Make Me A Sanctuary

I'm going to invite you if you can, join me in the book of Exodus chapter 25 and verse 5.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

I have one short verse to read. Exodus 25 and verse 5. Amen.

Church, I'd like to preach just for about 30 minutes today, but I'm going to need your help.

I need to know that you're going to be with me. If I go a little over than that, well, then I do.

But amen. How many of you are going to open your hearts today to God's word? Amen.

The verse says,

And let them make me a sanctuary.

That I may dwell among them. And my title is very simply, Make me a sanctuary.

I'm going to invite you there to pray with me before we, before I preach. Father, I thank you

for your spirit that I feel in this place today, God. Thank you, God, for waking us up this morning,

starting us on our way and allowing us to come once again. Now that we have worshiped,

now that we have exalted your name, Lord, we ask that you would speak to us, God, with the spirit

that is saying to the church. So I pray, God, that we would all help us to turn on our spiritual

hearing so that we might hear what your will and your purpose is for us today, God. In the name of

Jesus, Lord, have your way. Annoy these lips of clay, God, in Jesus' name. Everyone say amen.

You may be seated. My heart's a little heavy today, church. I have a burden and lots to share. So

given the time constraint I've given myself, I'm going to do the best I can. But when you hear the

word sanctuary, I realize that different images may come to mind. You might think of a church

or some other religious place, a place that is separate, unique from everywhere else.

The dictionary defines sanctuary as a sacred place, a place of refuge or a nature reserve.

There are sanctuaries all throughout the world, sanctuaries in nature, for instance, that provide

safe haven for wildlife in the warm waters that surround the coast of the Hawaiian islands,

provides a sanctuary for nursing humpback whales. And my wife and I have witnessed that a few times

while vacationing there. The humpback whales swim around in those waters because there's a safe haven

there. It's a sanctuary, a marine sanctuary. The canopies over the Amazon rainforest, the trees

provide sanctuary for the exotic wildlife that thrives underneath the shady coverings. Those are

sanctuaries in nature. Beyond that, there are also political sanctuaries or sanctuaries within

the political arena. Political refugees can seek asylum in the US from their oppressive governments

that they are escaping and find sanctuary here in the United States. Likewise, you as a US citizen,

if you ever find yourself in danger on foreign soil and there is a US embassy nearby,

you can run to that US embassy. Hopefully, you could just knock on the door or ring the doorbell.

I don't really know how that works, but I would imagine that if you could prove that you're a

citizen, you can find sanctuary. All the laws and the protection of the US government, you can find

safe haven there as a sanctuary, a political sanctuary. There are other types, even within the

social sphere, different organizations that provide sanctuary and safety for victims of human

trafficking, domestic violence. These are all types of sanctuaries. We use this term. But then,

of course, there is a sanctuary I think we can all identify with, which is the sanctuary of our

own homes. I tend to view my home as my own little sanctuary, my own little place, my own little world

away from the world where I can go and retreat and find rest. Amen. Can I get an amen out there?

Some of you, even within your homes, there's a sanctuary because your home gets kind of loud

even then. So, you have a garden or you have a reading room or whatever it is or an office.

He said, this is where I go within my own home, kind of an inner sanctum within my sanctuary.

And these are places that we all need. We need these places where we can go and unwind and just

find safe haven and just meditate or pray. When Moses and the Israelites came out of Egypt,

this is what the Lord told them. He said, I want you to make me a sanctuary that I will dwell

among you. I want to convey to you, church, for just very briefly that God has always desired

to dwell among his people. Amen. God has always desired from the beginning of time,

from the Garden of Eden, to the Tabernacles that were established through the Old Testament,

into the church age, God has always, it has always been his desire to find a resting place,

a dwelling place to abide among his people. This is the quest of God. This is what God

is in pursuit of. He has always desired to dwell among us and all he is looking for

is a sanctuary. Someone say sanctuary. Now, I don't know about you, but it lifts my spirit

and encourages me to know that of all the places that God could find in the world, in the universe,

in the galaxies that he would want to abide amongst imperfect and broken people like us.

I'm just baffled by that, that of all the places, including heaven itself, with its celestial

choirs and streets paid with gold and seraphim and cherubim that surround the throne singing,

holy, holy, holy, that God would say, my people are calling on me and I want to dwell among them.

