A Moment of Clarity

Leanne and I, Leanne's my wife, and we for years thought, especially being in full-time ministry, for me, we would never own a house.

Certainly not in Sydney.

And then, you know, you save and interest rates change, and this moment of opportunity turns up, and we bought a little house in Queensland.

And we had that for five years, and then we ended up selling that.

And again, the economy goes to a certain place, and we were able to buy.

We were able to buy.

It was amazing.

We were so grateful.

It was a fixer-upper, right?

It was probably the worst and funniest looking house in an OK street, which is what you're looking for.

And so we had to do something that is a wonderful privilege, though very frustrating and challenging, a big renovation on this old house.

And I wonder if you've had the opportunity to do that, done some level of renovating on a house.

It's quite chaotic, would you agree?

There's a lot of junk for a long period of time.

There might be asbestos.

It's like this.

There's just so much that has to be done.

So much dust.

You live in just the chaos of dust for so long.

And then finally, it ends.

And you're filled with both satisfaction and gratitude to God for his provision and goodness.

Solomon got to build a house for the Lord.

And it's called the Temple.

Last week, Ben talked about this very significant portion of scripture, 2 Samuel 7, where David sort of wanted to build a house for the Lord.

And God said to him, you're not the one that's going to do that, but I'm going to build a house for you.

And he was talking about the messianic covenant and that from his descendants would come the King of Kings.

And that is Jesus.

But the job of building a temple in the Old Testament was Solomon's job.

And so this morning, we're going to have a look at the prayer of blessing, the dedication prayer that Solomon prayed and declared amongst the people when the temple was finally finished.

And we're going to look at 10 things Solomon got right in the dedication.

And if you're feeling a little bit nauseous thinking 10, there's normally 3 in a Baptist sermon.

3, do you know?

We're going to move.

We're going to move quickly through it.

My point in sharing about this idea of the renovation is that for a long time, it was hard to see clearly in the history of Israel.

In fact, if you've done some reading, you'll realise it is a messy saga.

All the way through these 400 to 500 years of coming into the land and finally building a temple and then the exile in 587.

So much sin, so much awful disobedience.

And yet out of that, this chapter, 1 Kings chapter 8, sort of rises up in this moment of clarity.

And as I was preparing it, I thought, I think it's really applicable to us because we often live in chaos.

We live in just challenging seasons.

And it's like the renovation.

There's a lot of dust.

There's a lot of junk everywhere.

There's skip bins out the front of your life in a way.

And then you come along to church and every now and then you get a revelation that you just go, wow, okay, thank you God.

And that's my prayer that today as we look at this, the dedication prayer of Solomon, some of us might have that experience where we say, wow, aha.

The first thing I think he got right was he realized there is no God like our God.

There is no God like our God.

1 Kings 8 verse 22.

Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven and said, Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below.

Now, if you have not read the Book of Exodus or Judges or 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, you may not realize how pristinely revelatory that statement is.

But if you have read, you can see, wow, you got it right, Solomon.

Because when you read the story of the history of Israel, they just, they were so blessed.

God saved them so many times.

He spoke to them clearly, provided for them, kept them, but they kept turning to other gods.

They forgot that there was no god like our god, no god like their god.

Would you agree?

This is the problem that Israel has.

So we want to say, well done, Solomon.

Well done.

What you say is correct.

And I'd really love us to briefly look at what Solomon says and then jump over to some thoughts about Jesus and see how Jesus, God in human flesh, the descendant of David that was promised, he fulfills completely every truth that Solomon raises and acknowledges here in his prayer of dedication.

When the Lord Jesus moved from spirit in heaven to God in human flesh, the world saw with their own eyes, there is no god like the god of Israel.

I would put it to you this morning, find a god, right?

If you want to find a god and argue with Solomon to say, there is a god, there is a god like the god of Israel, you would have to find a triune god, you won't do that, but a god who is three in one because relationship is so important to the living god, the Christian god, the god of the Bible.

He is always community.

He is always being relationship, father, son and holy spirit.

And you would have to find a god who would humbly become a human being and come into history, live the life of a servant, touching lepers, standing up for the oppressed, who would give their sinless life to die in the place of sinful humanity.

Find a god who would do all of that and maybe you could argue with Solomon's first point, but you'll never find a god like our god, amen.

He is august and unique.

There is no god like our god.

Solomon says secondly, our god keeps his promises.

