1 Kings 8: 54-61 Riding the Dedication Wave

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his four-part series, Dedicating the Church, Why It's Not About a Building. Let's listen in.

All right.

Well, good morning, everybody. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here, and I want to start off by welcoming you to Recast Church. And if you want to come on out and grab a seat, that would be great.

It's just an awesome thing that we have the opportunity to gather together in the name of Jesus Christ to worship him here this morning and here at our second service in this facility. So just continuing to praise God for his provision for us here with a roof over our heads and four walls and a place dedicated and set aside for the worship of God.

And this morning, we're going to be wrapping up the third of a three-part series on Dedicating the Church. That's been the series that we've been looking at and focusing on. And here at Recast, we're making every effort to be authentic.

That's a part of our DNA, a part of who we are. We want to be a blessing to our community. We want to be a simple church that is operating on the basis of the word of God as our foundation, as the bedrock of truth.

And that's why our core values are replicating community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth. That forms the acronym of our name, Recast, and that's with intention that we are focusing on those things.

And so a major part of authenticity is being sure to not take ourselves too seriously. That's what's true and that's what's real, right? Like oftentimes we can try to pretty ourselves up on the outside or try to make ourselves look better than we are, and the reality is authenticity, we say that just to mean that genuine, like if you're not feeling super great, you shouldn't have to fake that and pretend that.

And so that's part of our focus as we gather together is that if you're down, you can share that with somebody and hopefully be lifted up by them. So we're hoping for that to be a reality in your lives as we gather together in the name of Christ this morning.

The fact of the matter is we recognize that it's not all about us, but it's all about God and all about His glory. We need Him and He doesn't need us. Let me say that again. We need Him. He doesn't need us, but He loves us.

He doesn't need us, but He loves us. And when we come under the protection of His love that was lavished upon us at the cross, we in turn are brought into a loving relationship with Him. So this morning we're going to look at a final text about dedication.

We're going to read that, then we're going to sing some songs together and come back and kind of dissect that and take that apart and talk about that. But we've been reminded already in this three-part series, a few weeks ago we saw the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians tell us that we are called to an ongoing task of building His church.

An ongoing task of building His church. And that's not talking about the building of a literal building like we're sitting in today. That's not really what concerns God is the building of literal buildings.

But building the church by investing in relationships with His people. That's what He's calling all of us to is an investment in people and in relationships in this community. Second, we looked at a couple of weeks ago the same Apostle Paul speaking in Acts 17, introducing a crowd of pagans, pagan philosophers, and he was introducing them to the God who cannot be contained by a building.

Not really by any building that we could build for Him. No temple in which the entire glory of God could rest. There's no building that can contain our God. In that text, Paul explained that God doesn't receive from us, but instead is the divine giver of all good gifts.

He's the one, we haven't given Him a building here. We haven't built one and designed one for Him, and now He has received that. He has actually given us a gift in this facility. And now we come to a final text this morning reminding us of the way that God is calling us to a more robust commitment to Him at this time of a new building.

How we should kind of ride the wave of sorts of the excitement and the enthusiasm that God has given to us in this facility into a deeper commitment to invest in the lives of others around us. The setting for our text, as I'm going to read it here in a moment, is the actual dedication ceremony of the first temple in Jerusalem built under the reign and rule of King Solomon.

So King Solomon is the primary speaker in the text that we're going to be looking at this morning. And he's closing down in our text this massive ceremony of celebration at the dedication of the first temple.

And you've got to put it in context, God has given the people a temple, and He's planning to meet with them there. And I mentioned before, not only there, God doesn't only meet us in the four walls of this building.

He's going to meet us out in our day and week from Monday through Saturday. I hope that you're attentive to Him and that you're paying attention to Him. But He will also meet us here. And part of the reason that we built this facility is that He will meet us here in the preaching of His word and in interacting with others and fellowship in different times and different programs and events that we have here.