That is just, I don't think I'll ever quite fathom or wrap my mind around how God would do such a

thing, but this is the heart of God and he's looking for a sanctuary. The first mention of a

sanctuary occurs in Exodus 15, just a few chapters before our opening text, Moses and the people

saying to the Lord prophetically in verse 17, you will bring them and plant them in the mountain of

your inheritance in the place, O Lord, which you have made for your own dwelling, the sanctuary,

O Lord, which your hands have established. Moses and the people of God saying this song

as they were coming out of, out of Egyptian slavery and Moses had, he had a, not only a dream

and a desire to prepare a dwelling place for the Lord, but he foresaw this already being

established. You read the Psalm and the song is sung in the past tense as if this was already

established. He already saw the completion of this thing. It was rooted in his heart, this idea and

that idea was placed there by none other than God himself. God put that desire and that dream in

the heart of Moses to establish a dwelling place for God to dwell among his people. And this idea

of a sanctuary was not born so much in the heart of man as it was in the heart of God. And it was

birthed after Israel came out of Egypt. And there's a beautiful typology there of Israel coming out

of Egypt that is a typology of the new birth experience. When we read of their Exodus, we,

we can read of that story and see a picture of our own conversion, our own transformation. Amen.

Egypt represents our old life of slavery to sin. Amen. And the blood that was put upon the

doorposts which caused the death angel to pass over the Hebrews represents the blood of the lamb,

Jesus Christ, that saves us and washes away our sin. Somebody say amen for that. The crossing of

the Red Sea represents baptism in water and the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night represents

the Holy Spirit that indwells and guides us. And this is how we are saved. What a beautiful picture

of how we are saved and God wants to save. How many of you know God wants to save? Amen. How many,

how many are thankful for salvation? Come on, let's clap for hands if we're thankful for salvation

today. How many of you are glad that your name is written in the book of life? Amen. But then after

salvation we are called by God to make him a sanctuary. Well, what kind of sanctuary? Now,

Moses made his with Acacia wood and precious metals and precious stones and fine linen and goat hair.

Is that the kind of sanctuary that God wants us to make today? You know, goat hair? I don't even

know where you're going to get that, right? Go here, have to order that on Amazon. I don't think

that's what God is looking for. Amen. If that's what he wants, then we would do it. But that's not

what he's looking for. The sanctuary that God wants is not made of wood and stone, but it's made

of flesh and bone. What if I told you that you are the sanctuary? What if I told you that you are

the sanctuary? Someone say, I am the sanctuary. We don't live in the Old Testament under the

Old Covenant anymore, but under a new covenant in Christ. Amen. The old religious system and the

law, according to Hebrews chapter 10, were simply a shadow of things to come. If you think that we

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

have to go through all the same ceremonial systems of the Old Testament, read Hebrews. Please read

Hebrews because what Hebrews teaches us is that all of those things were for the most part a shadow

or a for picture of what New Testament Christianity is all about. And when we speak of a sanctuary,

of a temple, we're not talking about a church building, a physical building, but of something

much deeper, something more intimate, something more personal. When Paul preaching on Mars

and the people of Athens, he preached these words. He said, God who made the world and everything in

it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.

So God is not confined to a temple made with hands. God does not live, so to speak,

in a physical temple like that, but he cannot be defined that way. Rather, God seeks to dwell

in the sanctuary of human life. Amen. Paul wrote these words in his letter to the first Corinthians,

to Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 316. Do you not know that you are the temple of God

and that the spirit of God dwells in you? I've come to remind or announce to you today that God

is not looking so much for a physical building to dwell in, but he is looking for a heart to dwell

in. He's looking for a life to dwell in. And it is time for us church. Amen. You can praise God for

that. It's time for us church to understand that the place where the spirit of God wants to live

and dwell is our own bodies. He writes this in another chapter. Do you not know that your body

is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, whom you have from God, that you are not your own?

You need to understand when the spirit of God takes residence in your life, you are no longer

yourself, your own, but you now belong to God. Hallelujah. For you were bought with a price,

therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's the moment that the spirit

of the Lord inhabits and it dwells your life. You are now God's property. You are now God's

temple. You are now the sanctuary of the spirit of God. Hey, I don't know about you, but I don't

have to come to 1425 South Springer Road to fill the presence of God every time I open up my mouth,

every time I get in my prayer closet, every come on, I wish I had a witness today, every time I

speak with other tongues, I feel the presence of God because that God is living on the inside of me.

