Home Is Where The Heart Is | Elder Terence Atkinson

You're listening to a message to go from at church. We hope this message

will light up your day. This morning's message is entitled home is where the

Heart is. Home is where the Heart is. Sounds like a song,

right, Okay, somebody can write it. Okay, let's look at the

first verse, Matthew six. I'm gonna read verses nine and ten in this

manner. Therefore, pray our Father in heaven. Hello, be your name,

our Father in heaven. Your name is holy. God's name is not

hello. Hello is your No, he's not hello. God's name is holy.

God's name is powerful. God's name is wonderful. And then verse tensas

your kingdom you will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So

today I just hope that I will share with you a little bit about the

Kingdom of God in such a way that it will come into your spirits and

encourage you to live the life that God has meant for you to live.

Now, the last time I was here, I remember I shared with you

about David. Do you remember. I don't know whether I was here the

last time, whether I shard, but it's not. It's on Spotify.

I shed that David had a heart to build God a house. You remember

that was he here? Did I shed? Well? He had a heart,

and he said, you know, I live in such a wonderful place.

I want to build God a house. And so the prophet Samuel said,

go ahead and do whatever you wish, you know, do as your

heart, you know, leads you to. Now, sometimes people get caught

up with our good intentions and they speak on behalf of God like as if

it's God's word. But when Samuel went back, the Lord, you know,

spoke to him and said, no, David cannot build me a house.

And I'm going to just take a little bit of that conversation, and

it's read from Second Samuel verses seven five to six. Go and tell my

servant David that says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell

in? And sometimes when we read the word of God, we have to

get a sense of you know how it is being said. Well, if

we tell Acha, would you build me a house to live in? That's

like using a child been me a houseler. Right, But if we ask

a child like this, would you build me a house? Gives you a

different idea, Right, So we have to get what God's idea is,

go and tell my seven David. That's says the Lord, would you build

me a house? And then God goes on to say in the next verse,

for I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought

the children of Israel up from Egypt. Wow, was there a phone Someone's

calling God's house? Okay, don't worry about it. So since that time

I brought children out of the land of Israel, I have not dwelt in

a house, and even to this day, but I've moved about in a

tent and in a tabernacle. God was saying that I have always dwelt in

something of my own design, in a manner that I chose, in a

way that I believed was the best for me. God, we can never

have God's interests better than him because we rely on the will of God.

So whatever the will of God is for himself is certainly better than what we

will for good. All right, So now what is God saying, But

I have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. Now do you

know that David had in his heart to do a good thing? How many

of us have in our heart to do good things. Does the good things

that we do get us closer to God in any way? No, it's

right, you see, because it's not doing a good thing that gets us

closer to God. Because if doing a good thing gets us closer to God,

it would have been okay for David to build the House of God.

It was a good thing, right. How many of you say it was

a bad thing, Thank God? How many of you say it was a

good thing. But a good thing is not necessarily God's will. And sometimes

we wonder, I am living such a good life, how can these things

happen to me? You gotta ask yourself? Is being good doing right?

You go every day or every Sunday you go out and you're feeding the poor.

Very good thing you're going out there, You're feeding the poor. You're

doing all it's such a good thing, right, But did you make time

to hear the word of God? Did you make time to worship him?

You see, doing good things are not necessarily doing right things? Because if

doing good things men doing right things, Jesus would not have had to die

on the cross for us. There are so many people trust me who do

such good things. I can never match up. I can spend my whole

life trying to match up to the good things some of the people are doing

in the world today, and I will never match up to what they do.

But you know, if God looks at them and they don't have Jesus,

they aren't doing the right things. Righteousness is what faith is reckoned as

righteousness. Am I telling you don't do good stuff? No, I'm not

saying that, But I hope that by the end of this message you're going

to be encouraged with what I'm about to tell you. Now, God is

pleased that we want to do good for him, But you know what he

offers us a better way. God always offers us a better way. Do

you know the Lord said to Moses, let them make me a sanctuary that

I may dwell among them. This is an Exodus twenty five to two.

Hey, you know that God had in his heart a desire to make a

home for himself in the midst of his people. And then what he says,

put my tabernacle in your midst, and my soul will not loathe you.

Does that mean that if God's tabernacle is not in our midst or sorry,

yeah, it's not in our midst? That he will loathe us.

Ay, he is right Levetticus twenty six to eleven. Mm hmm, I

agree. Do you know that God has in his heart a desire to build

for himself in our midst a tabernacle so that he will not loathe us.

