Making Your Life a Sanctuary

[0:00] All right, we're ready to go. Young people can leave and old people stay.

[0:11] And let's find the book of Exodus chapter 25.! Find in your Bible the Exodus of Egypt chapter 25.

[0:21] We began the chapter last week, which was the seventh day after Moses sat silent for six days. And then on the seventh, the Lord called him into the cloud and he spoke to him.

[0:36] But he did more than speak. He showed him something. He showed him the pattern for the tabernacle. We looked at Acts chapter 7 and it said that Moses saw it, something that he had seen.

[0:51] And so we're going to stay in this passage again. The Lord had told them to make me a sanctuary. And I want to remind you that in the Old Testament, God dwelt with his people in a portable tabernacle.

[1:07] Later, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed a holy God unto men. And God became flesh and dwelt among men.

[1:17] And Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh in a visible and human form. His name was Emmanuel, meaning God with us.

[1:28] Just like God was with them and dwelt among them in the Old Testament, he came unto his own. And then in the New Testament, we understand from the Bible that God's dwelling place is his people.

[1:39] And that Jesus Christ himself was the pattern or the example of what a life should look like that God dwells in.

[1:52] And so this morning, I want to revisit the same passage we studied last Sunday. And this time, learn a few things regarding making your life a sanctuary for God to live in.

[2:03] And we studied this last week more conceptual of what that was and had to lay that groundwork. But now this Sunday, let's go back and revisit it and get something a little more practical.

[2:14] Remember, we ended with a verse that Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6, speaking of the temple of God. And he said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and be their God and they shall be my people.

[2:27] And that is God's desire in this day is to dwell in you and to walk in you. For you to be his sanctuary that he dwells in and lives in. In order for that to happen the way it should, there's some things that we need to learn from this passage.

[2:42] So let's go back and let's reread these first nine verses. And I'll begin in verse 1, 25. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly.

[2:57] With his heart 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 goat's hair, and ram skins dyed red, and badger skins and shittim wood, oil for the light, spices for anointing oil and for sweet incense, onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.

[3:20] And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

[3:33] So we've got this much down. God desires a sanctuary to dwell in. He has determined and ordered the details for what that sanctuary is to look like and all of its instruments inside and out.

[3:48] And then it's up to his people, it's up to their leader Moses, and for the people to comply and to follow the instructions that God gave to make it according to the pattern. Now I want to relate this to your life today, and I want to make a few recommendations, I'll call them, out of the passage that will help you to make your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in.

[4:12] And let's dive right in. The first thing I see here, in order for you to make your personal life a sanctuary where God can dwell in you and walk in you, I want you to draw your attention back to chapter, verse number two.

[4:28] Before anything ever gets accomplished, there's an offering that's taken up. Speaking to the children of Israel that they bring me an offering. God is not making any demands here, is He?

[4:49] As in from individuals. He's not twisting anybody's arm. He's not threatening them. He's looking for a willing heart. He's looking for a willing heart.

[5:03] He's looking for a willing heart. That's the condition that God has for His offering and for making His sanctuary and for making your life a sanctuary to God.

[5:16] He's looking for a willing heart. That tells me that there's a choice involved. And I think, I'll just summarize and make my point to be this.

[5:26] I want to say this. In order to make your life a sanctuary, attitude is everything. You've heard that statement a lot. It applies in a lot of different ways. It really applies here in making your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in.

[5:40] Your attitude is going to determine everything about whether God gets to live in you and dwell in you and walk in you. And if your life is a sanctuary to Him.

[5:51] This is a moment for God's people. This is an opportunity for them to give from their heart and to make Him a sanctuary to dwell in. It's a choice.

[6:02] It's going to depend upon their attitude. Remembering that Jesus Christ is the pattern, let's consider the Lord Jesus Christ for a moment.

[6:14] The Bible says in Hebrews, it was a quote from the Psalms, but it's a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that He had a willing heart. When He arrived, He said, I come to do Thy will, O God.

