The Habitation of God

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Good morning. Morning to the visitors back there. Any others? [00:00:33] Ray is kind of a visitor. I guess he's been here before and I didn't remember. I'm so embarrassed. Good to see everybody. Lately, there's been a lot of talk around here about the church, the brotherhood. [00:01:10] Um, Jim's going through Acts, and looking at the church, and, uh, I got to thinking this morning while I was getting ready, flying around there, that this message, kind of, it's almost the same thing as the last time I spoke on the presence of God. But maybe in a little different way and looking at it a little differently and I didn't realize it until I was done. [00:01:47] So I think it's pretty much on my mind, on all of our minds. But I come across, I've been reading through Ephesians because I think I was looking at the Ephesian church and how it got started there in chapter 19 of Acts. And I was reading through Ephesians and come across a verse in Ephesians 2 verse 22. It talks about a habitation of God. So I did a search, habitation of God, exact words. It's the only place in the Bible that talks, that uses that exact same phrase, habitation of God. [00:02:21] So I guess the title would be A Habitation of God, and I wanted to put the church in there somehow. Or ask the question, is our church a habitation of God? That was my first thought. But then my second thought was, even maybe a little more, well it's definitely a lot more personal, bring it down to ourselves, not the church as a whole. Is my heart the habitation of God? [00:02:53] And maybe some questions I'll be repeating quite a bit. One question is, does God feel at home in my heart? A lot of times people come over to our place and come in and say, hey, make yourself a home. But, you know, there's drawers that I, my wife probably especially, or me, you know, you don't want to open. You know, I would not want you to open up some drawers. And maybe that's a crude illustration of what God does. You know, do we let God come in and open up every drawer? And I know that that illustration has been given before many times. I've heard it from many different preachers, but it was a thought that I had to look at myself honestly. [00:03:43] Let's turn to Exodus chapter 15. A couple of illustrations from the Old Testament first. Kind of quickly here. Or chapter 14 first, I guess. Here Moses, they're standing at the Red Sea. And the Egyptians are, I mean the children of Israel are complaining here in verse 12. [00:04:19] Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. And what does Moses say? He says, Look here, don't be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. and then we know the story of how they walk through the sea and how the Egyptian army follows them into the sea and I think it's pretty ridiculous that they even follow them in, you know, duh. [00:04:54] That's another thing to talk about sometime but anyways they follow them in and the sea collapses and they all die So, here they are on the other side of the Red Sea, and they see the salvation of the Lord here. And then in chapter 15, I'll read verses 1 and 2. Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. Now imagine, that's almost an understatement. Here they were, and we know the whole story before while they're at the Red Sea, [00:05:29] And they knew the Egyptian army and the cloud and all this stuff. And this huge Red Sea, I was going to find out and I forgot, but does anybody know how wide the sea is or how big? I mean, anyways, what a miracle for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider. He has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation. He is my God. And if you have a King James Bible, you will read, I will prepare him a habitation and I will exalt him. My father's God and I will exalt him. New King James, I didn't find that one little phrase in there. I will prepare him a habitation. [00:06:14] So here, this song of Moses, seeing what God has done, seeing this miracle. I wish I was a great orator and I could just go on and on about that. I'm not a great orator. But how do you describe what God did here? And because of that, Moses wanted a place for God [00:06:47] I will prepare him a habitation He wanted God to be around I think we all do If we look at our church, we want God to stay around Look what he's done I heard a testimony this morning Look at what he has done Where would we be? Where would we all be if it wasn't for what God has done in our life? Or maybe our parents' lives. Or, you know, what has He done for you? [00:07:18] What miracle has He performed for you? Where has He brought you out of? What from Myrie Pitt did He bring you out of? And then the question is, you know, does He feel at home in my heart? Does He feel at home here this morning? But noticing what God has done and we want a habitation for him. He's a good God. He's a great God. He's a big God. He's a wonderful God. He's a kind God. He's a righteous God. He's good. We want him to stick around. We want to be a friend. So we want a place for him to dwell. [00:08:00] Have we prepared for him a habitation? Then in 2 Chronicles 6 Solomon's prayer starts there in verse 12, I think. [00:08:49] Then Solomon stood before the altar. Did I say 2 Chronicles? 2 Chronicles chapter 6. