[Dan Dowd] No matter what you've faced this past life, the past year rather, no matter what trials you've faced, no matter what's happened in the weeks leading up to you being here at the Feast, no matter how successful Satan has been in influencing mankind in general to doing evil, we're here gathered now before the God of the universe, our loving Father. This coming week as we rehearse pictures of marvelous timing in God's plan of salvation for mankind. Mankind doesn't even know at this point what God has in store for them. They will, in His timing. That's part of what we rehearse in this as well. The Millennium will show what is possible even physically under the reign of Christ versus under the reign of Satan as is promoted under his present evil reign.

This truly is a world of good and evil. We have amazing technology at our finger tips, a cell phone technology, even the ways that we traveled here however you managed to get here. Cars, airplanes and so forth. We have access to knowledge that's unprecedented in mankind's history. We pull out our phones, we google and we have it in a matter of instant.

We have an understanding of the physical world on a level that's probably likely never existed before and yet we have wars that never seem to end. Rather, they just morph into another war. We have violence between nations, we have violence within nations, we have violence in our cities, we have violence in our families, homes. We have a rebellion too, and a rebellion against God that borders on the rabid. This week is a contrast to all of that.

This week represents a time of peace, a time of harmony, a time of safety and tranquility. Physically, certainly, but more importantly, spiritually. Mankind will be taught how to live, not just how to exist. The choir rehearsed that for us in the special music. We rehearsed that time. We look forward to it, and who wouldn't want to live in that environment to have that peace and that safety and that tranquility, to have even nature at peace in a way that it's not now.

We would love to live there because it matters to us where we live. Even when we travel, it matters to us where we live and how we live, where we are able to stay even at a time like this. To have nice accommodations. We want to be comfortable. We want to be safe. We want a place of refuge from the world. What does your temporary dwelling here at the Feast look like?

Maybe it's very similar to what you have at home, maybe it's quite different. Maybe you've traveled here for that very reason, to have a taste of something you don't have back home. Back home, what does your home look like? Simple house? An elaborate house? Average neighborhood? Maybe you selected it because of expectations or requirements, if you will, that you wanted. What reputation does your home have? Is it known as a place of joy and peace?

Maybe you have a reputation for entertaining, maybe you have a reputation for helping through what you have. And it's easy for us to think of those things. Because we're physical creatures, those things can be important to us. But what about God? It's easy to think about the Millennium from our perspective but what is God looking forward to in the fulfillment of these days? Have you thought about how sad God must be at times when He looks at how mankind behaves? And not only that, it shows the patience He has because He has put up with it for at least 6,000 years.

Does it matter to God where He lives? Might seem like an odd question. We'll elaborate on this here on the sermon time today because it does matter to God where He lives. We read in Scripture brief descriptions of what the throne of heaven looks like. We have sections of scriptures well that describe dwellings God used here on earth. We're going to touch on those here in a moment, but we're going to give some consideration today, this afternoon, to where God lives especially in light of this Feast of Tabernacles. And so the title of my message today is simply "The Temple of God.” The temple of God.

I'd like to begin by just giving you sort of a review here of some of those dwellings I mentioned. What you see there on the screen is an artist rendition of the tabernacle in the wilderness. And I would like to begin in Exodus 25. We are not going to read a lot of scriptures regarding some of these dwellings. I want to focus on another point as we move along through here, but I want to set the stage, to begin with.

In Exodus 25, as the children of Israel were living Egypt, God described to Moses, He instructed him to build a tabernacle. This tabernacle was multi-purpose if you will. It was to be a focal point as they camped, it was to be the center point of the offerings and the sacrifices that were to be done, but it was also a focal point of knowing where God was in the midst of the camp. And so, in Exodus 25:8, God says here, "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it." Or you shall make it so.