[6:25] Even from His coming to earth to do the will of God, even to the very traumatic and very stressful moment of Him facing the cross, He bowed on His face and said, Not my will, but thine be done.

[6:43] The Lord Jesus Christ showed Himself to have a willing heart. And just a side thought here. This is something to me. I wonder if it has ever come up in your life. Have you ever been confronted with a decision in life or a time where you're just, you're wrestling with what the right thing to do is, and the words of those scriptures come to mind as you're praying over this thing and the Lord brings those words to you?

[7:09] Because God will do that. He'll bring the words of scripture to your mind and heart to strengthen you and to settle in your heart what you should do if you're praying about it. I wonder if those words ever come to you when you're saying, I don't know what I should do.

[7:22] I don't know what Lord, what should I do here? And you think, I come to do Thy will, O God. Or you think the words of Christ saying, Not my will, but thine be done. And things like that start to enter in to have a willing heart to fulfill the word of God and the will of God.

[7:38] Because it's your attitude. That's everything. It's your attitude. If your life's going to be a sanctuary for God to dwell in, a lot of it's going to depend upon your personal attitude toward making your life a sanctuary for God.

[7:53] God doesn't twist your arm. He doesn't make you give your life back to Him, does He? He doesn't put all the rules on you and say, If you don't do these, but rather He says this as a condition, Bring me an offering.

[8:08] But wait a minute, wait a minute. Only those of you who are willing. I want the ones that have a willing heart. You, you come and bring me that offering.

[8:19] I'm going to make a sanctuary out of those that are willing. That's a big deal there to God. He doesn't give you the rules and force them and shove them down your throat.

[8:29] He doesn't fight against you. If you're His child, He'll chastise you. And He'll correct you by measure. But He always allows you to respond to that chastisement however you want. You can just fight and buck up and rebel even more.

[8:43] It's the attitude. Do you have a willing attitude? Do you want to make your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in?

[8:54] That's the question. If it's going to happen, it's going to be because you have an attitude of willingness, a willing heart. God will only dwell where He's wanted. God will only walk where He's wanted.

[9:08] And it's your attitude that will determine if your life will be a sanctuary for the Lord God. In other words, if you don't want God to dwell in you and walk in you, then don't give Him your life.

[9:22] And don't give Him your heart. Don't make Him a sanctuary. You just, you do you. You decide, I'll do what I like. I'll do what I, make your life all about you.

[9:34] That's the choice on the table. Either make it about the Lord Jesus Christ and give it to Him, or make it about me. And I don't know, I bet you in this room we've got some testimonies here of some that have tried that and run that for a little while, and we can tell you how that turns out.

[9:52] And it's not going to bring glory to God, and it's not going to bring peace to your heart and life. It might cause you to have a little bit of pleasure of sin, but that thing gets old fast, gets ugly, and then there's regret and remorse, and then there's having to deal with some of the pains of it all, and the reaping.

[10:13] It'll be your loss, and you're going to have a whole lot tougher time going forward if you decide to make your life all about you. You realize that this infant nation right here in this moment, just a couple months out of Egypt, there's so much ahead of them that they don't know about.

[10:33] There are enemies that they're about to face. There are trials coming, and they can't provide the way God can. Why would they not want God to dwell with them?

[10:45] It's in their best interest to give to the Lord and to make a sanctuary where He would dwell with them and be their God and walk among them. A lot of things that they're unprepared for.

[10:58] It makes me wonder in your life, why would you not want God to walk with you? Why would you not want Him to lead you in your life? The answer is, if it's the case, it's because of sin.

[11:09] It's because of pride. I mean, what else is there? So attitude is everything, and the first step in this is to making your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in a willing heart.

[11:22] An attitude that is given over to fulfilling His will. A heart that is given over to saying, what do you want, God? Not my will. Give you control.