You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father, with your mouth, you have promised and with your hand, you have fulfilled it.

We're going to look at a lot of text this morning.

Can I just encourage you if you had a pen or, there are some things to highlight.

That's a great piece of scripture, that line there, I reckon.

With your mouth, you promised, and with your hand, you fulfilled.

That's our god.

Now, Lord, the god of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, the promise you made to him when you said, you shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel.

If only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me faithfully as you have done.

And now, god of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David, my father, come true.

The Bible says that God created from nothing with his words.

With his words.

So that means that when, and sometimes we don't get this, when God decided he had an imagination that he would create the universe, planets, stars.

When he spoke those stars into existence, do you realize that the power of his words was expanding space and time?

It wasn't just that he went, I want there to be a star out there.

There can be no star that we can see with our eyes so that we can glorify God from what we see in creation without the words of the Creator causing time and space to expand in the same moment.

Are you with me?

Because you can't see anything without space for light to travel over time.

I just find that glorious, that he spoke it and time itself expanded so that light could be seen that we would see the star.

God keeps his promises.

The reason I talk about him creating from nothing and the power of his words is that the same power that blows our mind that he could create things like that is the same power that is behind his promise.

Amen?

His words are filled with his character and his glory.

There are a lot of people with power on this earth who speak lots of lots of words, but they can be fact checked often.

And a lot of people with power speak lies constantly.

And we have to be careful, I reckon, in the world we live in, that you can get used to thinking people with power lie all the time.

You can never trust anyone with power, but you can trust the living God.

Amen?

His words are trustworthy.

He keeps his promises.

Solomon got it right.

And of course, when the Word of God became human, Jesus, he never lied.

You can trust his words absolutely.

Our God, number three, is incomprehensibly humble.

Verse 27, Solomon says, Will God really dwell on earth?

The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you.

How much less this temple I have built.

Now, the temple took seven years to build.

It was a pretty glorious structure.

I understand, and we can read about it more just before, the chapters before, it's 54 meters long.

So think it's about the length, a bit longer than an Olympic swimming pool.

A bit wider, 27 meters wide, and it's 15 meters high.

So, a really big Olympic swimming pool and 15 meters high.

But the highest point at the temple was 20 stories high.

So, Vision Apartments, behind us, it was nine stories.

So, it's double the height of Vision Apartments in its highest point.

So, I guess I'm just trying to say, it's a glorious structure, and yet Solomon looks at it, and with this moment of clarity, he's like, how is God going to dwell here?

He's the God who created everything.

Well, for him to do it, he would have to be incomprehensibly humble.

And what's interesting, when you think about, how does God's presence come into this temple?

He's there in the ark, but we're told again and again, it's the name of Yahweh that is there.

Did you notice that when you read it?

It's the name.

He is the God who is in heaven, but his name, the authority, the representation of his authority is there in the ark and he's with them.

But Yahweh is safe in heaven.

Is God incomprehensibly humble?

I always have this verse in my mind when I think of God's humility, Psalm 113.

I wonder if you know it.

Verse 4, The Lord is exalted over the nations, His glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God, the one who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?

I love that.

It's like grandpa.

Some of us know what that's like.

I'm learning what it's like.

Stooping down to the grandkids.

And that's our God.

He does...

Anyone with me?

That's a beautiful picture, right?

Stooping down from all the glorious heavenly space that He comes from.

And I know that's close up as well.

But He stoops down and He connects with His people.

And of course, that is manifest most fully in Jesus, who walked amongst us in the incarnation.

Our God is humble.

Our God sees and hears.

Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day, verse 29.

May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, my name shall be there so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people, Israel, when they pray toward this place.

Eyes open, Lord, please.

Ears open, too.

Is that the God you pray to?

I just love this long dedication prayer.

It's got so many amazing little gems.

His eyes are open to everything, everything going on in our lives.

His ears are open to your thoughts and mind, to your needs and your cries and your pleas.

Do you believe that?

Eyes open to see, ears open to hear.

From the beginning of the Bible story, we're told that the blood of Abel, Cain murdered his brother.

And Cain sort of thought he was doing it in secret.

Maybe God didn't see this because he wasn't really watching, but he did.

He saw and he heard.

The scripture says the blood of Abel cried out and God heard.

And we know the story of Israel and the story of history is one where we're reminded God cares about his creation and he cares about humanity.

He sees and he hears.