But the way that Solomon concludes all of this in our text is to focus our attention once again on the dedication of the people of God. This building is not the point. The temple was not the point. The steel beams that you look up and see, the carpet that's on the floor back there, the drywall, the heating, the plumbing, the electrical systems are all added to this building in the service ultimately of people.

And it's the people who have been added to the service of God. So Solomon doesn't conclude his dedication with a challenge to the stone foundation. Please stones, stand strong and don't crumble under an earthquake.

He doesn't pray for the roof to hold on and all the winds that might assail it. He doesn't pray that the doors would bar all evil from entering. His challenge and His charge here in our text this morning is to the people.

It's to the people. And the way that we would live, the way that we would live lives of gratitude, the way that we would respond to those around us, the way that we would interact with the world. So I'm convinced that God has something for each and every one of us in this text as we read it and talk through it and work through it.

It covers a broad scope of corporate dedication, of us as a people, as a church, dedicating ourselves to the Lord. And I'm convinced that if each one of us listens to this text with ears to hear and with a will to obey, that we will be a stronger church community than we were even when we arrived here this morning.

Such is the power of the Word of God that it can transform and change us one by one into the corporate group that God desires for us to be. So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to 1 Kings 8, verses 54 through 61.

You can find that on page 165 in the seat that's under your chair and so we have Bibles.

That are there.

Obviously you can navigate over there in a device if you want to. If you don't own a copy of God's Word, please just take the one that's under your chair and take that one with you. You can take that home.

But page 165, 1 Kings 8, 54 through 61, this is the text that God desires for us, recast to hear today. We are going to hear from the Almighty in these words. We are going to hear what He desires to communicate to us.

So follow along and read 1 Kings 8, 54 through 61. Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven.

And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice saying, Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all of his good promise which he spoke by Moses his servant.

The Lord our God be with us. As he was with our fathers, may he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes and his rules which he commanded our fathers.

That these words of mine with which I have pleaded before the Lord be near to the Lord our God day and night and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel as each day requires that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, there is no other.

Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments as at this day.

Let's pray.

Father I rejoice, I rejoice in the opportunity that we have to gather together for this first normal service here, last week we gathered together and we offered thanks and we had open mics but this first opportunity even that I have to preach and proclaim truth in this building and Father I pray that you would be honored and glorified in our gathering.

I pray that you would help us to have the right perspective on what you're doing here in our community, that it ultimately isn't all about us but it's all about you and your glory and your glory being spread to more and more.

Father that we would be a community that continues in the cause of reaching out to those in need around us and most importantly those in need of the gospel around us. Father I pray that you would be creating strength in our midst through authentic and honest relationships with one another where we're building into one another, we're caring for one another, we're coming and assisting those who are down and discouraged and bringing truth to those in need of a message of light.

Father I pray that you would be with us as we have an opportunity even now to sing praises to you for the glory that you possess and that we would see you as you are high and exalted and lifted up. Father as we come into this Christmas season and reflect and remember this awesome glorious truth of incarnation as we have an opportunity to even sing songs about that this morning.

Father that it would not just be holiday, Christmas songs but it would be a reflection on the awesomeness of love made flesh and come among us that your love is expressed most through the giving of your son.

Father I pray that that would be a reality in our midst this morning in Jesus name, amen. Well you can go ahead and be seated and a big thanks to Dave and the band and the sound crew. It took them a lot of work this week just to even get the instruments set up and we're still obviously under construction.

We are going to be building a stage up here so we'll be getting things in a different order and all of that but just thanks for those guys working hard at preparing our hearts for worship and getting that all in order.

I would encourage you to make yourself comfortable over the next half an hour or so but not too comfortable. That's one of the risks of the extra cushy seats now is I'm afraid people are going to start bringing their own pillows and stuff so I'd discourage that but seriously take advantage of the coffee, the juice, the donuts that are in the back there and then please also keep your Bibles open in case you lost your spot.