It's a tough thing to say, but do you know that God is in

enemity with sin. God is an enemy of sin. Sin cannot stand in

God presence. God hates sin. So therefore, if you have sin,

by mathematical correlation, God loads you. I did not say it, The

scripture said it, but God said. For God's so love the world that

he gave his only begotten sut that whosoever believes in him should not perish but

have everlasting life. See, God's love for you was never to loathe you.

God's will for you was always to love you. So he had to

create a way in which he could remain in our presence and continue to love

us. Does that make sense? So he needed to put a tabernacle in

our mythst for whose benefit? For our benefit? It was for our benefit,

because when God does not lower us, he loves us, and he

of course blesses those that he loves. Now, let's go a little further

the tabernacle. And trust me, none of what I'm sharing with you now

about the tabernacle, that's not the message. Okay. That is just the

thing that's going to drive from what the end is going to say. And

you're gonna be happy with it. Okay. The tabernacle, which in Hebrew

means Michigan. Michigan means residence. Wow, God has a residence, a

dwelling place, as it is referred to by our way God as the tent

of meeting. This is in Exodus forty. All right, So what was

a tabernacle? A tabernacle was where God has his residence, and in comprise

about the holy and most holy place, which was surrounded by a fence by

a court area. Do you know that God is very, very exact.

He designed this place, and he gave this design to his people, and

he required them to build exactly as he had given. How many of us

if we are building our own house, any architecture, anybody involved in buildings

here, anybody involved in construction here? Okay, one person. Hey,

if you don't have a planner, you can just build anything you want to.

Your client will be happier. Your client won't be happy, right.

He wants you to build exactly as the plan. Correct. Because you don't

build as the plan, the house me fall hy not. I was in

a construction company many years ago, and I learned one thing. Honeycomb effect.

You know there is okay, honey coom e fact. You know you

you have these nice flyovers, right, you see this nice concrete Uh pillars

not pillows, bars, slabs, concrete. Uh you know, uh foundation

across the road right, you look at it. It's nice and smooth.

Rine very important because if you see a lot of horse you know, that's

what is known as the honeycomb effect. That means that you're concrete did not

feel around all those rocks very carefully. And when that happens, the structure

is weak and highly likely over time it will fall apart. I have been

to sites where they had to throw away entire lens. You know why,

honey combing effect. It did not said properly. Okay, so that's not

the message. Sanctuary Okay. The place of a tabernacle is called a sanctuary.

The word means sanctuary. This is now a sanctuary where the presence of

the Lord resides It is also meaning a tabernacle, a place of meeting.

It houses the holy and most holy. Now, a sanctuary is a holy

and a sacred place. Why am I saying all these things? You'll find

out a tabernacle is a resting place. It's a dwelling place. It's a

residence. You know that God imagined, Almighty God had to squeeze himself,

if that were all possible, into a little tent. Ever, did you

ever wonder why that the people went in the tent without preparing themselves carefully?

They would die because it was the unadulterated presence of the Lord. There's a

place of meeting, you know, church, Come to church. We're going

to come to church on Good Friday. We're going to come to church on

Easter, and what about Christmas. It's a place we all meet. Are

we all physically brothers and sisters? No? Are we spiritually brothers and sisters?

Yes? Yes? And when do we come? We come to meet

in church? It was a place of meeting. I'm going to show you

what it looks like. Okay, do you didn't know? That is what?

This is a physical representation in actuality of how the people of God met

all right. This was actually their church. And if you look at the

church, there was a tent. There was an enclosure. The people could

only meet outside. And in the tent there were two rooms. One room

was the Holy Place and one was the Holy of Holies. The Holy of

Holies was separated by a curtain. Inside the Holy of Holies was the presence

of the Lord. So basically this was the Church of the day. And

God was telling David, hey, you want to build me a house.

I built me a house. Just have a look at my place. So

many of you are shaking your head. What's so good about this place?

Truthfuly okayne, Everything that no you mentioned for God, that's what it looks

like. Let me tell you it was very exact. You know, when

they set it up, they had to set it up in a certain way

facing north southeast west. All that had to be perfect. Man. When

they took that tent down, when they moved, it had to be done

carefully, not simply fall anything like the tent of the circus, you know

where they take the throw in, no cannot. Everything was done very carefully.

Take down roll you know, even the string removed done very carefully.

The tent was taken down so carefully. You know, inside the Holy of

Holies was the ark of the Covenant. All right. You could not lay

your hands on that man because if you touched it, you died. So

it had to be very very carefully taken. Everything about it was exact,

It was precise. So it may not look like a million dollars, but

everything about it was one hundred percent precise. Go to the next picture,

all right, I want to I want to show you that. How many

of you have themes in your house, you know, as a theme when

you when you decorate your house. Oh, my house called Bali Team.