God gave Moses the pattern of everything. This is not something Moses dreamed up or the men of Israel. Everything was designed according to God's purpose. And in this instance, everything was designed to be portable since Israel was wandering during this time. They had to be able to take it down very easily and port it. They had to be able to put it up very easily. And it's inspiring to look at this, we won't go through this again, but chapters 25 through 28 describe all of the various things.

All of the walls, all of the coverings for the roof, all of the paraphernalia in the sacrifices that were done, the candle sticks, and the brazen laver, and all of those things. Even down to the rings that were used to hold the curtains that define the perimeter of the tabernacle. And so then even in Exodus 31, the first few verses, you can look at that later, God inspired the workmen. He gave them inspiration and their talents so that they would make it according to His desire.

We’re not told how long that temple lasted, that tabernacle rather, but it existed for about 487 years. They used that during the times of the wandering as I mentioned, they used it during the period of the judges, it was used for all of the time period of Saul's reign as well as all of David's reign. And as Mr. Shabi mentioned in his comments, David had a desire to take what he had and to build God a house. And God didn't allow him to do that because of some of the things that he had done in his reign. But He did allow Solomon to. And so if you want to write in your notes, 1 Chronicles 22, you can read much of what was done there as the materials were gathered.

It took a lot of work. This was a permanent structure. And from all accounts, it was unique in the ancient world. This is perhaps just one illustration here on the screen. There is much debate as to what that look liked but all agreed is that it was astounding. It was noted. Many of the items though that were used for the temple, as David collected these things, some didn't need to be remade. The arch of the testimony continued, many of the metal materials continued. What David did was gather the material for the building itself but also for the additional items for the altar, the garments for the priests and so forth. And you can find, again, in 1 Chronicles 22 much of that instruction.

But Israel drifted over time. Solomon's temple existed for roughly 370 years until the captivity of the southern kingdom around 587 B.C. at which time, as the Babylonians came into the area, they plundered the temple. They took the things of value back with them, they destroyed much of what was left. And so during the Babylonian captivity, Judah had no temple of any kind. But Babylon didn't last, it fell, and eventually, Judah was allowed under the direction of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the temple. And by all accounts, it was a disappointing substitute. Let's go next to Ezra 3. Those that had lived through the captivity, if you will, those that had seen what the original temple looked like when they saw the replacement, they mourned.

Ezra 3:8 says, "Now on the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of the brethren, the priest, Levites, all those who had come out of the captivity of Jerusalem, began work and appointed the Levites from twenty years old and above to oversee the work of the house of the Eternal." And so then verse 10, "The builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Eternal, the priests stood in their apparel, the trumpets, Levites, the son of Asaph, the cymbals to praise the Eternal, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel." And then at the end of verse 11, “…they shouted with great joy as the foundation was laid." But verse 12, "Many of the priest, Levites, the heads of the fathers’ households, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid, yet many shouted allowed for joy, and so that the shout was so loud they couldn't discern between the two."

I'd like to read verse 28 next. I'm sorry… let’s see… what did I do there in my notes? Well, we'll come back to that. Haggai 2 also mentions this time period. As they came out of the captivity they had thought once again that the temple, since God dwelled there, was something that would never leave them. In spite of their previous captivity, they had forgotten that lesson and so then they began to trust in a physical structure. Rather than turning to God, they thought that this temple, because God was there, would never end.

Haggai 2:3 says, "Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? How do you see it now? In comparison with it, is it not in your eyes as nothing? Yet be strong." God wanted them to remember the lessons of the captivity. He wanted them to understand why they had gone into that. That it wasn't the temple they should have trusted in, it was Him. Time marched on. As I mentioned the Babylonians fell, they fell to the Assyrians. In time the Assyrians fell to the Persians, in time the Persians fell to the Greeks and then the Greeks fell to the Romans. And through the course of these centuries, the temple again fell into disrepair and the worship of the people of Judah waxed and waned. And so then we come down to the time period of Herod.

