[Music] so we're going to talk about the church God is building himself a house and this isn't just any old house it's very important my son John is building a house and he is all concerned about every detail and every aspect and where the cabinets are going to go and the arrangement of the rooms and of course compared to God that's nothing but God's house is important so let's read a couple verses together I'm reading from Hebrews 8:5 this is the NIV I'm reading from this is why Moses was warned when he was about to
build a tabernacle see to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain now Moses was warned he was warned by God only to build according to the pattern to what he was shown I don't believe that Moses was shown a blueprint or a design he was shown something real because there is a tabernacle there is a Heavenly Tabernacle according to the scriptures and so Moses saw the real thing and God warned him look you aren't free to add on your own stuff you're not free to do what you want
what you think your ideas are excluded you only can build it according to to what I have shown you now there are a lot of people building today a lot of Christians building a church or building the church or building their church and most of them according to my observation are not building according to God's pattern they haven't been up on the Mountain of God and they haven't seen anything they are building according to the pattern they saw down the street on the next Corner the pattern they learned at Seminary the pattern they saw others
doing but they are not building according to God's pattern they haven't spent time in God's presence and they haven't had his house revealed to them and so therefore what they're building is not really God's house it's something else let's read from Ezekiel 438 when they placed their threshold next to or beside my threshold and their doorpost beside my doorpost so here they are building something parallel to God's Building God's got his threshold he's got his door post and man setting up their own thing their own doorpost their own threshold now let's go to 1 Corinthians
3 12-15 according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another Builds on it but let each one take heed how he builds on it take heed means be careful be careful how you build on it for no other Foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ now if anyone Builds on this foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it or the day will reveal it
what day is that that is the day of the Lord when the Lord comes because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is if anyone's work which he has built on it on the foundation of Jesus endures he will receive a reward if any man's work is burned he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire so first of all I'm trying to make a point that this subject is serious it's not just optional well you know we're doing
this but it's okay we're doing that it's not that bad but I believe the question of God's house is something very important and very serious so we're supposed to build with gold silver and precious stones what does that mean let me go back and say first before we start to build we really need to see something from God it doesn't work just to dash in and start building just start doing stuff you know it's important that we spend time with God and see what he wants so that when we build it's Eternal when we build
it's not going to burn up when we build God is going to be satisfied so what are the materials what is the substance what do we use to build a church which by the way is also Jesus's bride if we look into the Old Testament we see that God made Adam the first man from dirt and it was muddy if it was dry I don't know but God got some dirt and made Adam but when he made Eve when he made the bride for Adam he didn't use anything Earth instead he took something out of
the side of Adam maybe it was a rib I don't know but something came out of Adam's side and that was the substance which he used to build a bride to build Eve no dirt was added no Sticks no leaves nothing just what came out of Adam side God did actually a surgery the first surgery and removed something from Adam but you know that later when Jesus was on the cross there was also a surgery God's surgical assistant the Roman soldier made an incision in Jesus's side and out came blood and water and this is
the substance that Jesus is using that God is using to build his church this is the substance well what does that mean the Old Testament teaches us that the life is in the blood Jesus's life was poured out for us and so the substance of the church is his life in other words everything we do has to be a result of something living our living relationship with God our being Guided by the Holy Spirit God in us building up it's interesting that God never told anyone to build a church we're never told to get people
together build a building appoint a clergy and start having meetings we're never instructed to do that Jesus said I will build my church and the church he builds is immuned to the Gates of Hell the church he builds will conquer the gates of hell but the church man build the substitutes the other door post the other thresholds don't have any power what God builds has power and so here we are we're not told to build the church we're instructed to build up each other we're not supposed to build an organization we have not been called
to mount a group we've been called to edify to build up people to share Christ to receive from God something living and share it with our brothers and sisters so that they're edified they're strengthened they're encouraged they're they grow their spiritual man that little baby spiritual man in there grows up we're supposed to be feeding them and they're feeding us and they grow up into him in all things and this results in the church this simple little idea of serving others with the Divine bread from Heaven builds the church because when people start growing in
the Lord and start relating to each other and start they want to meet together and they want to start meeting together and pretty soon other people start wanting to meet there too and pretty soon God is in the midst leading them you see how this works it's an organic thing it's not an organization it looks organized but it isn't and people think well well what's what should the church look like so get they get the New Testament and they okay they were meetings let's have meetings there were Elders let's appoint some Elders there were deacons
let's have some of them too and you know they take the form from the pages of the Bible and try to replicate it but what's in the Bible didn't happen that way it was a result of Life of God the spirit of God moving every life has a form the mosquite tree out there the life in that tree produces a certain form you can tell a mosquite tree just by looking at the shape the cat life produces the cat shape the dog life grows up into the dog form every life has a form so the
form is in the life but the life is never in the form I was walking through a store today it was a lumber yard but they were selling some stuffed animals and see that's a cute little thing no life it had the form have you ever been to a church meeting that had the form but no life yes why is that because it's a human creation man did it in jesus' name God didn't do it through them they did it for God and probably they were well-meaning but they had never been up on the mountain
and they hadn't seen Into the Heart of God they just started building something and I'm afraid that when the fire of God Falls it's going to go up in smoke because it's not Eternal what God does is eternal the first creation God created the first creation by speaking he spoke and things came into being the second creation the new creation is also through God's word his speaking he speaks to us he speaks through us he speaks through others God is speaking into being a new creation and that's his bride that's his church the life that
is Flowing out of the sight of Jesus that's what's building the church now there's a great temptation to do something to make it work to make it happen to get people together you know if you have your own church I personally will be terrified to have my own church seriously think about it who are you competing with you have your own church good for you let me move a little further away because this is serious business this is not a game God isn't playing around he has something Eternal in his heart well you know the
Bible says that God does not dwell in a temple made with human hands and that doesn't only mean bricks and mortar and a physical construction but he also will not dwell in a group that man put together by his own energies his gifts his ability to persuade people to impress people his oratory he attracts people they like to hear him speak so he gets this church together based on what it smells human to me it seems like it's something of the earth something very flammable God's church is only Built with God's life if it doesn't
have its source in God it's rejected you remember naab and Abu the two sons of Aaron really got to liking this priest stuff you know they uniforms and going into the Temple and so they decided to do a little their own stuff they got their sensors and lighted up that incense and then they went they went in standing up they came out lying down dead God wasn't happy to me that's a powerful statement that's a powerful statement when when you come to God's house we're not free to invent to create to make up things we're
only free to let God use us to minister himself to others to build up others and the group happens automatically okay so Jesus Christ is in us and we are the body of Christ okay well what is your body your body is the expression of you you walk you do you speak you it's it's you what does the body of Christ mean not that oh collectively you know like the body of the law no it's a real thing that God lives in us with a purpose of revealing himself self through us so that we become
like him to transform us from glory to glory Into His Image so that people see him so that he's revealed this is his eternal purpose his eternal purpose is to have a living house a living house that is filled with him he's in every room he's in every member he's in every part and the universe can look at this bride and see the multifaceted wisdom of God that'll be known through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God he is going to be revealed his desire being invisible is to be visible is to be seen is
to be revealed and He is building up this group of people kind of in secret little by little here and there so that one day when she is revealed he will be glorified in her and through her you can see that this is important to God it's his expression he's he's getting ready something that's going to reveal his character his nature his love love all the aspects that's probably why there are so many people is because God has so many different aspects that John for example will probably show forth a fcet of God to the
universe in a way that no one else could express it each one of us can show forth something of God that he wants to be known he wants seen he wants understood and this is really important this isn't something we can play around with this isn't something we should take lightly we could take we should take it seriously because it's important to God