You come to my house, A lot of leaves, a lot of plants,

waterfall here, waterfall there, some fish in the pot. Okay?

How many you got Bally house, Bally Team house. No, I'm not

gonna ask. Okay, how many of you got oriental teamed houses where the

furniture all oriental? My house a little bit oriental. Okay, I got

oriental flute ladies on one side, and then there's an oriental like table on

the other, A little bit oriental. How many of you like more minimal

tas? Okay? How many minimum? Okay? Some god minimalist themes.

Do you want to know that God's House had a theme? I will explain

it to you. If you look at this picture, you'll see. The

first thing was what the altar of burnt offerings, the old you know what,

this was a symbol of Jesus sacrifice. Thank God Jesus came, because

if Jesus did not come, and if Jesus did not die for us on

the cross, when we come to church on Good Friday, for example,

when we go back home, we will be covered in blood because they would

have to sacrifice a lamb or a gold or a cow, and then the

priest will throw the blood all over us, and then we'll get into our

nice cars full of blood. Thank God that Jesus came and he paid the

price once in four so you and I are all recovered in the blood of

Jesus the way. That's what it was. The second thing was the laver,

the bronze laver. He wants the bronze laver. The bronze laver is

where the priests had to clean himself. You know, if he didn't clean

himself, he's dead man, He's dead. How many of us think that

if we go to heaven, and we have not been cleansed by the blood

of Jesus. We're gonna make it, we won't make it. We need

the blood of Jesus to cleanse us so that we can go into the presence

of God the way God wants to see us. That bronze labor symbolized the

truth. And then we come into the tent. The tent was broken into

two sections. The first section was the table of showbread, the manora and

the acts and the altar of innocence. You know what this was. This

was the priest portion. The show bread was what the priest ate. The

manora or the lamp was the symbol of Jesus, the Holy Spirit. The

altar of incense were the prayers of the faithful. And then you all remember

what that veal is, right that curtain. How many of you don't know

what that curtain is. That curtain is the separation of the holiness and presence

of God from us because we sinned. But when Jesus died on the cross,

the Bible says the curtain was torn from the top to the bottom,

symbolizing one no more is the presence of God kept from us because of Jesus.

We now carry the presence of God. So this was actually symbolizing the

life. So I don't I believe many of you have got it by now.

What was the theme of God's house Jesus? From way back then,

God had a theme for his house, and what was the theme Jesus?

Everything in there in the tabernacle was a type that explained Jesus. And you

know, ever since I realized this, I have been encouraged to bless others

with the name of Jesus. I give it a testimony. Two weeks ago

I got a message from my wife saying that the Lord had actually put in

our hearts to use our house as homes. Now we talked about this,

these little gatherings called homes. Right, go to homes if you haven't,

because there's something very special about it. So anyway, the Lord one day

spoke to Elder Mabel, spoke to myself. During this was twenty twenty.

This was doing the Reunion not Reunion anniversary service, and the Lord spoke to

my heart. And I looked at Elder Maman and said, you know what

the Lord spoke to me. Then she says, yeah, the Lord just

spoke to me too. What did he tell you? So I said,

he told me use our house for homes. Then she said, wow,

that's exactly what the Lord told me. Now, for many of you that

don't realize, our home is a sanctuary, and we were quite keeping it

for ourselves. But Lord had other ideas. So we did start the homes.

We started the homes that we talked to ourself. No, it's not

good enough to just have the usual people come. Lord, we want to

reach the neighbors. So I told you the testimony of the little dog that

we found in the neighborhood. It was a rescue dog. And because of

that little dog, the whole neighborhood came together. And then people whom we

didn't know now we know, and we invited them for homes. So our

homes now fifty to sixty percent of our homes is pre believers. Okay,

and more to come because the ones that have comes it, can this person

go this problem? Can bring us? Sure bring We will share Jesus with

them. So anyway, one of the people who came for this service or

came to this is our neighbor who also happens to have also happens to be

a believer, all right, and she and our the neighbor every Thursday would

get together and pray for the whole neighborhood. As it turns out, her

father contacted or got diagnosed with cancer. So two thursdays ago, Mabel sends

me a message, you have to go and see him. He's critical.