In the Roman period, king Herod was a vassal king of Rome. He was of the nation of the Edom. He wasn't even an Israelite. And so he sought to expand and improve the temple mount. He was a great architect. He was a truly wicked man in other areas. The Jews didn't trust him, but eventually, they relented and so repairs began that actually didn't end until, well, after the time of Christ's crucifixion. Some say that Herod's temple was a replacement of Nehemiah's temple, not a remodeling. Some consider it an extension of that temple of Nehemiah and Israel. Whatever the case, Herod did indeed construct an impressive temple.

This was the temple that existed during the lifetime of Jesus Christ. But I asked the question earlier, does it matter where God lives? What is interesting is that God was in those first couple of temples… tabernacles. The tabernacle in the wilderness, Solomon's temple, Nehemiah's temple, He lived in those temples if you will. His presence was there in all of them. But He wasn't in the one restored by Herod. Was God constrained by those temples? That is, was He limited in what He could do, that Israel didn't have to do certain things themselves.

Because, as I mentioned, for a long time Israel believed that as long as they had the temple, God could never punish them. They didn't believe the prophets that came and said you're going into captivity unless you repent and change. God had to show them that those physical temples were not what would save them. He wanted them to remember the worship and the honor due Him. God always knew the limitations of a physical temple. Those temples were always to point the people to Him. He knew the limitations because He had always planned to create a more permanent one.

Let's go next to Haggai 2:9. Haggai 2:9, and Haggai continues here for God, “‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Eternal of hosts." Now as I mentioned, this is the time period of Nehemiah's. It was called Nehemiah's temple, and even it had fallen into disrepair over time. And so Haggai here is talking about a temple that doesn't even exist yet. “'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Eternal of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts." We know that's a future time because it didn't happen in their life time, it didn't happen in the time of Christ, it hasn't happened since. It's yet to come.

But God was pointing them to something that would start. He was pointing them to when His Son would come in about 500 years. He was also pointing them to the temple Christ would establish. That temple is you. If you take away nothing from this message today, here is the nut of the matter: you and I are part of the final temple that God is building. It's not a physical building. We're here in what's called the Feast of Tabernacles, temporary dwellings. And as I look out and see gray heads, you're all too aware of how temporary this life is.

Let's go next to 1 Corinthians 3. This is where we're going to spend the balance of this message looking at here today. In Acts 2, often times we rehearse this around the Feast of Pentecost, God began building this temple through His son. We call it the Church. In giving His Holy Spirit to a called out people, He begins to change them into a people in which He can dwell.

And 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul here writes. He says, "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given to me, a wise master builder have I laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can be laid except that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold and silver and precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day would declare it."

In most translations, the word “Day” is capitalized because the translators understand the point of what Paul is driving at here. The time of judgment. This time pictures the time when you and I will either be part of God's family or we will not. As God begins restoring His government here on earth, as He begins building in earnest His temple. He says, “…because it will be revealed by fire; and fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.”

Verse 14, "If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” We are a special people. Not because of anything that we have done. We are here because God has called us, invited us to come before Him. He has placed in us those especially that are baptized a measure of His Spirit so that we truly become His people so that He can truly live in us. That's what verse 16 says.

And here is the caution in verse 17. "If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." Which means you are holy. Again, not because of anything we do. What makes something holy? This is the argument I had 27 years ago when someone said, “We make holy time” and I said, “Absolutely not.” Only God can make something holy because only God is holy.

There are many sections in the Old Testament even that talk about God's people being holy, being separated, being made different. On the Sabbath, we even touched on Revelation 5:10. You could even read 1 peter 2:5. Talks about us now being a kings and priests, individuals set aside in service before God because we're part of the temple. We are here before Him as part of that temple and service.

Let's continue here in 1 Corinthians 6:19. A page or so over in your Bible. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, whom you have received from God, and you are not your own?” This is why we are supposed to take care of these bodies. We shouldn't follow the fashions and the whims and the things the world craves. Even in how they display their bodies. Because this body is not ours. Again, especially those of us that are baptized, we surrendered our life at baptism. We accepted payment for our sins through the sacrifice of Christ which meant this is no longer our life. We are now part of this Body. And if it's true individually then how much more so is it true collectively?

