Will you please turn to Exodus, the book of Exodus, Chapter 25? We will begin with Verse 1.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering: of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take My offering.
And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver, and brass,
And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
And rams’ skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia wood,
Oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense,
Onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate.
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.—Exodus 25:1-9
Please turn also to 1 Chronicles, Chapter 22, Verse 14.
Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.
—1 Chronicles 22:14
And in the same book, 1 Chronicles, Chapter 29, beginning with Verse 2:
Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of divers colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.
Moreover also, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, seeing that I have a treasure of mine own of gold and silver, I give it unto the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house:
Even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses;
Of gold for the things of gold, and of silver for the things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of workmen. Who then offereth willingly to consecrate himself this day unto the Lord?—1 Chronicles 29:2-5
Then we go to the New Testament, Matthew, Chapter 16, Verse 18.
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
—Matthew 16:18
Finally, Romans, Chapter 12, beginning with Verse 1.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.—Romans 12:1-2
And Verse 4:
For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office:
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another.—Romans 12:4-5
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because Thou art doing a great work. We praise and worship Thee because Thou dost say, “I will build My church.” And we know that Thou art building even today.
Lord, we just pray that Thou wilt show us Thy work, that Thou wilt reveal to us Thy work in us and with us. Draw us into Thy great work, and enable us to be given to Thee.
Do deliver us from our own competency, that we may really yield ourselves to Thee and allow Thee to finish the great work that Thou hast been doing through the centuries. We want to give Thee all the glory. In Thy precious name we pray. Amen.
The one word that we consider together these days is taken from Matthew 16:18. Our Lord Jesus said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
So the word is build. We know that our Lord is building, and He is building His own church.
When you think of the word build, you will find at least a few principal ideas. First of all, if you want to build anything of significance, then you need to have an idea, a purpose—something that you conceive in your thought. You want to build something for some particular purpose. It is not just something that comes suddenly and disappears quickly. Building is something with a definite purpose.
Then, of course, if you want to build anything of value, you do not just try to put things together at random. You need to have a pattern, a blueprint, by which you will build that building.
After you have the pattern, then you prepare the materials, gather the manpower, and decide how long a time you will be willing to spend to finish that work. With all the materials and manpower, then you begin to build. There will be a process of turning raw materials into finished vessels or finished forms.
Finally, after you finish the building, it does not just stand there. You present it to someone who will occupy it and use it. So these are the five ideas that we are sharing together these days.
In our first morning, we shared on this matter of purpose. Before the ages, before God created the heavens and the earth, God already conceived in His heart an idea.
The Bible tells us that He purposed according to the good pleasure of His will. It pleased Him to have such an idea, and this idea is purposed in Christ Jesus. In other words, it is purposed for His beloved Son.
God so loved His Son that He wanted to satisfy the longing of the heart of His beloved Son. So He purposed that purpose. He wanted to build something that would really make His Son glad and fully satisfied.
What is the thing that is purposed? The Bible tells us that it is the church. The church is conceived in the heart of God, and He set that purpose for His Son. That which is purposed is the church, which is to be the bride, the wife, of His beloved Son.
So, brothers and sisters, the church is not something insignificant. The church is something of extreme importance to God Himself and to His beloved Son, and it should be to every one of us.
On the second day, we shared together on this matter of pattern. Does the church have a pattern? If the church is of such significance and so glorious, can it be that God will build the church without any pattern?
Even if we are building something, we will not do things merely at the moment. We will not begin to build without knowing what we are building or how we are going to build it, and then add something else the next moment because we have thought of another idea. We will never do that.
What we will do is have a blueprint. Everything will be laid down. All the thoughts, all the ideas, all that you desire to have, will be put into blueprints. A pattern is there, and afterwards you will build according to that pattern.
So the question is: does the church have a pattern? To many people, the church does not seem to have a pattern. They say that it is just the product of history. As God’s people go along, they begin to change according to time and according to need. In other words, there is no pattern whatsoever.
But actually, you will find that they are patterned after the world. The world influences us. Whatever the world is, gradually you find the church conforming to the world.
That is why you find the church becoming an organization. That organization develops into a great corporation, and even into a nation above nations. That is after the pattern of the world. Instead of allowing the world to imitate the church, the church imitates and follows the trend of the world.
But we know that the church of God is not built according to the elements of the world. Some people think that the church changes according to the ingenuity of men. Men create the church, so men can form the church according to their own clever ideas. That is what you find again in Christianity.
Others think that the church should find its pattern from the Old Testament. As in Judaism, you have a definite place of worship. So today, too, people have a definite place of worship. If you want to worship, you need to go to that place.