[11:34] Submit and surrender. Forcing rules just doesn't work here. And so it's evident, even in His offering, He says, it's got to be of a willing heart because that's the only way that this is going to work.

[11:45] So the material that's gained and that's brought, this chapter tells us what God's looking for. We read through this already, these different elements. The construction of this tabernacle was not ordered from some supply house or some warehouse down the road, but it was given.

[12:05] It was given willingly as a freewill offering of God's people. The special collection, and we see nobody's obligated necessarily to give to this collection and to this building project.

[12:21] If you don't have it, you can't give it. If you don't have the gold, if you don't have the ability to spin and to make these certain linen things, that you just, you can't give that.

[12:37] But God's not going to ask you to give something that you can't give. And a matter of fact, for these people, we won't need to turn here, but when we were back in chapter 12, when they were going to leave Egypt, do you remember what it said about that, that as they exited Egypt, it says that they spoiled, the Egyptians.

[12:54] And in the context, it says that they got gold and silver and raiment. And it says in chapter 13, that they went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. So God had already provided everything needed for them to give, to make him a sanctuary.

[13:11] Their hands were filled with what they needed. And secondly, I want to say, in order to make your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in, don't hold back from God.

[13:25] Don't hold back from God. The list is there in verses 3 through 7. We've already read all of those elements and materials needed to build. So to make him a sanctuary, the list is there of what God wanted.

[13:41] They had it in their possession, what God was looking for. So in order for him to make the sanctuary, they'd have to give some things up. It's going to cost them something.

[13:52] They'll have to let go of some things that they've had in their possession for a little while, maybe have come to enjoy. And there's also some labor going to be involved. And I want to show this to you.

[14:02] So flip over to chapter 35, Exodus 35. And this is just God speaking to Moses in the mount. He's going to have to come down and some things transpire.

[14:16] And then Moses is going to relate all of this to the people. And that's where we find it in chapter 35. And so look at 35 and I'll skim through this, but at beginning in verse four, Moses spake unto all the congregation and children of Israel saying, this is the thing which the Lord commanded saying, take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord, whosoever is of a free, a willing heart.

[14:40] There it is, the whole thing. There's the elements mentioned, five, six, seven, eight, I mean, almost word for word exactly. And then there's the things that are going to be made in verse 11, 12, 13, 14.

[14:52] We didn't get to any of that yet, but Moses is just rehearsing to the people what God told him. And so now skip down to verse number 20. And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.

[15:04] And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up and everyone whom his spirit made willing. And they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation and for all his service and for the holy garments.

[15:18] And they came both men and women and as many as were willing hearted and brought bracelets and earrings and rings and tablets, all jewels of gold. And every man that offered, offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.

[15:31] And every man with whom was found blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goats hair and red skins of rams and badger skins brought them. Everyone that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lord's offering.

[15:43] And every man with whom was found should have been would for any work of the service brought it. And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands and brought that which they had spun, both of blue and of purple and of scarlet and fine linen.

[15:57] All the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom, spun goat's hair. The rulers brought onyx stones, stones to be set. All of this stuff is being assembled. And verse 29 says, they brought a willing offering unto the Lord.

[16:09] Every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all the manner of work. And so here it comes. It's all being just dumped off on them and says, here it is. Here it is.

[16:19] They're giving and giving and giving. What a blessed thing. And what I'm saying here is if you're going to make your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in, don't hold back from the Lord.

[16:32] And these people didn't. Holding back was not a problem for God's people here. Skip ahead a little bit to chapter 36. And look at verse number 3. 36 in verse number 3.

[16:45] And here's those that are going to do the work. They're kind of receiving and setting it aside and putting it in order, all the material. They received of Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary to make it with all.

[17:01] And they brought yet unto him free will offerings every morning. And all the wise men that wrought all the work of the sanctuary came every man from his work which they made. And they spake unto Moses saying, The people bring much more than enough for the work or the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make.