Think of the work God is doing in building His temple. I rehearsed those previous temples, that tabernacle just in brief, but go back and read that at some point. Look at the effort that was put into it the materials that was put into it, the time that was put into it, the desire to worship and honor God and what they did and think of that in terms of what God's doing within you. Are you more precious than gold, silver, any precious metal?

Those things faded. Those things were taken in spoils of war or they disappeared over the centuries. God is building something that will last for eternity. He's building us into His family. The physical items created for all those temples were impressive. Just looking at and you could estimate probably within a pretty good proximity of the gold that was used for the tabernacle alone was astounding. What is God making in us?

Let's go next to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5:1, "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent,” this tabernacle, we know “if it is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed, with our habitation which is from heaven…” these bodies fade. As marvelously made as they are, it's just astounding to consider the complexity of what God has created so that we can have life but it is not meant to be forever. We groan for something better.

This is why the world chases the things that it does. They are trying to fill a hole that they have and they are filling it with all the wrong stuff. They are chasing fame and money and power and position and recognition and lifestyles that do nothing to fill the void that God has created for them because the hole is: He has created them to be in His family. Verse 3, "If indeed, we've been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we are in this tent groan, being burdened…” burdened with the life around us.

We rehearsed this week the awesome reality that will come and everything that will change. In this Millennium that we picture, it's just the foretaste. It's not the end of it. It's just the beginning for the nature of the animals to be changed, the nature of Satan removed so that mankind can begin that at-oneness with God that we rehearse in that day. When we look at the wars, when we look at the violence, when we look at the crimes, and we look at the broken families, and we look at all that's wrong in the world and we groan as it says here, “…being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life."

1 Corinthians 15 as we rehearsed at Trumpets. This mortal must put on immortality. Verse 5, "Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has also given us the Spirit as a guarantee." A down payment. Those of you that have bought a house or something of great value, you make an earnest payment. The bank wants to know you're serious about this. If you commit enough money, they think you are serious. God has given us an earnest payment here. It's a guarantee to what He's going to do later in earnest, in full.

Let's go to chapter 6, 2 Corinthians 6:16. Paul here again writes, "What agreement has the temple of God with idols?" It's a rhetorical question. There is no agreement. This was the problem Israel had time and time and time again. They thought they could mingle the pagan teachings of the nations around them with what God wanted them to do and it ended in failure every time. There is no agreement. You and I have no agreement with the world. “…For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My temple.’"

In the tabernacle especially, the wanderings in the wilderness, they knew when God was in the temple because the cloud came down on it. They saw His presence. You and I don't have a cloud, but we should be just as easily able to see God's presence in the way we treat each other, in the way we talk to one another, in the way we serve, in the way we honor God. It should be evident. Not just to us, it should be evident to everybody around us whether they understand, whether they like us or not, they should see God through us. We as His people have His spirit. But unlike those temples, instead of dwelling with us, He's dwelling in us.

Let's go to Ephesians 2 next. Ephesians 2:19 Paul again writing here says, "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” We have a different nationality. We are of a different kingdom. This is why we don't entangle ourselves with the politics of the world. We're not going to fix it. As I've said to people, the best we can do is hold it off until it falls apart. But it's going to fall apart. We are members of the household of God now.

Verse 20, “…having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself the chief cornerstone." And we may not understand the analogy here but even to this day that cornerstone is important, needs to be absolutely level, absolutely square as everything else is build off of that stone. Verse 21, so we can have Christ “in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." Dwelling place, a whole building fit together.

Hebrew 3, just to reinforce this point. Hebrews 3:6, "but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are…” You can call it a temple, you can call it a tabernacle, you can call it a house, but it's not ours. It's not our church. And I hear people say locally, and I know what they mean, and I've corrected them sometimes. These are not my congregations. They're God's. The people I serve are not my congregations, they are not my people. They're God's. “…If we hold fast…” “Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” And that's been touched on already, hasn't it? He who endures to the end.