Somebody give God some praise today. The church is not a place, it's a people.

The church is not a place, it's a people. And I thank God for a place. I'm not against that.

I might have some things to say about that in a moment. Amen. But we are the church.

Someone say I'm the church. Amen. We have to do more than just come to church. We've got to be

the church wherever we go. We are the temple of God. Hallelujah. We're taking Jesus with us.

Understand that this is the temple. My body is the temple. And there's a whole lot more we can

say about that. What am I letting into my temple? What am I bringing into my temple? This is God's

space. The sanctuary is not the building, it's the believers. Once again, you are the sanctuary.

We are the sanctuary of God. And I believe that when we unite as a church, we create a greater

sanctuary for God to move. Hallelujah. Paul teaches this concept in Ephesians chapter two.

He says that we are the members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles

and the prophets with Christ as our chief cornerstone. He says that the saints in whom the whole

building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being

are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit.

Who hallelujah. Not only your life individually, but our lives collectively

are building a temple. We are the sanctuary of God. And this is why we have to help each other.

We have because the sanctuary will only be as strong as his weakest brick.

I must say that again. The sanctuary will only be as strong as his weakest stone.

And so we have to build up one another in the faith and encourage each other so that we can

be a strong sanctuary for God to move. And guess what? God wants this sanctuary to grow.

God wants this. Hallelujah. He wants to add more stone to the sanctuary. More names be

written to the book of life. More people being added to the kingdom of God.

And all these things are true and all these things are wonderful. But then comes the question.

How do we make this sanctuary a reality? How was Moses or us today supposed to make this happen?

Moses said, or he must have thought in his mind, this sounds great God.

God, we want to build this sanctuary. We want to do this for the glory of God. But how are we going

to do it? Where are we going to get the resources and the materials and like how is this supposed

to materialize? How are we going to get there, God? I'm excited about the fact that there is

this sanctuary that we're supposed to build. But are we just going to like think it into existence?

Like what's how are we going to get from A to B? How are we going to get there? Well, I've come to

tell you and I might lose some amens on this point, but that's all right. It's going to cost you.

It's kind of costly. Hey, you all said you were going to help me. I'm going to preach 30 minutes,

man. I need you to back me up here today. The Lord called, he told Moses and he called him.

Remember when he meant to, he went to the top of Mount Sinai and he was there 40 days. The Lord

was speaking to him and the cloud descended and it looked like there was fire on the mountain.

And the first thing that he begins to tell Moses is serving, we find in Exodus 25 verse 1, he said,

Exodus 25:1

speak to the children of Israel that they may bring me an offering from everyone who gives it

willingly with his heart, you shall make me an offering. So the Lord speaks to Moses and says,

this is how you're going to do it. It has to come out of the hearts of the people. They have to

want to build this thing. My God. And what I appreciate about what God is saying, what he is,

the principle he's conveying to Moses and ultimately to the people is that, look, I'm not going to beg

you. Oh, my Lord, hallelujah. You know, let me tell you something about God. God's a perfect gentleman.

God is not going to twist anybody's arm to do anything you don't want to do. Amen. Can we agree

on that? Although you'd be hard pressed to resist him. I got example after example of people who

tried to resist God in the scripture and they ultimately failed. But you could put up a fight

if you want to, but ultimately God's not going to force it upon you, but listen to the word of the

Lord. He's saying that my sanctuary is going to cost you something and it's totally up to you,

your willingness, your desire to build the church and to build a place for me to be glorified.

Jesus said it in another way in the New Testament. He said where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. God's not going to force us. He's not going to twist your arm

or beg you. He's not going to beg you for your time. He's not going to beg you for your availability.

He's not going to beg you for your treasures or your money or not. He's not going to beg you for

any of those things. Let me tell you, something's in God or mandatory and other things in God are

voluntary. Something's in God you're doing because you're supposed to do well. Mandatory.