[17:18] And Moses gave commandment and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary so the people were restrained from bringing.

[17:30] For the stuff that they had was sufficient for all the work to make it and too much. What a thing. When God's people are excited about doing something for him, they go all out.

[17:45] They go all in. They're doing it with joy. They're just bringing and bringing every morning. They find more. They gather more. They do work and they're working all day to get more, more, more.

[17:56] It's exciting. They're motivated to do this. Their own heart has stirred them up. Their attitude is right. They're giving to the Lord. They're not holding back. And it seems though, and I have to say this, it seems though when God's people are forced to do something, when they do have their hands or arms twisted to do something, they don't have that willing, joyful spirit.

[18:23] Instead, they have more of a grudging attitude. They don't seem to have the same enthusiasm. And I point this out because this is a, it's a real issue in certain churches where the preaching is hyper-focused on giving and hyper-focused on service and you better do more and do and do and do and give and do and give and do.

[18:44] And it's just such an oppression on the people and if you're not doing every possible thing. But here they have an opportunity, a free will, opportunity.

[18:56] Give to the Lord if your heart stirs you up and when that's there, when that liberty's there, oh, they're full of joy. The people give and it was too much. Now we're talking today about making your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in.

[19:12] And what I'm suggesting and recommending is don't hold back. Now let me just give you a little illustration here. Imagine that you decide you want to build a home.

[19:23] You want to build a brand new home and you pick out a lot and you get it all squared away and you have it set up and you find a builder and you go over the plans and you go over the details and all of it's set up and it's ready to go and the work begins.

[19:38] And you get, you know, you come by and you see it's coming together. It's coming together and one day you get a call from the builder saying your house is finished. Come on over and check it out and I'm going to give you the keys.

[19:49] And so you're excited like you're making this trip just it's all bubbling up inside of you. This is the road we're going to drive every day to our new home and this is it. And you get there and you pull up and you look with excitement and joy and there's no windows.

[20:04] It's just, you know, all these openings everywhere. And your builder gets out and he's like, hey, here's the keys. And you say, well, where's the windows? And the builder says, oh yeah, about that.

[20:19] You know, they never brought the windows. Weird. They never showed up. I ordered them and they never came. And so, okay, well, I'm going to walk inside.

[20:31] Let's just take a look around and you walk in the door and right away, there's no carpet. I'm sure we discussed carpet. I know we picked out a sample. I can see it in my eyes, the color.

[20:41] Like, I know we discussed carpet. Where's the carpet? And the builder says, yeah, the carpet guy never showed up. I mean, I scheduled him, I called him and he never showed up.

[20:52] There's no carpet. You look through and there's no drywall. And you're just looking through stud walls all the way from the living room through the bathroom through the bedroom to the back. And you're saying, what is going on here?

[21:03] He says, look, this is the best I could do. This is all I had to work with. The drywall never showed up. This is not what you expected, is it? This is not move in ready like you were told.

[21:16] This is not acceptable. It's not what you agreed on. So now imagine that Moses and the people are in charge of building God this sanctuary according to the pattern that was showed him in the mount.

[21:31] And imagine that it's move in day and there's no gold overlaying all of the furniture and the walls. Where's the gold?

[21:42] Oh yeah, the gold didn't show up. That's not acceptable for God. What if there's the blue and the purple is just lacking in the hangings and the linens and it's just very drab and this is not what God wanted for his sanctuary.

[21:59] God had already stated and beyond that God had showed the pattern and the written instructions were given of what he wanted from them and furthermore it was in their possession of what he wanted from them.

[22:16] It was of their own ability to provide what he wanted from them. And this morning church I'm not referring to you giving more money in the offering. I'm talking about giving up those things or surrendering those things to the Lord to make your life the sanctuary that he wants it to be.

[22:34] the way he wants to look from the inside to the out. Exactly what he desires your life to be. God knows what he wants and it's in your possession of what he wants.