We groan in that though, don't we? We want it now. We are tired of fighting against the world, we are tired of fighting against Satan, we are tired of fighting against ourselves. But there is a reason God allows that process so that we grow in His character. We see the reasons why we shouldn't want those things. On the Sabbath, we read… Mr. Shaw's message, he mentioned Psalms 27 and David there talks about, "That I may dwell in the house of the Eternal,” we sing at hymn. Is it a reality of what you see in these days?

Because part of why we are here before God during this Feast of Tabernacles is to be strengthened and seeking God's house. To tabernacle with Him now so that we can tabernacle with Him for eternity. The activities are wonderful, the fellowship is wonderful, the temporary dwellings can be wonderful, but we need to make sure we don't lose the lesson of the week. To be strengthened and seeking to dwell in God's house. To have Him truly live in us and everything we do, everything we think, everything we say.

I'd like to begin wrapping this up by going back to 1 Kings 6. I purposely didn't cover this when I was rehearsing just the high points of some of those temples but I find this record of how the temple was built. What's called Solomon's temple, some call David's temple, but that first temple, how it was built. The process was very interesting because not only in the materials, not only in the final construction did they seek to honor God, but even in the way they built it. And I'll just highlight that by one verse here.

1 Kings 6:7, it says, "The temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry…” They didn't finish it on sight. They finished it before they ever brought it to the final construction area. As it says, “…so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built." The noise of constructing the temple was somewhere else. Once the material was brought to Jerusalem, it was just a relatively simple matter of assembling everything. That takes a lot of planning, takes a lot of effort because you are putting it together without having put it together yet.

And there is a great analogy here because you and I are in a time of preparation. God is preparing His temple now and any of you that have done remodeling or construction knows that there is nothing about that process that is not messy. Dust gets everywhere, there is all kinds of noise, there is a mess that's made. But God is preparing His temple now and sometimes it's noisy and sometimes it's dusty and a dirty process. But it doesn't mean that God is not doing it, that He's not working out His process.

He is doing it now so that when His Son returns, He assembles His Church with no noise. All of that's done. All of us learning how to work with one another, how to love one another, how to serve one another. All of that's worked out. When Christ returns, all of the pieces will be there and it will be a simple matter of assembling His temple.

We're here in 1 Kings. Let's go back to chapter 8 or forward I should say, sorry. 1 Kings 8:1. David had assembled most of that material, Solomon overseen that rough work that we read of in 1 Kings 6. He'd followed his father's instruction who had followed God's pattern. And so now that the temple is assembled, it's built. It says, “Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem…” he called them all in. This was the dedication of the temple, “…that they may bring up the ark of the covenant…” This was the final step. Taking that ark out of that temporary tabernacle and moving it to God's permanent place as they saw it. It says, “…that they may bring up the ark of the covenant of the Eternal from the city of David, which is Zion.”

Verse 8 [2], "Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the Feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.” I find it a very interesting connection that Solomon dedicated that temple at the very same time we are representing now. When Christ returns, His temple will be dedicated as well. With the saints working by His side, you and me. What role will we have in that? What place in the temple will you have? If you read the balance of what's here in 1 Kings, you would read of the ark of the covenant being brought up actually as it was. You would read then of Solomon's personal speech, his prayer to God, and then you would hear of his prayer of dedication for the temple itself.

Well, I'd like to conclude in Scripture here reading the end of chapter 8. 1 Kings 8:54. It says, "And so when it was, that Solomon had finished praying all his prayer and supplication to the Eternal, that he arose from before the altar of the Eternal, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. And he stood and he blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice,” as I read this, put yourself in this place as if you were standing before God's temple.