First Kings chapter 8 verses 54 through 61 that's going to be our text. That really is the structure and the outline is walking through those verses and digging into God's word together and as I said in my introduction our text begins with King Solomon and where we're starting is actually the ending of a dedication ceremony for that first temple built in Jerusalem.

Now that was a seven year building project for them. It took them seven years to build the temple. Our project took less than a year and it seemed like it went on forever. Did it feel that way for any of you?

It did kind of for me. Anybody raise your hand if you kind of felt like it took us a while to get here but here.

We are.

So can you imagine what a seven year undertaking would be like? Further to identify kind of comparisons, our building is about four times the size of the original temple. So I don't know how you have a perspective on square footage of that original temple.

This is about four times the size, not this room but the entire facility including the kids department and everything. So it took them seven years to build that. There was not the sound of any chisels or hammers on the building site.

They were building with stone. So can you imagine everything had to be fit off-site and then hauled into there and that was part of the way that they built that and so a pretty impressive undertaking.

So that's by comparisons but all through chapter eight of 1 Kings we're coming into the ending of a text where it has all been about the prayers, the dedications, the bringing the ark in, all of this huge celebration of that original temple.

And when we come to verse 54, Solomon has been wrapping up a monologue of thanks and requests to God and prayers and now he turns his attention from prayers to God to the people and gives them their instruction for dedication.

So it says in our text, he arose from where he had knelt with his hands outstretched towards heaven so in the front of the people, in the leading of the entire assembly, he has been on his knees, presumably head bowed with his arms reaching up toward heaven.

And yeah, we have photographic evidence of it right there so you can see exactly, there's a photographer there on site to capture all the nuances and everything, it was a great day of celebration there.

I was wrong, head not down, head up, all of that. But isn't that a beautiful picture in one sense? It's not the main point, it's not gonna be even a main point this morning but just to think in terms of a leadership on their knees before the Almighty, to see the king of the people, leading obviously in a religious ceremony of sorts, the dedication of the temple, but where is he found?

Where is the king in all of this? He's on his knees with hands outstretched to heaven, praying to God. I think many of us would love to see the leaders of our country on their knees bowed with hands outstretched to God.

How many of you would love to see that? We should be praying for that. We should be praying that there's a humility that takes place in our leadership, praying for those in high places. There's something refreshing when we see leadership being accountable to someone higher than them and humbled before somebody who is higher than them and all of us have that as a reality.

Over our lives as well.

But he turns from all of this that he's already prayed to God and I would encourage you if you're not necessarily reading through the Bible in a year, reading through something to go back and read chapter 8 in its entirety sometime maybe even this afternoon or sometime this week to gain context on the things that I'm saying this morning.

But he stood then before the assembly of the people of God and now he addresses them. And here he will bless them, instruct them, and challenge them all in the context of being given a new building. Therefore the reason that I've chosen this text for us this morning, being given a new building and he's going to challenge the people with a handful of things that we're going to look at.

And there are only six things that we're going to see in this text, a six point sermon, you're going oh no how long is this going to take, at least double right? But we'll get through this and hopefully again you'll see the things that I'm saying are coming from the word of God.

Six things that God wants his people to remember in light of his great gift for them. In light of the temple, in light of all of this that he's giving to them, these are six things he wants them to remember.

The first is God has given his people rest. In verse 56 we see that. Now remember that this is in the context of a seven year building project. How many of you think that was taxing on the people? How many of you think that took a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of effort on the part.

Of the people?

Absolutely, a lot of donations, a lot of giving that happened in the building project of the temple for those seven years. But Solomon begins this verse with the word blessed. That's a word that means to be made happy.

Whenever you see the word blessed, you should think of it as a happy word, it's a made happy.

Word.

The structure of verse 56 is saying God is happy that he has given his people rest. Do you serve a God that is happy and delighted to give you rest? Do you have that perspective on him? He is delighted and happy even enough to institute a day of rest in our week that we either take advantage of or not and it's really in our court to do so and it's a question of whether or not we actually accept that rest that he is eager and willing to give to us.