[22:48] So don't hold back. Don't hold back. Make him a sanctuary fit for his dwelling. I think every corner of your heart that's not consecrated to the Lord every place in your life that you have not surrendered to him you're holding something back.

[23:03] it's like looking into that sanctuary into that tabernacle and saying it's not finished. There's corners of this place that are not finished with gold. It doesn't look like deity in here.

[23:15] It doesn't look like God would dwell in this place. Something's not ready. It's not yet prepared. Why would that be? Why would there be a portion of your heart or life that's unfinished so to speak?

[23:28] The reason is because you're holding back. There's some corner there's some area you don't want to let go of. You want to keep that to yourself. You don't want to give it to God.

[23:40] Why? Well you're not willing. And as I said attitude is everything. Attitude is everything. Don't hold back from the Lord.

[23:52] When they were delivered from Egypt and what we read here of them in this infant state when they feared their holy God when all this was new and exciting they didn't have any trouble holding back from God.

[24:04] They gave and they gave and they worked and they were just thrilled to do it when they were newly delivered. But then you fast forward some years down the road and they don't quite have the same attitude this people and their God.

[24:22] Holding back starts to become an issue when they get safe when they get secure when they get to where they're satisfied with how their life is. That might be a caution and a word of warning to Christians that have been around and tasted and seen that the Lord is good and you've given to God and you've poured yourself into it and you've gotten excited for it and then just watch time go by a little bit and see if you still have the same joy and the same zeal.

[24:50] Let that be a little temperature gauge. Do you still have that same desire to hold back from God or not hold back from God? My advice, my recommendation from this passage don't hold back.

[25:01] Make your life a sanctuary. Don't hold back. Don't hold on to anything that doesn't belong to you anymore. If your life's going to be a sanctuary that God's going to dwell in it's going to be determined by your attitude.

[25:15] It's going to be determined by whether you hold back from God or not and then there's something else in here and we'll take a look at the last two verses again from chapter 25 verses 8 and 9 what we looked at.

[25:28] It says, Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show thee after the pattern of that tabernacle. That's what I want it to look like, Moses.

[25:41] That's what I want it to look like, people, after the pattern. So the third thought I want to consider today is how well do you know the pattern?

[25:54] If you're going to make your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in then you better get familiar with what he's expecting it to look like, right? Doesn't that make sense? You better get familiar with the prince if you're going to build the house.

[26:07] You better get familiar with the pattern which is the person, the Lord Jesus Christ and the word of God. Can't separate them. Talking about making your life a sanctuary that he wants to dwell in, not the one that you think you're okay with and so thirdly, do it God's way.

[26:26] Do it after the pattern because in making your life a sanctuary for God to dwell in and to walk in, there's no shortcuts to that.

[26:39] You don't get to just say, well, I kind of really do like it to be this way instead. It's not about you anymore if you're trying to make this for him, right?

[26:49] It's about what does he want? If you're the builder, the question is, what do you want? The customer. In this case, the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you want this tabernacle to look like?

[27:03] And he's already told us. He's already shown us the pattern. One thing God does not want in this pattern, he does not want them using the same brick and mortar and straw the way they learned how to do back in Egypt.

[27:17] That's not part of this building at all. This is going to be different. You're not going to bring your Egyptian worldly ways into my tabernacle. It's not going to look like the old ways, the old nature.

[27:30] It's going to look like a new way where I'll dwell. And it's got to be according to the pattern. So how well do you know the pattern? Have you studied the pattern?

[27:41] Have you spent time with the pattern? If you spend any time at all and if you look at the pattern and your eyes are on the pattern, you're going to start to understand how this is supposed to look. And it's going to make a lot of sense.

[27:53] The only way to fulfill what he's expecting in your life is to pay attention and spend time with the pattern and get real familiar with it. We've already discussed who that is and what that is.

[28:07] Imagine Moses builds this tabernacle and installs the furniture in the wrong order or the wrong place. God told him exactly which side this is to be on and where this and what order and how it's supposed to and it's all for a purpose.