The rolling story of the Old and New Testament tells us unequivocally our God sees and hears.

Amen?

He sees and he hears.

When God walked among us, was that the case?

Seeing, hearing.

Absolutely.

The poor unwell woman who touched the hem of his garment.

And Jesus is like, who touched me?

His seeing and his hearing all the time.

In a wonderful way.

Solomon is correct that Yahweh, our God, judges with truth and justice.

Verse 31.

When anyone wrongs their neighbor and is required to take an oath, and they come and swear the oath before your altar in this temple, hear from heaven and act.

Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing down on their heads what they have done.

And vindicating the innocent by treating them in accordance with their innocence.

Solomon is pleading with the God of heaven for help in the governance of the people of Israel.

Clearly, what a challenge it is to be someone who has this job of leading, of governing, of judging other people.

When I was writing this sermon, it was the second Tuesday in November.

Does anyone remember what that means?

Well, every now and then, the second Tuesday in November is a day called the Election Day in the United States.

And it was a really significant day where America voted on their new president.

And there are questions of justice and truth, aren't there, around putting someone in a position of power to govern.

Imagine being that president and having to work out, what do you do with Israel and Gaza?

How do you find truth and justice in the situation with Ukraine and Russia and all over their country?

And of course, it's the same here.

What a challenge.

Our God's rightness in His character is as high above our own capacity to make right judgments as His power to create the universe.

Amen?

So when you need to make just judgments, when you need to do something that is right and true, do you ask God for help?

Can I encourage us to do that?

When we have to govern, we have to make decisions about what is just and right.

But I know for me, often I will just sort of run with that.

But I'm challenged by Solomon here to come before God and say, Lord, please, you are the God of truth and justice.

Would you help me?

Would you help us make a right decision?

Our God, number six, forgives.

Verse 33, when your people, Israel, have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and give praise to your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people, Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.

Is anyone feeling, it's an odd passage, isn't it?

Sitting here in the Old Testament amongst kings that are all disobedient.

Look at this jewel, this beautiful speech and prayer and dedication that's filled with truth.

Did you know that the God who created the universe is a God who forgives?

Of course, I'm preaching to the choir here.

I know you say, yeah, of course, we know that.

I think we forget it.

It's so easy to forget that the God who created the universe and created you and I is a God whose heart is inclined towards to forgive.

Hallelujah.

He is not a grumpy old man on a throne.

It's not who he is.

He's not a capricious God like the gods of the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman gods that are nasty, that are mean.

He is kind and he is gracious.

And our God turned up and walked around on this earth.

And we could see exactly what he was like.

And when Jesus came to the end of his mission, do you remember what happened at the end?

That gives shed some light on, is our God a God who forgives?

That moment.

Our God is like no other God.

There is no God before him, besides him.

When God in human flesh hung on a cross, what did he say?

It is finished.

Father, have mercy on them.

They don't know what they're doing.

Father, forgive them.

And I love asking people this question, as I've been asked myself, was that hard for him to do?

Was it just something that he had to go, I know the script, Father, forgive them?

I don't think so.

I think it was the most natural thing in all the world for God in human flesh to say, Father, forgive them.

I'm only here because we chose to do this, right?

He laid down his life that they might be forgiven.

2 Peter 3,9, in case you think, well, Jesus might be like that, but not God.

He's the grumpy one.

The Lord is not slow, Peter says.

He's not slow in keeping his promises.

Some understand slowness.

Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

It's his character.

God is a forgiving God.

And Jesus has made that possible by shedding his blood to pay for sin and take the wrath of God away from us who believe and upon himself.

Our God forgives.

And our God rescues.

Verse 37, Solomon prays, when famine or plague come to the land or blight or mildew locusts or grasshoppers, he's talking about things that you cannot control.

It is out of your control.

You're realising, I'm little.

I'm at the mercy of much bigger tides that are flowing around me.

When an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people, being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts and spreading out their hands toward this temple, then hear from heaven your dwelling place.

Forgive and act.

Deal with everyone according to all they do since you know their hearts, for you alone know every human heart, so that they will fear you all the time they will live in the land you gave our ancestors.

He's talking about a God who rescues.

This is the defining story of the people of Israel, Exodus.

When they were slaves to the Egyptians, it's the big narrative.

It's the story that makes sense of who God is and who Israel is.

Their God is a God who rescues.

And that rescue was costly, wasn't it?

