FBC Morning Light – February 28, 2022

Well, a good Monday morning to you, the last day of February.

Are you...

I wonder how many people are leap year babies that are listening. I know we have a couple in the church family that were born on February 29th, and so, yeah, their birthdays hang in limbo between today and tomorrow.

Hezekiah’s Reform and the Condition of God’s House

So anyway, this is the last day of February. Tomorrow we begin the month of spring, and I don't know about you, but I hope it'll arrive early. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather of spring. Maybe you noticed today in the opening of the devotional, we have a new logo, new design and so forth, and calling these morning devotionals, Morning Light, encouragement for the journey.

And I hope that reflects what we're intending to do, to shine some light on our pathway as we look at God's word each day and get light from his word. Well, today we're reading in our Bible reading plan in 2 Chronicles and 20 chapters 29.

And you know, in the book of Chronicles, you have the record of these different kings of Israel and Judah, and it's quite a roller coaster ride spiritually, isn't it? You have a good king, and then he's followed by a bad king, who's followed by a worse king, who then there's another good king who does mostly good, and then there's a bad king and a really bad king, and so it's just a constant up and down.

So you come to chapter 29, and it's kind of like a breath of fresh air as Hezekiah, the king of Judah, ascends the throne, and the summary of his years of reign as a king are given to us in verse 2, where it says, He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David did.

So if you take this man's multi-year reign as the king of Judah and boil it down to one summary statement, what is it? He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. Now what's interesting is that right after telling us this, the narrator here goes on to tell us one of the first examples or illustrations of the man's heart, Hezekiah's heart for God, and goes right into verse 3, and he says, In the first year of his reign, one of the first things he did when he came to the throne, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, it says, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.

And the text goes on to explain, as Hezekiah explains what he's doing, the house of the Lord has been in terrible disrepair. It's been neglected for years because Hezekiah's predecessors weren't particularly good guys.

And consequently, the worship at God's house has been neglected. And when God's house is neglected, it decays, it accumulates trash and junk. And just like anything else we very well know, if you don't keep up with it, it'll fall apart, it'll rot, it'll look terrible.

So Hezekiah, illustrating his heart to do what's right in the sight of the Lord, one of the first ways he expresses that is by getting the temple back in shape and cleaning it out, restoring it to its former glory and so forth, and making sure that it gets used as it's supposed to be used in the worship of God and so forth.

The Heart Revealed by Attitude Toward Church Buildings

Now, I take from this a principle, and that is, one of the key indicators of a man's heart or a woman's heart is their attitude toward God's house. How do we feel about God's house? You know, I find it rather interesting.

I thank the Lord that in our ministry at Faith Baptist in Sterling, I haven't seen this attitude, but I have seen it in other places. The attitude that says, well, what we do at church as far as maintenance and upkeep and remodeling and all that kind of stuff, it's just good enough.

We can just get by with good enough. And I've actually seen people who are fairly wealthy people. They live in nice homes. They make sure that their furnishings are nice, the house is up to date, and all the rest of this kind of stuff.

But when it comes to spending money on making the church aesthetically appealing and a nice place and up to date and well-maintained so that you don't have crummy carpet and marks all over the wall and all that kind of stuff, they don't want to spend the money on it.

We don't want to spend a bunch of money on remodeling bathrooms or replacing carpet. Let's just get what we can to get by. That, I think, indicates a heart. And I don't think it indicates a heart for the Lord.

I think it indicates a heart of stinginess and a heart that doesn't understand that our God deserves the best that we can do for him. And we want to make what sacrifices we can make to be sure that the place we gather together for worship of our God and the place that in the community sends a message that says, this is where God's people gather to honor and glorify him, that place ought to reflect well on the God we claim to worship.

Now, I realize there's a balance here, and I think some of the mistakes of the past, like in Catholicism with some of their ornate, gilded structures in the Middle Ages and all of the rest of that kind of stuff, went overboard in the other direction and placed too much emphasis on the aesthetics.

I get that. I understand that. But I don't think that the pendulum should swing the other direction that says, as long as we have something to sit on, as long as we have a roof over our heads for gathering for church, then that church should be okay.

It should just be okay. And no, I think if our heart is for God, to honor him, to worship him, to glorify him in what we do, then that's going to be reflected in how we view our church buildings and how we take care of those things and the kind of sacrifice we make to make sure that the whole structure, the whole property, reflects well on our God whom we serve and worship.

Josiah’s Later Example of Temple Restoration

So Hezekiah set a good example of that. He's not the only one, a king that's going to come later, Josiah, several years later, who's going to do the same thing. He's going to have to do the same thing.

And I find it interesting that these kings who follow evil, wicked kings, who let the worship of God go into decay, well, the first things they do to express a heart for God is to make sure that the place where God's people gather to worship him truly reflects well on the God we serve.

Well, I hope that's your heart. And again, I thank the Lord for our church family and for the heart that says we want to have a place that reflects well on our God. And may that continue. May that be your heart.

May that be your heart. So our Father and our God, I pray that we would be a people who truly, truly love you and love your work, love your house, love the place where we gather together. And I pray that we would do all we can to make sure that that place reflects our heart that wants to honor you in every way.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good last day of February, and I trust God will bless you in it. Good day.