But our Lord Jesus, in His conversation with the Samaritan woman, said that the hour had come, and now is, when true worshippers do not worship in special locations or at special times, but worship Him in spirit and truth.
According to the Old Testament, there was not only a definite place for worship, but also a set of rules—the Ten Commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances. Today we find that, in many Christian organizations, there is a creed, and everything is ruled by that creed.
Thirdly, in the Old Testament, when they worshipped, they had a certain form of worship: a fixed and elaborate ritual or ceremony. Today we find the same thing in Christianity.
Finally, in Judaism, you have the priesthood: a special tribe, a special family, trained to do spiritual work. All the others are simply laity, lay people. Brothers and sisters, you find this carried on into Christianity.
Where can we find a pattern for the church? Some people say that we can find it in the New Testament. They read the book of Acts and find elders, deacons, and a congregation. So they approach the building of the church from a technical viewpoint.
But after you have all these things done, do you find the church of God? No. So where can we find a pattern for the church?
Thank God, He does give us a perfect pattern. That perfect pattern is not technical, mechanical, or organizational. That pattern is a living Person. In other words, it is Christ Himself.
It is the living Christ. He becomes the pattern of the living church. So, brothers and sisters, the church is spiritual, heavenly, and of life. The more we know Christ, the more the church grows and is built. He alone is the pattern.
This morning, we would like to share on the third point, which is preparation. Whenever you want to build something of greatness, you need to prepare for it. You need to gather the materials needed for the building of that house.
Of course, you also need manpower. People must be called together to do the task. You need to assign a certain amount of time to complete that work.
If this is the way men do a good job, how much more will our God, when He is working on something so glorious and eternal?
When God built the heavens and the earth, how did He build? He spoke the word, and it was done. Out of nothing, God brought in the heavens and the earth and all the things in heaven and on earth. He calls things that are not as though they were. He is God.
But strangely, in the matter of building His house, He used a different strategy. Instead of doing all things by Himself, He involved man in that building.
Instead of calling nothing into something, God began His work with something already there, but unfit for His work. Yet He took up these unfit materials and turned them into materials suitable for His building.
In other words, in the building of the house, He involved man. So far as God is concerned, this involvement gave Him many troubles. It would be much easier if He called nothing into something.
But we do not know why it pleased God that, in the making and building of His house, He decided to involve man in the work. He would work with man; He would work in man.
Brothers and sisters, why? It seems to be beyond our understanding. The only thing that we can think of is because of His love.
Out of His love, He wanted to do something very special. In spite of the fact that He knows the end from the beginning, He knows what will be involved, what hardship will be involved, and what cost He has to pay because He involves man. Yet, for love’s sake, He was willing.
So, dear brothers and sisters, when you think of the building of the house of God, it really humbles us.
In Old Testament times, after God had delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Mount Sinai. Then He declared why He had delivered them. He wanted to make them His own people, a people of His possession, out of all the nations.
He made this redeemed and delivered people to be His own possession. He gave them His law, and on that basis He declared to them that He wanted to dwell among them. He wanted to be with them.
“Build Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among you.” This was the purpose of God in delivering this people to Himself: God wanted to dwell among His people.
God could easily have sent down from heaven a dwelling place, a sanctuary. But instead of that, God said, “You, My redeemed people, build Me a sanctuary.”
So He said, “Tell the children of Israel, offer Me a heave offering.” A heave offering simply means a love offering. Everyone whose heart is prompted by God, by the Spirit of God, voluntarily and willingly, should give Him a love offering of all kinds of materials for the building of the sanctuary.
Brothers and sisters, we know that the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. As slaves, they owned nothing. They did not even own their own bodies. They had no rights of any kind—nothing.
But when God appeared to Moses and said, “You go and deliver My people out of Egypt,” He also said that when they came out, they should ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold, silver, and clothing.
When God delivered the children of Israel, He not only delivered the people. Pharaoh at first was not willing. He said, “Let the men go, but let the women and children remain in Egypt.” Moses said, “No, all must go.”
Then Pharaoh said, “All right, you go, but leave all your cattle and animals here.” But Moses said, “No, we have to bring them out, because we do not know what God will require of us for sacrifice.”
So when the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, the entire population was delivered: every family, every member of the family, the old and the young, the men and the women. All the people were delivered.
But more than that, God permitted the children of Israel to ask of their neighbors for gold, silver, and clothing. The Bible says that when they did this, they spoiled the Egyptians.
Egypt at that time was the greatest nation in the world. It was rich. But think of that: when the children of Israel came out, they spoiled the Egyptians. All the riches of Egypt became theirs.