Hallelujah. And other things are voluntary, meaning it's totally up to you out of your heart

what it is you're going to do with it. And when we look at the sanctuary that God called Moses

and the Israelites to build, he said if we're going to make this happen, we're going to do it

through the generosity of your heart, the willingness, the desire that you have for me. The Lord was

telling Moses this. Let me summarize it this way. He was telling Moses this, I want to dwell with

you. That's an established fact. I want to dwell with you so bad. I'm willing to come down to where

you are. But the question is, how bad do you want me to dwell with you? I want to dwell with you,

but how much, let me, how hungry are you for me? Oh, Hallelujah, Jesus. How hungry are you for

me? See, sometimes we read some of the words of Jesus and we kind of like gloss over certain things.

Like he said, Jesus didn't say blessed are the righteous. No, he said blessed are those who hunger.

God don't bless the righteous. God blesses those who hunger for righteousness.

God blesses those who thirst for righteousness. Why? For they shall be filled. How many of you

want to be filled today? Come on, clap your hands and give God some praise. Well, how do you measure

hunger? How do you measure desire? How do you measure these things that can be sometimes,

you can't always quantify it, right? You can't always enumerate it. You can't always,

you can't always, how do you quantify hunger and desire? I think it comes down to willingness.

I think it comes down to sacrifice. I think it comes down to who's willing to pay the price.

And this is what we see at the heart of the construction of the sanctuary that they were to

build in this mobile tent, this mobile house for the covenant, for the glory of God.

It came down to the desire of the people and they had a heart for God and they decided among

themselves, you know what? We want to do this for the Lord. We want, we're not going to do this

because we're, you're twisting our arm, Moses. We're not going to do this because, well, we want

political favors in return, you know? We're not going to do this because you scratch my back and

I'll scratch yours, you know? We're not going to do this for personal gain. You know, I'll do it,

but I mean, am I going to get like a plaque somewhere in the parking lot? You know, am I going

to, am I going to have a brick with my name on it? You know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

we're going to do this. You'd be surprised, oh God, we're going to do this because we want it

for the glory of God. We want the presence of God to dwell in our midst and there's no,

hallelujah, there's no price too high. There's nothing I'm not willing to do so that I can get

God where I am. God is looking for willing hearts today. He's looking for desire. He's looking for

somebody that says, there's one thing that I've desired of the Lord and that will I speak that

I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. There's somebody like this today

to inquire of the Lord. Come on, can we worship Him for a few moments right now? Somebody lift

your head, somebody praise Him this afternoon. I'm not going to have time to say everything I

want to, but listen, I want to point something out to you. Very important, very important is that

David was a man, the Bible said he was a man after God's own heart. You'll be hard-pressed to find

anyone in the Bible who had a greater passion for the presence, for the glory of God than David did.

David's whole life seemed to be centered in hot pursuit of the presence of God. He was a king

unlike any other in the Old Testament, a man who danced before the Lord with all of his might.

Remember Hallelujah? When the glory of God, when the Ark of the Covenant returned to Jerusalem,

this was a man who was in love with God and he wanted so desperately during a time of,

during a time of rest in his life to do something for the Lord. He had a dream and I believe he

was born of God to build a house for God. And this is what he said in 2 Samuel 2 or excuse me,

2 Samuel 7 verse 2. This is, notice what he said. He, he, he, he estimated his own life and he said,

2 Samuel 7:2

I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells in scythent curtains. He said,

there is a disparity here and he could not justify the fact that his house was better than God's.

He couldn't justify the fact that, that his home was a home of cedar, which was an expensive,

expensive type of wood and yet the house of God, where the glory of God is, is like in a little

tent somewhere. And he said, I want to build God a house and so he wanted to do that. But you know

what God ended up telling David? He said, through the prophet, through the prophet, Nathan, he said,

as much as you want to paraphrase him, I can't let you build it. I can't let you build it. And the

reason was, is because David was a man of war and the Bible says that he had shed too much blood on

earth. He shed too much blood and for such a holy thing. That's why you got to make sure you don't

have too much blood on your hands. Oh Lord, people that you've heard and wounded, that's a whole

other suit. God help me. And you got too much blood on your hands because God won't let bloody hands

build the things of God. No malice, no bitterness. Oh Jesus. But, but, but, but, but God said, but I,

but I recognize that you have the right intentions. So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to let

your son Solomon build it. I'm going to let Solomon build it. And so watch what happens. David said,

okay, all right, then this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do everything within my power,

within my resources, within my, within my liberties as, as the king to prepare for the building of

the sanctuary. And so David went through the trouble of gathering. This was no small task.