At the point when she wrote that message to me, in my heart,

the Lord said, don't wait, go now. So I say, okay,

And so I left office early and I went. It's the Institute Cancer

Nagara and Putrajaya. Okay. It's a nice place, a very very nice

place. But none of us ever want to go in. Okay, but

it's a very nice place. So when there, and all the journey there,

I was prayed, Lord, what do I share with him? How

do I get through to this man who had rejected past us, who had

rejected church leaders, who had rejected his daughter and his grandchildren so many times

when they asked him to receive the Lord? The Lord said, just go,

I'll give you the words. So I went to see him. When

I saw him, he was at his most lucid moment. You know what

that means. He was the most alert, He was talking, he was

communicative, and I just told him, Uncle, I said, you know,

you've heard so many people try and tell you about Jesus, but I

want you to know your daughter loves you, and your grandchildren loves you,

but more than that, Jesus loves you. I'm sent here to tell you

I totally understand your rejection because I had a sister who and she shared Jesus

with me. I rejected her message. I did not want to listen to

her. But you know what happened. Four years later, I came to

the Lord. And when I came to the Lord, it was because I

tried to prove her wrong. But by studying the word of God, I

found out she was right. So I gave my life to the Lord.

You know, because I'm like that, I'm what you call a lawyer broke

okay, so I always try and use the law end, but this is

actually what happened. And I told this man, my sister contacted cancer,

and you know, towards the end, we were very close, and she

told me this. She said, Terrence, what do I need to do?

I don't know what else to do? And I told her, I

said, Jennifer, you've done all that you need to do. Despite all

your pain, despite all your suffering, the name of Jesus is still on

your lips. And when you meet Jesus, he's going to say, well

done, my good and faithful servant, because despite this trial, you still

love Jesus. Then I looked at this man and I said, this is

you. Now. You may be going through a tough time, but let

me tell you. You are like the airport just before you reach your destination

for a great holiday. The airport is very uncomfortable, no good place to

sit, no good place to rest, running here, running there. But

when you reach your destination, do you even remember the airport? You do

not? Uncle, would you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and savior?

He held my hand and said yes. I asked him a second time.

He said yes. I called his daughter and the bother of us prayed,

and then after that he said, what about my wife? She was

sitting in the chair. I looked at it and I said, don't worry.

We're coming for her too. She's going to be okay. Then I

looked at her and I said, you know the piece that he knows.

You will know. It's only a matter of time. I told her that.

One week later, I went to visit him. This time he wasn't

looking so good, but you know that the Lord still continued to heal him

because from the time that he was prayed for, his lungs were covered black.

He had a chest infection, but his cancer is a different type of

cancer. Within a few days, his lungs completely clear. The doctor was

so supers so that was to show that God was still with him. When

I saw him a week later, he wasn't as talkative, but when he

saw me, he held my hand and I asked him, uncle, do

you love Jesus? Yes. Then I looked at his wife and he said

the peace that he knows you're going to know it to You just need to

accept Jesus. She says, I'm going through quite a bit. I said,

don't worry, we'll take care of it. Sooner or later, you're

going to come to know the Lord. Then I looked at this man and

said, you don't worry about her. You'll meet her in heaven. One

day after that, the doctors told the the lady take him home. We

went to visit him on Wednesday. On Wednesday, I looked at him.

He was already not communicating. So I looked at Elder Mabel and I said,

within one or two days, he we're going to be with the Lord.

Then we went to visit the next day. And when I went and

visit the next day, I said, he will go tonight. These are

not pronouncements that I make, okay, just that the Lord ministers to my

heart. But that was so that we could be ready to help the family.

So I looked at the daughter and I said, understand this. You

may feel sad that your father goes, but you feel joy to know that

he is going to be with the Lord. So you feel you separated from

him, don't be worried about that, because long before he is finishing the

glories of heaven, you will be with him. God has been preparing his

place for two thousand years. Do you mean to say he's going to finish

it in five minutes. It will take thirty years, forty years, fifty

years before he comes close to seeing all that God has done for him.

By that time, you're already there. So don't worry about it. It's

going to be okay, told his wife, don't worry, it's going to

be okay. He passed away he's with the Lord all because when I was

learning this, I you know, I realized that God wants him saved.

God wants to do something in his heart. And that's the very thing that

the whole world must know about what God will do in his heart. Hebrews

eight five says, who serve a copy in a shadow of they have any

things? That's what the house of God is. As Moses was divinely instructed

when he was about to make the tabernacle, For he said, see that

you make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.

Hey, Christ, where Christ lives is not any imagine where Christ makes his

home is not left something up to chance. Because understanding God was very exact

about the Tabernacle, extremely down to minute details. He was completely invested.

In Galatians to twenty in says, I have been crucified with Christ. It

is no longer I who live, but Christ, who lives in me.