They called out, said, help us, save us.

And God heard their cry, had 400 years of terrible hardship in slavery.

The belly had a day off.

They cried out.

And this rescue involved a lot of lambs losing their lives.

It involved the first born soul in Egypt, losing their life.

But the Exodus story says that God hears and rescues.

And the story didn't end in Egypt, did it?

He took them on the journey to the edge of the Red Sea.

And they waited there as the people of Egypt came down on them.

And their toes were there on the edge of the Red Sea.

And there was no way through, was there?

Once again, they were like, ah, God, we need you to rescue us.

Have you experienced a rescue event like that yourself?

Where you get to the point where you're like, hmm.

Don't you find this, I find this interesting sometimes.

It doesn't happen that often in Australia.

Most of the time we've got a backup plan.

But every now and then in life, you're like, okay, I'm stuffed, right?

It doesn't add up.

We can't do this.

We are stuck.

I am little and powerless.

Oh, this feels very vulnerable, God.

Could you please rescue us?

And who has discovered that it's often in the last five minutes of the last hour, the eleventh hour, like it's normally not early when God comes to the rescue.

There's a Psalm that if you don't know it, please consider taking note of it, especially the New Living Translation, which says Psalm 77, 19, your road, whose road?

His road for us.

Your road led through the sea, your pathway, through the mighty waters, a pathway no one knew was there.

Who is that for today?

It is very common for the people of God to be stuck at the edge of a red sea.

You cannot get through.

The enemy is coming down.

And it's like, Lord, help.

And something opens up by God's grace.

And it's a path that God knows, but we don't know.

Can I ask for a show of hands?

Financially, I'm not going to ask you the story, but have you ever been in a situation financially where you're at the edge of the red sea and it's like, wow, we're stuck.

And then it turns up and it's just what you need.

Does anyone have that story?

Just looking around, I reckon there's 20 hands.

Praise God.

Isn't that an amazing thing?

When you're like, we need $962.50?

So many times that I hear these stories and the check turns up.

Well, it's that amount.

Who has been rescued relationally?

You know, it's done.

These relationships, like you've lost that one.

But God makes a way.

Anybody?

Yeah, like about the same amount of people.

God makes way, ways through the Red Sea.

This is a vulnerable question, but who has experienced a form of addiction and you couldn't shake it, but then you cried out to God and he came through and gave you the power.

Anybody?

Few people, same amount probably.

Great.

And I know many of us follow Jesus and have experienced his forgiving grace.

And that's the most incredible story of rescue.

He died in our place so that we could have eternal life and he is a God who rescues.

And he will rescue you if you call out.

Our God, last couple, our God hears from heaven.

Solomon has this repeated refrain.

Have you noticed that in the prayer?

Hear from heaven, hear from heaven, hear from heaven.

On July 7th, 2019, we wrote, let me ask again, I'm asking lots of hand showings, but who wrote a message or a scripture on one of the green carpet tiles?

Remember we did that on July 7th?

Not many of us.

Isn't that good?

We must have grown since then.

But yeah, someone had a great idea that when we were laying the carpet, they said, could we take some tiles and write a blessing, or write a prayer?

And it was Ben who said, this is what I wrote.

He was studying and the passage we're looking at today.

Hear from heaven.

And I was really glad that he mentioned that because it's a reminder that it is our perpetual cry as a people.

NorthernLife, we can't do anything of worth, of ultimate worth, of eternal worth.

Without him, without him, we can do nothing.

But we can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine by his grace and his power and for his glory.

He does promise to hear from heaven.

And there is a green tile.

Don't go looking for it, but there's a green tile somewhere that reminds us.

And that's this type of church we need to be.

Amen.

A church that just believes no matter how good we get, clever we get, fancy we get.

As a modern church, it is the grace of God that does something that is meaningful and eternal.

Our God, this is a beautiful part of the prayer.

Our God welcomes all nations.

Verse 41, which is a really somewhat strange thing to read because we know, you know, the people of God, the people of Israel, holy war, pushing away the others, give us our land.

But the heart of God behind the nexus point of heaven and earth in the temple was that the foreigner would come and find the grace of God, the love of God.

As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people, Israel, but has come from a distant land because of your name, there it is, the name.

For they will hear of your great name in your mighty hand and your outstretched arm.

When they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, to whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your own people Israel, if only they would have, and may know that this house I have built bears your name.