In one sense, our God is righteous. The Egyptians had made the Hebrews work without wages for hundreds of years, so God said, “These will be their wages.” But more than that, all these things were given to them abundantly by God Himself.
They owned nothing. Even their bodies did not belong to them. Everything was redeemed by God; everything was given by God. So when they came out of Egypt, they were the richest people in the world. Think of that.
That is a type. When you come to the reality, when you come to us, this is the very way that God has redeemed us. Not only are we redeemed, but all that is connected with us is redeemed into the fullness of Christ.
Then God said, “Give Me a love offering out of what I have given you, if you are willing.” In case you are not willing, you can keep it—but that will be your disaster.
Whoever’s heart is prompted by love, by God, by the love of God, by the Spirit, should offer a heave offering to the Lord. This will be the material for the building of the tabernacle.
But, brothers and sisters, the enemy of God, Satan, knew it too. When Moses went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, the two tablets, the children of Israel on the plain said, “We do not know what happened to Moses. Make us a god to lead us.”
Aaron said, “Give me all the gold rings on your ears.” So he melted the gold and molded it into a golden calf. The children of Israel said, “This is our god.” And Aaron immediately said, “Let us proclaim a feast unto the Lord.”
When Moses came down from the mount, he saw what was going on. He smashed the two tablets of law. In other words, before the law reached them, they had already broken it.
Then he melted the golden calf, made it into fine powder, poured it on the water, and asked the children of Israel to drink it. In other words, they drank their own sin.
But before God could get to the gold, the enemy got it first. Now, is this not true with us today? We who are redeemed of the Lord—everything belongs to God. We do not belong to ourselves.
Yet, brothers and sisters, whatever God has given us, instead of offering it to God as a love offering for the building of His house, His church, how the enemy comes in, tempts us, and takes away that which belongs to God.
As we look back, I believe every one of us will realize how we wasted what God has so graciously given to us in something that is against God, instead of for His purpose.
When anyone is enlightened by the Spirit of God, he or she will look back and realize how much that belongs to God in us has been wasted in something against Him.
But thank God, He is gracious. With the pleading of Moses, God forgave them. Thank God, He did not change His mind. He had given them so much that there was still gold and silver and plenty of abundant things for the building of the tabernacle.
After Moses pleaded with God and came down, God said, “Let the people whose hearts are touched and prompted offer freely.” God gave them a second chance.
When you read from Exodus Chapter 35 onward, you find how they came and offered, and offered, and offered, until they had to be stopped. That is the grace of God.
Brothers and sisters, that ought to be our condition, our situation. Are we like that? We have wasted so much that God entrusted to us for His purpose, but we have wasted it in many other things.
When God, by mercy, gives us another chance, what will be our response? Could we withhold from Him?
Then you find the same thing happened in the building of the temple. We mentioned yesterday that David had a heart because he knew the heart of God: to build God a permanent temple.
David was not allowed to do it because he was a man of war. He had shed too much blood. The house of God represents peace; it would be a misrepresentation if he built it.
But still, God gave him the pattern of the temple. Hear what David said in 1 Chronicles 22: “In my affliction, I have gathered and prepared materials for the building of God’s house.”
What did he mean by “in my affliction”? Probably it refers to the many wars that he had to fight. The Bible says that whenever he fought a war and overcame, he separated the spoil for God.
In his affliction, he prepared gold, silver, iron, copper, and materials for the building of God’s house. Then again, in 1 Chronicles 29, he said, “I prepared for the house of God with all my power.” Whatever was within his power, he prepared the material for it.
Then in Verse 3 he said, “In my affection for the house of God.” He loved the house of God, and out of his affection, over and above all that he had prepared, he offered the best gold, the most refined silver—everything of the best—to God.
Then he called the people and said, “Offer as God moves you.” The leaders and the people came and offered willingly. Because they could offer willingly, they were glad.
David praised God, for he said, “Everything is Yours, but You make us a willing people, to willingly give for the building of the temple.” That is what you find in the building of the temple: the materials.
Now, brothers and sisters, the building of the temple and the building of the tabernacle are just types. They are temporary; they are shadows. They came and they went.
What is the reality? The real thing that our Lord is building is His church. It is permanent, forever, eternal.
Where does the material come from? For this, we have to go back to the very beginning. We remember when God said to Adam, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.”
With that thought in God for Adam, He began to work. Where could He find the material for the woman? He could not find it in any animal. The only material He could get had to come from Adam.
So the Bible tells us that God put Adam to sleep. God opened his side—that was the first surgery upon man. But it was a painless surgery. Why painless? Because there was no sin in the world.
God opened Adam’s side and took out something. In the original, it is not merely a rib; it is something of Adam, being taken out of Adam. God used that something out of Adam and built it into the woman.