Now do you understand why I was inspired? Because the Tabernacle of old was

a type of what was to come. The Tabernacle of old moved around with

the people, but he was always on the outside. But God did not

want men to make a tabernacle of human hands, the place that Saul built

in two five seven. He was said that too. Five. If you

read the whole chapter of Second Samuel, chapter seven, you will be hearing

and reading about Solomon and Jesus. All right, Solomon was to build a

temple, but David provided for Solomon. Remember what I said, one hundred

and seventeen billion dollars in gold and seventy one billion dollars in silver to build

one house for the Lord. That house of the Lord cost about, in

today's money, two hundred and fifty US billion, almost sorry, one trillion

ring it. That was the cost of the house. And you want to

know something, anything built with who human hands is not what God is after.

Because if it was God's will that our house was supposed to be a

house made by human hands, the temple of Solomon would be standing today.

It is not. You know why, because the raiders came in. They

took every stone apart, why so they can get their hands on the gold

and the silver. But what God wants to build is a house that will

never be destroyed. And where is that house? God wants to make his

home in our hearts and everything. If you forget everything you've learned today,

don't forget this that the home that God wants to build is not the one

that we build. It's the one He builds in our hearts. Because of

Jesus, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who

live, but Christ who lives around me, H, Christ who lives on

me, Christ who lives about me in me. That Christ. This is

a Phisians three seventeen. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,

that you being rooted and grounded in love, Hey, that Christ may dwell

in our hearts. The word dwell means in a Greek it means I dwell

in I settling, and as I am established permanently inhabit. So now that

furniture that God had in his house is now in us, which is why

you want to go into the Holy of Holies. Go to your room,

close, you know, get down yours, and say, Lord, I

praise you, Lord, I worship you. And that same presence that filled

the room behind that veil fills your heart. There is no difference because you

didn't build that house. God build that house. Are you getting something?

Don't you see why? It's important that everybody knows that they are special.

The only difference is God has to move in the heavenly furniture. If any

of you've got old people who do not know the Lord and you've reached a

stalemate. You cannot talk to them, or you cannot get through to them.

You really need any help, please call me, because I know that

God wants to take them home. I know that God wants to build his

home in them. You're in one Corinthians three sixteen is do you not know

that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in

you? You are you are something special man. You are a temple,

a shrine, that part of the temple where God himself resides. That's what

that word means. You are a temple. You are a shrine, that

part of the temple which God resides. You are the Holy of holies.

Now you are not an ordinary person. If you know Jesus, You're special

in habit, dwell, in dwell, that's what it means. In one

Corindians six nineteen says, or do you not know that your body is a

temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?

And you are not your own. You're not your own. Do you

mean to say that when God built that temple to specification so exact, and

the temple went around everywhere? Do you know at that time you could only

meet the presence of God if you went into that place. But now you

carry the presence of the Lord everywhere you go. Is it no wonder that

when you go now and you share with that person who is unwell, you

speak Jesus, I claim your life in the name of Jesus. Something has

to happen because you carry the presence of God wherever you go. You and

I we have to be careful how we live now, because we are not

ordinary people. When God looks at us, now, who does he see

in our hearts? He sees Jesus. And what did the scripture? Earlier

scripture say that I may build a place so that I will not loathe you.

So now when he looks at us, what do you think he sees?

He sees the one. This is my beloved son, in whom I'm

well pleased. That's what he sees in us. God has always desired to

have a home not built with human hands, but one of faith, through

the works and obedience of Jesus so that we could forever house him, who

God desires that we forever house him in our hearts and take him everywhere we

go. Home is where the heart is man. And that's why that scripture

when I was reading in two Samuel chapter seven, jumped up at me,

because this time when I read it, while I was preparing for that other

message, it came across as would you build me a house? And as

I knew, I had to get back to it, because when I got

back to it, God wanted to speak something. Will this message help you?

Yes, it will. For those of you that may not know who

Jesus is, the Bible says that he knocks on the door of your heart,

and if you open, he will come in and sup with you.

He wants to dwell in you. You read that in scripture earlier on.

Hey, guys, I need you to know if you do not know who

Jesus is, get to know him to day, because it's very, very

important because without Jesus living in your heart, we do not have the presence

of God. When you come into this place, the presence of the Holy

Spirit is here, but if you don't have Jesus living in your heart.

Remember, the Tabernacle took the presence of the Lord everywhere they went. Now

where does God house his presence in our hearts? So if you are not

where having God in your heart, when you move out of this presence of

the Lord, you don't have the presence of the Lord. Why live below

your purpose? God has always intended to live in you from the very first

day? Why below your purpose? Why didn't you live your purpose? And

that is to house the spirit of the Lord, so that wherever you go

you would be like that battery, touching the lives of others and snatching them

from the jaws of eternal death. We hope you've been blessed by this message.

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to be a good week ahead for you. God bless