Of course, this is what happened with Jesus, wasn't it?

That they were pushing away the foreigner and he cleared the temple, because it was always meant to be for people from all nations.

Solomon says, the non-Jews will be drawn to the house of the Lord because of the glory, the fame, the stories going out of the name of Yahweh and how good he is, how different he is, how worthy of reverence and worship he is.

You might have heard the text that Helen read out mentioned about the cherubim.

How big do you reckon the cherubim are?

Do you think of cherubim as little chubby, you know, little gnomes?

Little chubby guys.

Does anybody know how wide...

In the temple, the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant is there, and there are two cherubim in the Holy of Holies.

How wide do you reckon it is between the tip of one wing to the other?

Nine metres.

Nine metres.

I mean, it's a little bit more than nine metres to the back there, but it's pretty much about a good way back in this room.

Two of them.

What do you think the message was meant to be?

Fear God.

He is worthy of worship.

He is glorious.

But yet there is an invitation to come in humility into his presence.

So he is glorious and powerful and worthy to be feared in a reverential way, with reverential awe.

But there is this wonderful invitation to come into his presence for all nations.

And of course, this is what happens at Pentecost, isn't it?

When it all gets fulfilled, the dream of God that a way would be made by the sacrifice of his son, to pay for sin through his blood shed on the cross.

And then he finally sends his spirit at Pentecost.

And the first thing that happens is the heart of God for his temple, the nexus point, because where's the temple in Acts?

It's us.

Humanity is now the temple, the point where God meets Earth.

Through us, we carry the spirit of Christ, we are found in Christ as Christians.

And in Pentecost chapter 2, they start speaking in the languages of the nations because it's the heart of God to communicate his love.

And the last aspect, our God gives rest to his people.

Solomon finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord.

He rose from before the altar of the Lord where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

Isn't that a wonderful picture?

This powerful king, ancient king, is on his knees with all this prayer, and his arm is raised.

He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice saying, praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people just as he promised.

Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.

May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors.

May he never leave us nor forsake us.

It is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who designed shalom, rest, peace, wholeness.

The reason we're told the temple could have been built is that there was rest from their enemies.

There was a period of peace under Solomon's reign.

Now it stood for 400 years and was finally destroyed when Judah was taken off to Babylon in exile.

But this was a period of peace and it was a picture pointing towards Isaiah's prophecy that Messiah would come and he would be who of peace, the prince of peace.

He would bring about relational restoration between God and mankind and between people.

And don't we need that?

We talked about Gaza and Israel.

It's just a picture, isn't it?

And the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland years ago.

And so many neighbours, so many brothers don't get on.

The promise of the gospel is peace.

God made peace at the cross through Jesus, his death and resurrection.

If you long for peace and rest for your soul, Jesus says, come to me.

Come to me, it's what I give.

I'm the prince of peace.

I will give you rest.

10 things Solomon got right amidst the chaos of the period of history we would call the Kings of Israel.

Like a messy renovation.

There were not many high points.

Some of us have been reading the story, maybe with a Bible reading plan, or you've just been reading Kings and Characters, the devotion, or just reading the long and windy journey between 1 Samuel to 2 Kings.

But this is different.

There are other times, like when Josiah found the Word of God and read it out, and there was a revival.

But there aren't that many real moments of clarity.

But this is one.

The glorious prayer of dedication.

And every one of these truths is true today.

Amen?

Some of us come to church regularly, others come irregularly.

But I believe that God cares enough about us that He has things installed for us when we turn up and meet with the people of God and open our hearts.

He'll give you something from that list.

You haven't come here by accident.

I honestly don't believe that.

I think if we will open up our hearts, God will speak.

And He'll tell you what really you need to hear from that.

Because lots of us have our toes touching the proverbial or metaphoric Red Sea.

And we're like, God, are you a God who still rescues or not?

So we should take a little bit of a moment to look at that and see if anything stands out to you.

I'd like to pray a blessing as the band comes up and we'll finish with some worship.

Maybe you'd like to open your hands to the Lord or close your eyes.

May you receive God's truth today.

And may it guide you, guard you, provide for you and satisfy you.

May God's truth fill you with hope, a joy-filled and glorious hope.

May you be inspired today to continue in the pursuit of a life of love and worship, service and fruitfulness in the name of Jesus.

Because our God is worth it, amen.

Our God is worth it.

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