[28:21] Imagine he just kind of gets things mixed up. What if he says, you know what, make the mercy seat and fit it to be placed upon the altar. That'd be, that's so backwards.

[28:34] That'd be like having the presence of God offered upon an altar. That does not work. That's completely wrong. We can't get those mixed up. What if he took the 12 loaves of the showbread and said, well, just set them wherever it were.

[28:49] You know what, there's a big basin of water, a big lava, just put them there. That'll be fine. That doesn't work to have the bread soaking and floating in water. That'd be completely out of place.

[29:05] You better do it God's way. You better not take shortcuts, not do the easy way, but you're going to have to get serious and study and read and learn and give your heart over to building this tabernacle so that it can be according to the pattern.

[29:27] This sanctuary is for God and it must be made according to his word because it's a place, verse 8 says that I may dwell among them.

[29:40] It's a place for God to dwell, not you, not you. It's time to get you out and get God in.

[29:52] John the Baptist said he must increase but I must decrease. If God's going to come in, if your life's going to be a sanctuary for him to dwell, it's time to start putting aside the things that you like.

[30:05] If it's not what he likes, who cares what you like if your life's going to be a sanctuary for him? If it's going to be about him, who cares what you think is fun if it's not what he thinks is fun?

[30:18] Who cares what you have a taste for or a yearning for or a desire for if it's not what he desires? It doesn't matter how you want it to look.

[30:29] It matters how he wants it to look. And by the way, God's sanctuary, he does care how it looks. On the inside and on the out. I'm sick of Christians trying to throw up this, well, God looks on the heart.

[30:44] Yeah. Well, he looks on the outside too. He knows what you're up to. And the outside's a reflection of the inside. And the Lord God wants the sanctuary to be after the pattern.

[30:56] He gave him the inside. He gave him the outside. He's interested in this. Now, I want to show you one more thing and this will be the last passage we turn to. This is 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2.

[31:09] Find back in the New Testament 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. 2 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians How well do you know the pattern?

[31:29] This sanctuary is for God. It needs to be made after the pattern. Your input is not necessary. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

[31:43] Just one more point to be made about this dwelling place for the Lord. And it will come out as a bit of a warning. But come to verse number 3.

[31:54] Verses 3 and 4. And the Apostle Paul is just discussing some things. There's some confusion going on in this church. And so he wants to address it. And we'll just catch some obvious points he makes here.

[32:08] Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.

[32:35] Satan in the future indwells a man called the man of sin the son of perdition in verse 9 even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power signs lying wonders and with all deceivableness so there's a man that's going to come one day and the devil is going to dwell inside that man and that man is going to go inside the sanctuary of God the temple of God and he's going to declare I'm God me this is my temple I'm the God of this place and he's going to exalt himself he's going to oppose the truth and the true God it's a satanic thing to come into God's sanctuary and to call yourself God and to oppose the work of God and to exalt yourself above

[33:44] God in his own sanctuary now didn't the apostle Paul say that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's so what man or woman among us would allow anything but God to have control of this body and of this spirit what man or woman in this place would say this is God's temple that he bought which are God's which belong to him but I'm going to be God for a day I'm God of this place for now I'm going to make the choices I'm going to oppose what his spirit is trying to do in me and I'm going to exalt myself above his work

[34:46] I want to close with this warning to you this morning that God is looking to you and he's looking to make a pattern he's going to pattern your life after his son and after his word and it's going to be determined upon your attitude your choice do you want him to have a sanctuary it's going to be determined on whether you'll hold back from him or whether you'll not hold back and it's going to be determined on whether you know the pattern if you'll consult the pattern to make him exactly what he wants but if you choose not to make your life the sanctuary for his dwelling place if you don't have the attitude to let him in to dwell in you and walk in you if you don't give and you hold back and you don't seek the pattern then who is dwelling on the inside who is it that's on the inside that's opposing the work of