But this spoke to my heart this week and if I can be a bit authentic with everyone here, this has been a pretty difficult year for me. Maybe even ranking up there in my top two stressful or difficult years of my life.

Nobody pushed this responsibility on me, nobody said Don, you need to be the general contractor for this. As a matter of fact, the elders were very reticent to say but the fact of the matter is I'm the full time individual on staff here and it made sense and it did actually produce some changes and some different things like for example, there were some doors in the building that weren't supposed to be there and some things that I was able to identify because I was on site regularly and routinely.

But I took it on knowing what it would be this past year but it was very sapping to.

Me.

But the difficult season of building is yielding itself in my life to or is giving way to a difficult season of resting in the goodness of God in my soul and I'm seeing that in me. God is faithful even in the busy seasons.

Can you raise your hand and testify that you've been through a tough year, a tough season, something that's difficult for you and God is faithful, God is faithful even in those.

Tough times.

As a matter of fact, I would suggest to you that sometimes in those hard times, that's when we see the faithfulness of God shine all the more. If we don't go through the valley, we don't appreciate the mountaintop views, we don't appreciate the glory and the beauty and the way that he sustains and upholds us during those times.

He has promised to never leave us or forsake us and I can testify that although this last year has occasionally felt like a swim in a washing machine, God has not failed at one point in any of his promises.

He remains faithful to give us strength that we need just at the time that we need it. So first, Solomon models for the people rejoicing in the God who is faithful to give his people rest. Second, in verse 57, Solomon goes on further to identify God as the God of continuity.

There's a history that goes back beyond the people and he's a God of hope in the future and we can see his faithfulness in the past and that gives us hope for the future. The Lord our God is with us and the statement in verse 57 is beautiful when understood in the context of a building dedication.

He is with us, he says, and may God be with us just like he was with our fathers, says Solomon. And as I was reading that, I was thinking, wait a minute, Solomon, you've just dedicated a temple, so hold on a second, your fathers didn't have a temple.

Your fathers didn't have this glorious and beautiful building in which to meet and in which to meet with God and worship him, so how can you ask that God would be with you in the same way that he was with your fathers?

How could God have been with them without a temple? But let me just suggest to you, if you're holding a device in your hand to navigate to the Bible, then you're missing something, just a small something, but you're missing the fact that the left hand is supporting some weight of all of this text that occurs before the temple was ever built.

Everything that's to the left, everything that is being supported by your left hand when you're holding a Bible and reading this passage is prior to the building, God's work with humanity before there was a temple built.

You hear what I'm saying in that? And God doesn't need these buildings, we talked about that a little bit, he doesn't need a facility in which to meet us. As a matter of fact, I would suggest to you that something glorious and beautiful happens in that he meets us outside of this building.

How many of you are glad that God goes with you to your workplace? How many of you are glad that he's with you when you're out exercising, he's with you as you're interacting with your spouse, he's with you as you're interacting with your children?

He is with you wherever you go. He was with our fathers, continuity, he was with our fathers' fathers and their fathers and theirs and theirs and theirs. God was recast long before we ever had a building.

And I find great hope in this continuity to which our history as a church is merely a blip on the radar of the things that God is doing. God has a huge story arc of history, a huge story arc of people that he's interacting with and working with all around us and globally.

But personally, as a church, I don't know if you take comfort in this, I do, that we attach to a history that includes patriarchs and prophets and priests and apostles, church fathers, reformers, parents, previous pastors who have impacted us, authors who have invested in us.

And the hope is that God's faithful workings in history will continue on until the day.

Of Christ Jesus.

So God wants us to remember that he is a God who gives rest. He is also a God who is faithful and he wants us to remember he is a God of continuity with the past and that is what gives us hope for the future.