This was, this was no little thing that David did. He went through the trouble of amassing all the

materials, the gold, the wood, the furnishings. He even got together the craftsmen and the artisans

and, and the builders. He got, he got everything in place. And this took him time to do this,

to storehouse these things. So that by the time his son Solomon stepped into his purpose,

he had everything that he needed to build the sanctuary. I'm going to tell something. Every

parent in this place today and every person who sees himself as a parent one day, what you start

now, God will allow your children to finish. You see, look, there are some things I've recognized

that I may in my lifetime not see the full fruition. I may not, there may be some things in my

lifetime that if the Lord should tarry, I may not complete. But that is no excuse for me to take

my foot off the pedal and say, let the next generation figure it out. No, that's, that's not

how we should think about these things. And so everything I'm doing now, everything, see, right,

let me tell you something as we get ready to go. Let me tell you something. We can't stay in this

building forever. I said, we can't stay in this building forever. I'm talking about this physical

building now. We can't stay here forever. If the Lord should tarry another 20, 30 years, I don't know.

We can't stay here forever. I believe God has something for us. I believe he does. And I don't

just mean the physical building, although I want to give the next generation. If our children grow

up and they have families in this church, and then I baptize them and we dedicate, and we,

if some of your grandchildren come back, who knows how long the Lord's going to tarry?

What if that happens? What are we leaving for them? What are they going to have? Oh, Jesus,

I feel, I feel something right there. What are they going to have? Now, I would love for them to

have property that the church owns so that you could just run with the purpose of God, open this

thing up every day of the week. But more than that, I want my home and my family to be a sanctuary.

Watch this. So David prepares everything, right? He gets all the materials and all the,

all the things needed to build this place, to build the sanctuary, because that's what he

wanted. He said, even if I don't get to preach behind that beautiful pulpit, I'm going to get

everything in place for the time my son, my children are on that platform or serving wherever it is

that they are in the body of Christ, that there's something strong and stable for them to stand

upon. Oh, Jesus, what love, what legacy are you passing down? Then David told Solomon this as I

closed. This is what he told them. First Chronicles 2219, he said to Solomon, his son, this is a

father son moment. Okay, for all you fathers out there, parents, this is like a family moment here.

Okay, there's a father son moment. He said this to him. He said, now set your heart and your soul

to seek the Lord your God, which David could say because David had modeled it for his son.

He had, he had exemplified it for him. What seeking the Lord looks like. And then he says,

therefore arise and build. I wonder where I heard that before. Everyone say, let's say arise and build.

Arise and build. Let's say it again. Arise and build. That's been our theme for this year,

in case you forgot. We started this year saying arise and build. How many of you believe we've

got to do that, amen? Arise and build. And then he tells them, therefore arise, stand up from where

you are and build the sanctuary of the Lord God to bring the Ark of the covenant of the Lord

and the holy articles of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the Lord.

I've come to tell you today, is there a Solomon here today? Is there a Solomon in the house?

Is there a Solomon? Are you a second, third generation apostolic? Are you a second, third

generation holy ghost, field believer? Are you a second? Are you a Solomon in the house today?

That God is saying, we can't let this be passed to the next generation. You have got to arise and

build for my kingdom. Can somebody stand with me this afternoon? Oh my God, I believe that there

may be some Davids today, but there also may be some Solomon's. There are some Solomon's in this

place today whom God is telling you, I'm looking to you to be the builder. I'm looking to you

to be the one that's going to make me a sanctuary, make me a place where I can move,

make a place of prayer in your home, a place of consecration. Show your family how to pray,

show them how to give, show them how to do these things sacrificially and with a willing heart.

Show them that we don't do these things purely out of a sense of duty, out of a sense of obligation,

out of tradition or religiosity. Show them that we do these things because we love the Lord.

Oh my God, oh hallelujah. There's been a whole generation that has missed out with God because

somebody taught them simply how to love church and not the God of the church. Somebody just

brought them to church but didn't bring church home. Oh my God, it's not enough for us to bring

ourselves to church. We got to bring the sanctuary home and we got to build an altar in our home and

in our marriages.