Now this is a type. When we come to the reality, brothers and sisters, where could our Lord find the material for the building of the church?
We mentioned already that two thousand years ago He came to this world. Why did He come? He came as a Bridegroom seeking for His bride. But out of the countless number of people, even among the chosen people, He could not find His bride.
Because of this, God had to do some surgery. We remember that our Lord Jesus came to die. He came to go to the cross. Why must He go to the cross?
When He shared with His disciples that He must go and would be killed, immediately Peter took hold of Him and said, “Lord, never! You do not need that. You can have the world without a cross.”
Our Lord turned around and said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.” Then He said, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus came to die. Why? On the cross He died.
The soldiers wanted to make sure. They broke the legs of the two robbers because those two robbers were still alive. By breaking their legs, they hastened their death. But when they came to the Lord, He was already dead.
A Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief—He was not like a man when He was on the cross. So the soldier, to make sure that He had died, thrust a spear into His side.
Brothers and sisters, the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross was the most painful death—not only physically, but mentally and spiritually.
Even our Lord cried out:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
—Matthew 27:46
Our Lord Jesus tasted the very taste of eternal death, separated from the Father. It was a painful, most painful death. Why? Because there was sin in the world.
Out of the spear, the Bible says, came blood and water. That was the last drop of blood from His heart. We are told that when the heart is broken, the blood begins to separate, so it came out as blood and water.
John was there. He saw it. In John 19:34-35, he said, “He that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true.”
Why did he emphasize this so strongly? Because here God put Christ to death. The Father crushed Him, and out of His side came something: blood for the remission of our sins, and water—His life poured out for us.
Brothers and sisters, this is the material for the building of the church.
No man in the world is fit to be material for the house of God. When God created man in His image and according to His likeness, He had that thought in view. He wanted man to be that material, if only man would eat of the tree of life instead of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
But unfortunately, man rejected God’s life and would rather have knowledge in himself. Man declared independence against God and wanted to be god himself. He became totally unfit for the building of the house.
Nicodemus, the best of man, came to the Lord thinking that he was not far from the kingdom of God. He thought he needed more teaching, more instruction, more knowledge. But the Lord said:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
—John 3:3
The Samaritan woman, having had five husbands and living with a sixth man, was not fit for the building of the house. No one in the world, naturally, is fit to be material for God.
You remember when our Lord was rejected by His people, He retreated to the borders of Caesarea Philippi. There He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”
He was not satisfied with the answer, so He said, “But who say ye that I am?” Simon Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Our Lord Jesus said, “Simon Bar-Jonah, thou art blessed, because this is not something flesh and blood can tell you. It is My Father in heaven who reveals the Son to you.”
Then the Lord said, “I also say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church.”
Brothers and sisters, Simon—the natural man, the man of the earth, the man of sin, of the flesh—was totally unfit to be material for the building of the church.
Something God had to do in this man: true changing. By the revelation of the Father concerning the Son, Simon recognized that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. In that confession, something happened to that person.
“Simon, you are blessed. Now you are Peter”—a stone, a living stone, heavenly, spiritual, possessing eternal life.
Here you find the Lord saying, “You are Peter.” Now you ought to be the material for the building of the church. As Simon, you were totally unfit. But now God has done something in you. It is a new creation.
A new life is given to you. You become a stone now, a living stone. Now I can take you and build you into My church. Brothers and sisters, do we really see this?
God did something more than calling something out of nothing. God did something even more with something completely ruined, totally unfit, and opposite to everything God wants.
Yet God does something in that person, putting in him something new—a new life.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.
—2 Corinthians 5:17
A new life is put into him. He becomes Peter, a stone, and that is the material for the house of God.
Our Lord Himself is the Rock, the massive Rock. When we believe in Him, we are all little stones, but having the same life.
Peter understood this very well. In 1 Peter 2, he says that our Lord Jesus is a living stone, but as we come to Him, we all become living stones, built up together into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
That is the material for the building of the house. Our Lord creates His own material for the building of the house. Anything of the old creation is unfit. Everything must come from the new creation.
Throughout the centuries, He has called a people out of every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and every people. He gathers them together and builds them together into the living church of God.
When you have the material but do not have the workmen, the material just lies there and cannot become a building.
So, in the preparation work for the building of the church, you find that our Lord prepares the materials—you and me. Thank God for that.
We should be cast away. Like a potter, when he puts clay on the wheel and it is marred in his hand, he does not simply cast it off. He takes it and makes a new vessel out of it.
That is what happened to us. We were cast away, but now God, in His mercy, takes us, remakes us, gives us a new life, and that new life in us becomes the material for the building of the church.
