Praise him everyone!! How are you doing? I fine by God's
grace, blessed and highly favored of the Lord. I have
something that I would like to share with everyone. I was
supposed to share it last semester, but I never got a chance
to. For those who don't know; before I moved here last
year, I was in Theology School in Brunswick, Ga. For my
final in my homoletics course, we were asked to seek God on
a subject to speak on, and my sermon dealt with reverencing
God's house. I had to present it to the class, and it
turned out really well by God's grace. Some of you may know
about reverencing his house and others may not, but I just
want to enlighten you on this subject. It's deeper than we
really think.
"Reverencing God's House"
Are you keeping God's statues and reverencing his house when
you enter into his sanctuary? Or are you coming to his
house any way you want to. Many people go to church because
it's something that they have done all their life, or maybe
because their parents made them go to church. In our
society, many people treat church as a fad. They go to
church every Sunday religiously, but don't walk by God's
word. When we come to church, we should be ready to sing,
pray, dance, shout, praise, lift up the name of the lord,
and to give God our all. Its God's time not ours. Most of
all, we should respect his sanctuary. Today, many people do
not reverence God's house, so God is not pleased.
What is reverence? Reverence is fear mingled with respect
and esteem. It also means honor, respect, or a feeling of
profound respect, which is often mingled with awe and
affection. As with love, reverence or respect is based on
acquaintance and knowledge. A person who is not reverent in
his attitude before God and sacred things demonstrates his
ignorance. He is not acquainted with God; therefore, he
does not love and respect him or his possessions. This is
indicated in Proverbs 9:10. "The first thing in knowledge
is reverence for the Eternal, to know the Deity is what
knowledge means. The person who is not controlled by the
spirit of true reverence does not know God, regardless of
how orthodox he is in belief and practice or how well he is
with the scriptures. Reverence is the test of genuine
Christian experience.
I want you all to turn to Leviticus 19:30. It reads, "Ye
shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the
Lord. In the beginning of Leviticus 19, God was talking to
the people of Israel, and he gave Moses a set of laws that
dealt with holiness and justice to present to the people.
God wanted the people to be holy because he is holy. God
told Moses to tell the people not to lie, cheat, bear
grudges against others, worship other gods, etc. As we
read on, we read more of God's laws. He tells them to love
thy neighbor as thyself, bring their trepasses to the altar,
and above all, keep his statues, which are the Ten
Commandments (Exodus 20: 8-11); therefore, we should obey
his laws. All disobedience is sin. If we love the Lord, we
will keep his commandments. Not only should we keep the
sabbaths, but we have to reverence God's sanctuary. When we
come into the sanctuary, we should not be chewing gum,
eating candy( candy bars, skittles, etc), sleeping, talking
and making conversations. Our minds should be on God and
getting ready to serve him. We should also keep our kids
from playing, drawing, fighting, and walking around the
church, especially when preaching is going on. It's time
out for all these things to be going on during the service.
God is not pleased on how we treat him in his house.
God is looking for people of full respect and honor of him.
When I visit some churches, I see a lot of people chewing
gum, parents are giving their kids candy or food, while
others are talking before service began, and their minds are
not on God. Saints, we need to wake up and stop neglecting
the full respect of God's house. God is not pleased. How
can we say we love him and cannot respect his house?
This message is only to enlighten you because God's house is
sacred. When we have something that is sacred to us, we
don't neglect it or handle it any kind of way. It's a
command that we respect God's house because God is a
consuming fire, and when we reverence his place, he is
pleased with us. We come to the sanctuary to worship and
give God all the praise. He refuses to accept worship that
is irreverence and of disrespect. I encourage you to be
doers of the word and not just listeners. Let us do better
and keep the laws that God gave us and have full respect for
his sanctuary.
I hope you have gotten something out of this. Personally,
when I see this going on, I let individuals know what God
says about the matter. Some people don't listen to me,
others get an attitude, and some listen. When I researched
and prayed about given this sermon for my class, I didn't
know it was deeper than what I had already had been taught
when I was younger by my pastor. She instilled many things
in us given by God. God has feelings just like us. None of
us want to be treated with disrespect, so God doesn't
either. Once you hear the word, try to walk by what you
heard because onced you have heard the word and know it;
when you don't follow it, you are then held accountable.
It's time out for talking and making conversation, putting
your feet in the chairs like you are at home, etc. I
encourage you to reverence God's house everytime you enter
into his courts. Be blessed today, and I love you!
Remember: BELIEVE GOD (without believing him, he cannot
perform what he say he can do; speak his word only), TRUST
GOD (never put trust in man because they fail us, but God
never fails us), and OBEY GOD(we can't go wrong we truely
obey everything he tells us to do)!!!!!!! Share this with
your friends. I think it's always good to learn more of
God's word.
Be blessed and love you all!!
Charity Ravenell,
Gospel Coordinator and Editor of JC Gospel Today
Special Thanks;
Trenice "Nicey" McKinney
home 706-389-6617
cell 912-571-0765