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands For Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high And had set it in the midst of the court and he stood on it Knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like you [00:09:22] Who keep your covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts You have kept what you promised your servant David, my father You have both spoken with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what you promised your servant David, my father, saying You shall not fail to have a man sit before me on the throne of Israel Only if your sons take heed to their way [00:09:54] That they walk in my laws as you have walked before me And now, O Lord of Israel, let your word come true Which you have spoken to your servant David But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you How much less this temple Which I have built Yet regard the prayer of your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God And listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you [00:10:27] Stop there I believe that, you know, Solomon saw God for who he was And Solomon I think that, I know we're going to be going through this prayer book And I haven't read a whole lot in it, and I don't, a lot of you know more about prayer than me. And, but I think Solomon knew what it was to pray, and I like, he sees how big God is, but will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? [00:11:07] Can God come down and dwell here? Even the heavens of heavens cannot contain him. How can this temple contain him? And I'm not sure how they did. I'm not going to read through the rest of the chapter. But in the first verse of chapter 7, I found it interesting that here they got this sacrifice and it's not burning. [00:11:45] I don't know if they lit sacrifices after the prayer or while they're praying or whatever, but it's not praying or it's not burning. Verse 1 says, When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. How the priests couldn't even enter there. Verse 3, When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, [00:12:16] they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy endures forever. I think that when Solomon was praying, he knew that this fire was going to come down. He was expecting it. I don't think he jumped back and said, oh, you know, he was expecting this fire to come down. And I want to liken that to when we pray for the Holy Spirit to come down. Fire from heaven. [00:12:52] Are we expecting it or do we just kind of hope? That was a challenge for me. Do I really, do I believe, are we praying for fire from heaven? And how often? Maybe we do. Maybe I do just when it's my turn to preach, or my turn to share, or my turn to, you know, I know we need to have family devotions, so I say, hey, I need a little fire, I need some light here to share with my family. [00:13:30] or is it an everyday thing? Am I seeking God with all of my heart? And when I say all of my heart, every drawer open, all of the time. And as we, as God continues to sanctify us, [00:14:04] as we continue to sacrifice our hearts, God opens up new doors and new drawers and says, Hey, clean it out. You clean it out. We can expect that He will light our fire with His Holy Spirit. Now let's go to Ephesians chapter 2. Let's start at verse 18. [00:14:41] The first of the year in 2008, Nate started in verse 19. That's just a little thing. I think that's so cool. I write little dates down there. So, Nate, I don't know if you remember preaching on this one day. Ephesians 2, verse 18. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Amen, somebody. I like that verse. Amen. [00:15:13] Verse 19, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. [00:15:52] So the Spirit of God is building a house where God feels welcome or He feels at home. The Spirit of God is doing that. It's not us, I had to write this part down because it got a little confusing to me. It's not us asking God to meet us where we live, but it's God asking us to bring our lives, our hearts, into order, into obedience to his word, so he feels at home where we are. [00:16:34] I don't know if I had to think about that one for a while. That's quite a sentence. You know that, I know that it's a prayer of our church, and I know that that's a prayer of each individual life here. Sometimes we, you know, we often ask that the Holy Spirit would be here among us. [00:17:21] And that's good. We need to remember, we need to think on Sunday morning or on Saturday night when we prepare for Sunday or Wednesday evening, a small group or maybe we're going to have a prayer meeting or that God would dwell among us. But the Spirit of God is building a house, a habitation of God. [00:17:56] You know, the children of Israel, if you go back to that story, they saw God and how wonderful things that He was doing, and they wanted to keep Him around. and how much, you know, I can see that here with us. Each one of us can go around and share what God has done for each one of us. We want Him here. And, you know, we don't, I had to think of, [00:18:31] When I say prepare a habitation, you know, God is not directing each one of us how to build this fancy temple. And I know back then in the Old Testament they had the candlesticks and pure gold this and pure gold that and all this stuff. And I had to liken that to our own lives. Sometimes it seems like there are Christians, or maybe some of us, I'm not sure. [00:19:01] We have everything looking good on the outside. Everything is cleaned up. And maybe we're even doing some of the right things, or all of the right things. Saying the right things, going the right places, doing the right things. But in our hearts there's, I don't know, you name it, the sins of the heart. Maybe it's even just, only just selfishness or greed or covetousness or jealousy or envy or backbiting or things that it's not so obvious on the outside. [00:19:50] And another question I had is, am I allowing God to build a habitation for Himself through His Spirit? Are you obeying His voice? He's trying to build us. He's trying to help us to grow. Is my heart turned full out to Him? Sometimes you're talking to your children and they're just kind of looking at you, you know, out of the corner of their eye, you know, and you take their chin, no, look at me. Look, look, and their eyes even go over to the side. [00:20:23] You know, their faces turn towards you, but their eyes are looking over here. Kila would do that all the time. No, look, look at me. Are