But where are the workers? Now, you will not change this: no one can build the church except God.
In Matthew 16, the Lord said, “I will build My church.” In Hebrews 11:10, God is the Builder of the city which hath the foundations. Psalm 127:1 says:
Except the Lord build the house,
They labor in vain that build it.—Psalm 127:1
The building of the church is exclusively the work of God Himself. We are not fit, because this is a creative work, and God is the Creator. It is beyond us.
But, brothers and sisters, in another sense, when He is building the house, He builds in us, with us, and out of us.
In 1 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul said, “I, as a wise master builder, laid a foundation.” Strictly speaking, he was a wise fellow worker. He laid the foundation, and all of us—the Corinthian believers and all who believe in the Lord Jesus—are all working in this building.
How do we work? The building of the church is not given to only a few of God’s people.
Ephesians 4 tells us that, for the building of the church, the ascended Lord gave to the church some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.
The saints are equipped so that they all begin to function and work in the building up of the body of Christ. So everyone is involved. This is the universal priesthood of believers.
All believers are servants of the Lord. All believers are working in this work.
How do we work? Do we work with gold, silver, and precious stones, or do we work with wood, hay, and stubble? What does it mean?
If you build with gold, silver, and precious stones, what is gold? Gold represents the nature of God. God’s nature is like gold: indestructible, incorruptible, glorious.
That is why, in the Bible, when the glory of the Lord appears—for instance, Ezekiel saw the vision of the glory of the Lord—he saw something like radiant gold. Gold represents the nature of God.
Silver is used for redemption: the redemption of our Lord Jesus. Precious stones represent the work of the Holy Spirit. With patience, with pressure, with darkness, with heat, precious stones are formed.
When we work with gold, silver, and precious stones, what does it mean? It simply means that we allow God to work gold, silver, and precious stones in us.
Outwardly, we are building with gold, silver, and precious stones. Actually, it is God Himself who is working in us, turning us into gold, silver, and precious stones.
So it is God working. All we do is allow Him to work, cooperating with Him, yielding to Him, so that His nature, His divine nature and character, may be built up in us.
All the goodness of His redemption is formed in us, and the work of the Holy Spirit works in our lives with pressure, darkness, heat, and a long period of time—transforming us, changing us from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, working is actually allowing Him to work in us. These things are fit for the house of God because they came from God.
If we work with wood, grass, stubble, or straw, what will happen? Wood represents man—our natural man—like wood, corruptible.
Straw represents the work of man. You remember that the Egyptians made the Israelites make bricks with mud and straw. Stubble represents the glory of man.
Brothers and sisters, if we refuse to cooperate with God, to let the Spirit of God work in our lives and take away from us all that is wood, straw, and stubble, and rebuild in us what is of God, what is of Christ, and what is of the Holy Spirit, then these things will endure at the judgment seat of Christ, when fire tests them.
But if today, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, we still live our natural life, doing work according to our natural strength and seeking man’s glory instead of God’s glory, then outwardly we may make a big building with wood, straw, and stubble.
Everybody may see it and say, “Oh, what a big building it is.” But when fire appears, these things are fit for fire. Thank God, the foundation can never be burned.
Gold, silver, and precious stones—how costly! It costs you something; it costs you everything. Are you willing?
He calls us to work with Him, as if we are working, but actually it is He who works in us. Thank God for that.
Finally, what is the time that He has apportioned for the building of the church? When the tabernacle was built, it was built in less than a year. When the temple was built, it took seven years.
But in the building of the church, how long does it take? When our Lord was on earth, He said, “I will build My church.”
At Pentecost, the building began, and He is still building. He is still building His church. What a magnificent building that is. How glorious that must be.
Brothers and sisters, He involves even us. You are deeply involved in the building of the church, whether you know it or not, because He has called you.
How much are you really involved in that building? How much that you build will be burned—a waste of your lifetime? And how much, by the grace of God, will be built in, fit for the dwelling of God Himself?
Oh, brothers and sisters, it is so glorious, but it is very serious. You cannot play church. May God build His church.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because Thou dost say, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” We praise and worship Thee because Thou hast changed us, giving us a new life.
With that life which Thou hast given to us, Thou buildest Thy church. We pray that we may not be so negligent as to think that we can hold on to what Thou hast given to us for our own sake.
But Lord, Thou hast every right to claim all of us. Yet Thou dost not demand; rather, Thou dost beseech us by the mercies of God to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. This is our reasonable service.
O Lord, we pray that Thou wilt take us in Thy own hand. Mold and fashion us, work in us, until we are built into that wonderful building, the house of God. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.