[35:55] God and exalting you above the Lord Jesus Christ who's calling the shots who's determining not to give God what he wants and not to give God what he paid for I remember that the Lord Jesus Christ when he was dealing with his disciples in one moment they wanted to call fire down from heaven and call destruction upon those who rejected him and he looked at them and he said you know not what spirit you're of you don't even understand what spirit is directing you to desire to call fire down upon the enemies of God there was a spirit that was working in them in Ephesians chapter 2 it says the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Satan's a deceiver verse number 9 and verse number 10 show us that of that passage he'll lie to your face he'll convince you that it's gonna be fine you can do what you want to do look how much fun it is and look how everybody else is doing it and you don't need to follow them you should do what you want to do do what makes you happy

[37:18] Satan will lie to you and say you got nothing to worry about it's all gonna be fine and subtly as is his MO he'll do all that he can to keep God from getting what he wants out of your life he'll do everything possible subtly quietly he'll use his children the lost to influence you to speak into your ears to pull you away from God's will and the truth because he doesn't want God on the throne he doesn't want God dwelling in you he's opposing that and some of you are too blind to see it you're deceived you think it's gonna be fine and you're gonna find out the choice is yours this morning and I'm just giving you what I called my recommendations my advice from the passage my advice is to willingly surrender everything to the

[38:22] Lord Jesus Christ that sounds like just a big easy bold statement no it's it's really like that's what it is is your attitude will determine if you're willing or not so you're gonna have to get your attitude right you're gonna have to be broken you're gonna have to kneel before God and just just lay it at his feet and say I'm willing I come to do thy will oh God that's the pattern if it's not time for you and I to dwell in God's house above it sure would be a good thing if he would dwell in our house down here below and he wants to he wants to dwell in you and walk in you and be your God and you be his people so the choice is yours your attitude's everything you can hold back from God but you're the one that's gonna regret it and if you haven't gotten time with the pattern the Lord

[39:27] Jesus you're never gonna be able to make this thing what he wants so that should make pretty good sense to you but now the choice is yours God said to his people make me a sanctuary let's pray father this morning it's it's a very profound and real subject that every one of us has to deal with everyone must be faced with a decision to surrender their life and their heart to you to allow you to lead them and to allow you to take the reins and take control and to dwell and to walk and to guide Lord just like the people in the Old Testament there's things in our future that we're not prepared for and we don't even understand what lies ahead so Lord just make it a reasonable thought to us this morning to yield our lives to your surrender and control

[40:29] God I pray that if there's anybody in here that is fighting you and if they're opposing and exalting themselves and being deceived by the adversary God reveal it to them and give them the courage and the desire and the willing heart to surrender and to do your will and Lord you're the greatest thing you're the best you're your forgiveness and your peace and knowing you and the promise of what lies ahead it is so right and it is so worth it would you please help your people to see that and to believe that and to desire to walk with you this morning God help us to want you to make you welcome and to do whatever it takes whatever you ask to make this temple and tabernacle right for your dwelling this morning this morning if you're here and you're fighting with something against the

[41:31] Lord I want to encourage you to get it right if God put it on your heart today then don't pretend that it's okay to deal with some other time deal with it today let's make the day the day that you get this right if you've never surrendered your life to the Lord and God pressing on your heart and saying he's knocking on the door he's saying I want to dwell with you I want to walk with you won't you give your heart to him if you've never surrendered your life to Jesus Christ you don't have to go to team camp to do that you don't have to have a revival conference to do that you just have to have God speak to you and you obey sanctuary is that sanctuary looking like it's getting finished or does it look like there's an awful lot of stuff missing a lot of work to be done if you're willing

[42:36] I'd like to invite you to talk it over with the Lord this morning we're going to sing a hymn of invitation that's your invitation to pray to talk to the Lord to get anything out in the open and you just deal with him as he deals with you and you surrender as he speaks