The third thing that Solomon reminds the people of is that they need God to incline their hearts toward obedience. Think in terms of an inclination, an incline, if you drop a marble on an incline, you can tell it's inclined by the direction that it goes.

And I just would challenge you to think as I'm talking, what direction does the marble roll in your life? Because the fact of the matter is sinful, human, broken, mankind, the marble rolls to sin. That's the inclination of our heart and we need a change and a transformation and Solomon is identifying that to the people at a crucial time in their history.

You need to ask God to give you a new inclination, a new angle, a new direction for your life that when the marble would drop, it would drop to the praise of God, not towards running away from him. We need a new inclination, a new direction for our heart.

The way that verse 57 and 58 come together is to suggest that the very presence of God with his people produces an inclination in our hearts toward obedience. The presence of God in your life moves you into a different category, a different direction of your life.

But I find it interesting that King Solomon acknowledges to his people that they need a change in their hearts, in their inclination. The inclination of the natural man and woman apart from the presence of God is wayward, sinful, jacked up, busted, you can call it anything you want, but we long for wrong things in our flesh.

Have you identified that? Have you seen that in your own heart and in your own life? Our passions drive us to what we don't really need. We even find ourselves hungering for things that would be detrimental to us, and unfortunately, I'm often reminded of that very premise halfway through my third piece of pie, right?

Do anybody relate to that on Thanksgiving? I mean, we had some good pies there, and I've got some family here who can testify, we do pies well. But how exactly does the presence of God with his people reform our inclinations?

How does that happen? What does that look like? Why does someone who draws close to God find themselves to be more inclined to walk in.

His ways?

What is it that transforms us or changes us? And I would suggest to you that it is through proximity to the holy one, as we draw close to the one who is most holy, that we are exposed in our wayward inclinations, that we actually identify the wrongness of our bent, the wrongness of our propensities and our inclinations.

Spend time only with sinners, and you'll feel pretty normal when you sin. As a matter of fact, you might feel better because you just kind of feel like you're just one better than them, right? But draw near to God, and you will recognize how far you fall short.

And so it's only in coming to realize how dire and desperate I need a heart change that I then come to God and cry out for help. Help me, save me. And I find that in that moment that he has been eager to help my desperate plight by providing a savior, Jesus Christ, his son, who draws near and gives me forgiveness, who shed his own blood out of love for me to wash me clean.

Jesus who will reach right into my chest and pull out my heart of stone and give me a new heart with new inclinations to love him and obey him and serve him and honor him. The new operating system of the believer is at its most fundamental a desire to obey God out of love, not out of fear.

So ask yourself this question this morning. I do, I want you to ask this question in your mind. What is most true of you? Are you a sinner who loves sin but goes to church and does some good things? What's most fundamental about you?

Or are you a new creation in love with God who slips up from time to time? Is sin counter to your inclination or is obedience counter to your inclination? God can change your inclination. Solomon wanted to remind the people at the dedication of the temple that fundamentally what's most important is the need for a new heart.

This building will not change your heart. As a matter of fact, it would be tragic for us to build a building without getting the heart thing right and understanding that fundamentally what we need is transformation inside first.

And foremost.

I would even suggest to you pretty radically that there's not much hope for a church that doesn't have it figured out that the fundamental thing that you need is a new heart. Solomon reminds the people of God that we need a changed heart with obedience to God.

Fourth, we need ongoing daily dedications. It's not enough to gather the people together in big celebrations and just say that's enough or even once a week on a Sunday to gather together in the house of God and have it.

We need ongoing routine regular dedications. Have you ever stood on a mountaintop of spiritual experience? Some of you. Have you ever had that mountaintop experience where it's just like you're up there.

Maybe it was a retreat. Maybe it was a conference or even sometime in your own quiet time and you felt like God illuminated or brought his light to bear on some text that you were reading. It was like oh and you actually felt close to him and knew that he was telling you something that needed to change or it might be conviction, it might be encouragement, whatever and you're like I want to do something awesome for God and you made some kind of dedication or some kind of a cause came to your mind that you wanted to offer to him and you pledged something.

