is just a fable.
16 Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith: Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit. He was seen by angels and announced to the nations. He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory.
This was one of the early creeds or doctrinal statement of the church.
Creeds were used to provide stability, a standard of truth, when so many lies and rumors were circulating.
People say whatever comes to mind.
And other people repeat what they hear, even if is not worth repeating.
But a pillar should be discerning of what they hear and careful of what they say.
People are looking to you to remind them of what is true.
A pillar is an overcomer.
A pillar is an overcomer.
As a pillar in the church you will see many changes over your lifetime.
Some people will come and will seem to be very important.
They will make a big deal about themselves and about their teaching.
People with a lot of enthusiasm create a following after themselves.
But sometimes these people disappear as quickly as they appear.
Your job is to keep your head through all of the ups an downs.
There will be situations that challenge your faith.
My late wife was diagnosed with cancer. It was a time of growth and expansion in the church and in our ministry. We felt it was directly an attack against the church and against our growing ministry.
Heidi had faith to be healed. There was never a question in my mind that God would heal her. But I also know that there have been other people in my life who had faith to be healed, and for some reason that I do not know, they were not healed in this life.
I thought to myself, and I said it to her, that if she died I did not want to continue in ministry. In our relationship, I was the emotional one. I would worry about the future and get upset when things did not happen as i thought they should, but she was always steady. She would pray and things would work out.
I thought without her I could not be strong. But then she died.
We were in Japan on our way to visit missionaries in Thailand. I had my two youngest children with me. I did not know anyone there and I did not know the language. But God was with me and he gave me favor with the director of the hospital who arranged everything for me.
In that moment I knew that I had to continue the work that we had begun. I had relied on her strength, but God showed me that He had established me and that in Him is strength.
He has given me a new partner in ministry and we are stronger than ever. It what I went through was the enemy’s attack, then he has failed. I am still standing!
The Apostle John had a revelation of Jesus Christ while in exile.
In his message to the church of Philadelphia he tells them to stand strong.
An overcomer will be a pillar in the house of God.
Revelation 3:11–13 (ESV)
11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
When you are a pillar in the house of God you should have this perspective.
If you are only thinking of this life and of this house then you will do whatever is necessary to protect yourself and this house.
But here Jesus is speaking of a heavenly house of God.
It is a house that cannot be destroyed.
Think of that when you are standing for the truth.
Even if this mortal house is destroyed, there is a heavenly house which cannot be destroyed.
I know that Heidi is well and healed and that she continues to serve God in ways that I cannot imagine.
Going through this experience has helped me to shift my focus from the things of this life to the things of eternity.
I must overcome:
My doubts.
My fears.
My worries.
Because if I overcome here, God can entrust me with greater things in eternity.
I am becoming a pillar in the house of God - the eternal house of God.
You are becoming a pillar in the house of God.
Remember what God has done.
Remember that God has established and that strength is in Him.
Bear witness to the truth.
Stand for truth through changing times.
And be an overcomer!