we turned full out, completely, towards Christ? So, what does this heart look like? What does this heart look like? [00:20:57] What kind of a place is it where God feels at home? I had to think of Ezekiel. God showed him a vision of how the temple, how it should be. I was going to turn to that, but I think it's all the way from chapter 36 or 37 to 44, and it's quite long. And in there it says that the people may be ashamed. [00:21:33] And God gave Ezekiel this vision, and Ezekiel was supposed to share it with the people. And I think that that's the book of Acts for us today. This is what the church should be. This is what they were doing. This is some of these things that I'm going to list here of what need to be in our heart. How God is the heart that God inhabits. [00:22:06] I think each one of these I know that you'll find them in Acts. The first one, I want to go to Isaiah 57. Familiar verse, 57 verse 15. For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with Him who has a contrite and humble spirit [00:22:40] to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. So there's two places here in verse 15 that we see that God inhabits. Who inhabits eternity. We know that he inhabits eternity, But he also inhabits those who have a contrite and humble spirit. [00:23:12] He feels at home in eternity and he feels at home with those who are humble. And then in Ezekiel 43, I'll read one verse from that portion of scripture that I was talking about. Ezekiel 43, verse 12, which brings up the next one. God inhabits those who are holy. [00:23:46] Verse 12 This is the law of the temple. The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. Boy, he makes that fact known. This is the law of the temple. Or, this is the law. This is the only way that God will inhabit us. As if we're holy. This is the law. This is the way it is. So what does holy mean? [00:24:21] I know that I've talked about this before, but it's to be set apart, sanctified, set apart for God. Am I set apart? To be set apart is only the beginning. We set ourselves apart. I don't know, I was trying to think of an illustration. I had to think of three favorite candy bars or whatever. My favorite one is the Reese cup. Or maybe it could be three Reese cups and one could be moist and the other ones are dry. [00:24:56] You know, those old ones that you... So you set this one apart. Well, that's only the beginning. Set it over here. What are you going to do? You'll eat it later or something. So, when we set ourselves apart, that's where it all starts. To be holy means that we're not common. We don't live like the world. We don't talk like the world. We don't listen to what the world listens to. [00:25:30] We don't go where the world goes. Or do we? What do we know that God is telling us about those things? It's not what we feel God is telling us because I feel like sometimes we say, well, God really told me that I can go to this place because it da-da-da-da, whatever, you know. [00:26:01] I feel like God led me. Well, we can't go by feelings now, can we? If we would always go by feelings, I'm sure that Christ would have called a thousand million angels down and He felt forsaken. You can't go by feelings. We don't say, well, everyone else is doing it. We are otherworldly. [00:26:39] To be holy means to be free from sin. And that's going to be a... You know, I know that we all understand that doesn't mean that we never sin again. But we're free from sin. We're not just... We don't just confess our sins. We repent. We turn from them. In 1 Peter, I think it is the first chapter, he says, Be holy, be ye holy, for I am holy. [00:27:11] I really appreciate the song. I don't know who requested it. Holy, holy, holy song. Jesus said, Sanctify them by your truth. So this is the law of the house, or this is the law of the temple, you must be holy, and this is where I will dwell, says God. Some Christians say it doesn't matter how I dress, well we know that's not true, it doesn't matter what I listen to. [00:27:49] If our heart is in the world most of the week, how do we expect God to dwell in our hearts on Sunday? And some go to church and stir up some emotions and get a couple goosebumps and get some feelings going and some emotion. and say, wow, God was here. [00:28:23] But the Bible says we're supposed to worship the Lord in the beauty of what? Works? No, not works. Holiness. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Okay, another place where God feels at home A home is a place where there's praise and worship and adoration and thanksgiving. That can be pretty hard at times. [00:28:58] At times. When things are going rough, to praise God, to adore Him and give Him thanks. When things aren't going the way that we planned, whether it's sickness, I had to think of Glendon's and that whole family Was it easy to pray a prayer of thanksgiving when Colin was going through his surgeries? [00:29:30] We could go on and on, a list. It's hard, I know it's hard. And I don't always, I don't always. Praise and worship and adoration and thanksgiving continually with pure hearts. Uh, Revelations 4 and 5 and I think maybe even 6 talks about how God loves the praise of His people. And the next one, God feels at home in a place where He gets the glory. [00:30:12] The glory of God is what we want. And that's really easy for me to say, okay? Maybe you too, but especially for me, I can really say that. Give all, praise the Lord. But there's so many things that, so many ways that I want to take the glory. And I really have to watch myself. I talked to Floyd some about it down in Jamaica. You know, why am I here? Does it just feel good to me to be a white man, a rich man, come down here? [00:30:43] Help these guys out, you know, and I got money, I can help them. And it's okay, I mean, God wants to bless us for helping them, but we can take it too far. We can go around this ditch over here. Are we honestly giving God the glory? And