To God.

You decided to pray more, to read your Bible more, to share your faith more or something more. Or maybe some of you had the opposite but similar experience where that occurred to you but it was in the valley.

It wasn't at the mountaintop. It was in the foxhole. It was an experience. Maybe it was a desperate time of life and there were not literal bullets flying but you were desperate and so you pledged something to God like God if you get me past raising these toddlers with my sanity and my hair intact, I will pledge to you fill in the blank,.

Right?

Some of you know exactly. You're like I know.

I just did that this morning.

So regardless of whether it comes from a good thing or a tough thing that you're facing, sometimes we find ourselves pledging these and making a dedication of something to God but each day needs a new rededication.

It is not sufficient for us to have a one-time dedication in a foxhole or a mountaintop. It is not sufficient to come to God once a week in a building and then assume that we're good for the rest of the week.

Each day requires new graces. Each day requires new protections, new strength to make good on our devotion and our faith. We need his renewal each day to undertake the causes that he has placed in our hearts and you see that in the text.

Solomon reminded the people that they need God daily. It's not sufficient for the people to merely come to the temple on the Sabbath and expect to meet God there and then leave to a week where they ignore him.

We are forgetful people.

If you're anything like me, you're a forgetful person and each day requires that God maintain us in his causes and his purposes and this is why Solomon says and you can look with me at 59. I'll go ahead and read it.

Let these words of mine with which I have pleaded before the Lord be near to the Lord our God day and night. In other words, may he remember these things that we've talked about and may he maintain the cause of his servant, Solomon speaking of himself, and the cause of his people Israel as each day requires.

What does your day require?

That God would sustain you, that God would strengthen you, that God would be the one upholding the causes that he has placed in your life to use you and to sustain you and to bring you forward in those things.

The fifth thing, Solomon reminds the people in verse 60 that it's not all about them. It's not all about them. The Israelites could have thought that they were so special now that they were the keepers of the one temple to the one true and living God.

We are now it, but the king reminds his people at this very important time in the history of Israel that it isn't all about them. If God maintains his causes through his people as was stated in verse 59, then all the peoples of the earth will come to know Yahweh.

That's the word that's used there in Hebrew, the formal name of God, the Lord, when you see the Lord in all caps in the Old Testament, that is referring to Yahweh and they will come to know Yahweh is God.

The world will come to know that there is no other God and how are they going to come to know that? Through his people, through us. What God is doing here at Recast and Matawan is a drop in the bucket of what he is doing.

Globally.

The danger in being blessed significantly like we have in the past year is that we could begin to feel like we are God's favorites. We could begin to settle into past graces, past victories, past awesomeness.

Solomon utters verse 60 as a very important reminder in the context of the dedication of the temple that it isn't all about us. God has blessed us so that we might declare his glory further, even to all the peoples.

Of the earth.

So we've been blessed with a building, Recast, only in conjunction with our mission to reach out to more. And I'm not talking just about filling up the seats and going to a second service and expanding and building more and all of that.

I'm talking about the kingdom of God that might look like sending some people out, it might look like fewer. I don't even know that the mission of God as accomplished in this body could look like fewer people in the seats because we send some out to go do another work somewhere else.

Did you know that? It doesn't always look like more people in the seats. The mission that God is calling us to is a glorious global mission that goes far beyond just the building of buildings and the expansion of our local church.

God wants us to be spreading the glory, his glory, to others who do not yet know that Yahweh is God and that they might come to realize that there is no other God. Lastly, Solomon reminds the people that they need to ride the wave of dedication of the building into a personal heart dedication.

So they've dedicated a temple and then now he says, let's take that and continue that.

Forward.

So he says in verse 61, let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes, keeping his commandments as at this day. As at this day. The day that you're celebrating, the day that things are going well, the day that things are, you're celebrating with your whole heart what God has done here.