“Blessed be the Eternal, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He has promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us,” and our part in that is for us to never leave and forsake God. The blessings that He has given us, we can so easily take for granted. We look for the flash and the bang but God is oftentimes in the small voice.

As I talk about, locally, I'm a huge believer in the blessing of the thing that never happened: The accident that didn't happen, the health trial that never happened whatever it happens to be. As it says here that God has blessed us through all of His promises. Verse 58, "that He may incline our hearts to Him…” It is not a matter of God being oriented to us. We do not beseech God to come to our assembly, we beseech God to inspire us as we assemble before Him, “…to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes, His judgments, which He commanded our fathers.” This is not about us. We’re material in the Father's hands to construct a temple that will honor Him, that will point the rest of mankind to Him.

Verse 59, "May these words of mine, with which I've made supplication before the Eternal, be near to the Eternal our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, that all the people of the earth may know that the Eternal is God; and there is no other." Solomon prayed this in part as people would see this temple, the temple in his day. But what about the temple in our day? Do people see God through what we do? This time rehearses a time when you and I will be the example. We will have been those that blazed the trail for the rest of mankind to show that it is possible. Even in the midst of a perverse generation, it is possible to live God's way of life and to be blessed. We don't miss out on anything except consequences.

Verse 61. Listen to this and apply it, "Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Eternal our God." This is not just a fabulous vacation as much as it could be wonderful to enjoy the physical surroundings, and I don't belittle the time that we have to take in vacation time to come oftentimes. What I'm saying is don't forget why God calls us before Him. Be loyal to the Eternal, our God. That's a thought that's fading way too quickly in the world around us because He's been loyal to us.

Solomon continues, “…walk in His statutes, keep His commandments, as it is this day." They forgot this, sadly, over the years, even the kings that followed oftentimes forgot what he had prayed. Solomon himself forgot by the end of his life. I believe that Ecclesiastes is the writing of an old man looking back and lamenting what he wished he had done better. But the Feast of Tabernacles represents the time of restoration and it should be an exciting time period for us to realize what we are a part of, what God has called us to be a part of, what He is doing through His people.

It represents these days the beginning of the Kingdom of God that will be established and all that will flow from it. That Kingdom will not be complete until after the fulfillment of that Last Great Day. The final step in God's plan of salvation for mankind. But it will be a huge first step. Everything will change. We are so used to this world I don't think we understand what that means. Everything will change.

As the Feast of Trumpets pictures, the saints of God will be resurrected at Christ's second coming and they will be instrumental in assisting Christ in establishing God's Kingdom. You and I will be instrumental in teaching His law, His ways, showing people how to live — truly how to live. You and I and everyone who has ever been part of God's body, those that are His saints, you and I will be instrumental in being a part of that. We represent the final temple in which He will dwell. The final temple that eventually everyone that will be a part of His family will dwell in.

Are we yielding to God? We're going to hear so many wonderful messages this week. We've already heard wonderful messages that show us what that time will be like to give us a picture, to give us a vision because there is a lot of bad stuff yet to come before we get to the good stuff. But it is really good and it's worth sacrificing for. Are we yielding to God so that we can be placed in His temple where He desires for us to be? Are we growing in His grace and knowledge so that we can be fitted together? Are we working out our own salvation with fear and trembling?

This week, this Feast of Tabernacles pictures a time when God, once again, establishes His government here on this earth. A time when mankind will have finally an understanding of what life is about. Why God created mankind. That temple will be made up primarily of the saints of God, you and I and those that will be part of the first resurrection. And as we leave here today, and as we hear the other messages that we'll hear the remainder of this week, let us not forget the meaning of this week, let us not forget the purpose of why God has called us to assemble before Him.

Let us work with God to develop His Spirit within us, to grow in that, to develop it, to become truly reflective of the Father and the Son. Let us do our part to be a valuable part of His temple because it does matter to God where He lives. Let us nourish and cherish His Holy Spirit so that we are indeed His temple and so that indeed God dwells with us.