I think that maybe sometimes we are, but we need to watch that, because the devil knows how to get at us. If we can praise ourself just a little bit, oh that feels good. If we can get any, we like glory. I mean, look at the Olympics and look at cross courts, I want to be number one, the champion, Carrington. [00:31:29] And some of that, you know, we've got to be careful with that. I'm not saying that all of that is bad, but we just have to be careful. Do we want God to have the glory? I had to think of David and Goliath. Why was he there? Was he there to get the glory? No, he wasn't there to get the glory. He was not there for himself. In Isaiah 42, God says, I will not give my glory to another. In 1 Corinthians, I think, I didn't look it up then, [00:32:03] I think he says, No flesh should glory in his presence. But I really need to look at the motive of my heart. What are my motives? What do our motives look like to God? What does he see already? I had to think of that song, O for a heart to praise Him. [00:32:36] Is it for God's glory? What is on my mind during the day? First thing that comes to my mind is just a regular old statement from somebody. Is my mind in the gutter? What do I joke about? What do I text about? Is it bringing God glory? Would God smile on the things that I think about? Would God smile on the things that I text about? The words that enter my mind that, or maybe I say once in a while. [00:33:14] And is it okay to slip up once in a while? Yeah, I'm sure it is. Because God has had lots of mercy on me already. But to strive to obey the Lord and His voice Because He's trying to build us The Spirit of God is trying to build us He's trying to build a habitation He wants to dwell in us He's trying to build us God inhabits a heart [00:33:52] He feels at home in a heart that has a burden for lost souls. Are we concerned about what He is concerned about? We could look at the life of Jesus. You know, He had to go to the marketplace and buy bread. He had to pay His taxes. But He was always, always, always concerned for lost souls. and then look at how God dwelt in him, how God was with him. [00:34:30] The last one that I wrote down God feels at home in people who love people who care for people who are concerned for them 1 John 4, I want to turn there and read, I don't know, verse 7 to 13. Very familiar. [00:35:10] Maybe some of us memorize them as children. 1 John 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. [00:35:42] In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. [00:36:23] If we want God to feel at home here in this place, in this church, in our lives, we need to love each other. And I honestly, truly feel that. God will meet our needs I think that God will meet our needs as we try to meet the needs of others and it's a circle I think so Leon prays a prayer for wisdom on this certain subject God directs Dustin to call him up maybe it's just a question that he had I don't know [00:37:10] And they get to talking, and Dustin gives the exact answer that God wants Leon to have. All because he could have just been concerned more about his own thing. Not really, I got to keep going. Well, he wanted to ask, no, he wanted to get going, he don't have time. But the Holy Spirit prompts him to just, hey, why don't you just care about what Leon's going through right now. And so, God uses Dustin to get Leon an answer. [00:37:45] And how many people of us as parents cry out for wisdom, for training, or for a job, or for leading, or for direction, or whatever. Maybe it's five dollars, or maybe it's to pay a bill. And there's, we're praying, Dave's testimony, there's money in the mailbox. If we wouldn't care for each other, then if there wouldn't be love, then God wouldn't be able to meet our needs. [00:38:22] He wants to answer our prayer. God can use, God uses His Spirit to lead us, to help, encourage, help pay a bill. And in closing, I want to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Again, familiar verses. [00:39:06] Verse 16, 17, and 18. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I will walk among them. I will walk in them, I will be their God and they shall be my people Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you [00:39:38] I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty He wants to be in our midst, He wants to inhabit us He wants to dwell in us He wants to be our Father. I wrote a list of things down here. He wants to be a personal God to you. He wants to minister to you. He wants to admonish you and encourage you. He wants to correct you. Why does He want to correct you? He wants to direct your steps. [00:40:16] He says, I will do them. I will be all that to you. I promise. You know, they're not new verses, but I pray that the Holy Spirit will make them fresh and new to us this morning. And then the first verse of chapter 7, And therefore, having these promises, beloved, we have these promises. Let us cleanse ourselves. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. [00:40:52] Not the kind of fear that we want to run away. It's the fear of reverence. But to cleanse ourselves individually as a church. My prayer is that we allow God, His Spirit, to build a temple. Does he feel at home in my life? Does he feel at home in your life? [00:41:23] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. Lord, we have so many things to be thankful for. Not just physically, with material possessions, but Lord, spiritually. And Lord, we thank you for how you work in our lives and how you are so patient with us. [00:41:58] And Lord, help us to see you in the middle of the week when we're working, we're under pressure, being tempted. Help us to keep you in our minds, in our eyes, in our thoughts. Help us to be obedient to your spirit as you try to build us, as you correct us, as you encourage us. [00:42:35] Thank you for answering our prayers and thank you for being faithful. In Jesus' name, Amen.