Carrying a Burden for the House of the Lord

Yeah, thank you for the invitation and welcome here. Bobby, Wenhai is right that if God had planted NCCF in 2007 I would still be here, but in his wisdom he allowed NCCF to be planted four years later or three years later after I had moved to Colorado for a purpose that he had different from what I may have thought. And I moved to Colorado looking for a church like this and God planted me there.

I'm thankful for that and I'm thankful that we share a special relationship at RLCF with you all here at NCCF. In a few weeks we'll have the singles gathering and the elders here and the elders at RLCF have really labored together with a real special burden that the Lord has planted in our hearts for young people to be gripped with not just nominally becoming a Christian but taking the call of discipleship seriously. And I observed something when I see somebody going through a difficult time, a trial, an individual let's say, and I see that from outward evidences at least they're seeking to follow the Lord and the Lord takes them through a trial.

I have observed that that's actually a reason to have much hope for such a person. And if life is always comfortable and nothing ever goes wrong then I wonder is something wrong. And likewise for a church when the church goes through a difficult time, a time of testing, a time where the things we believe and stand for are put to the test, it is for me gives me much hope.

A very popular verse in Christendom is Jeremiah 29 verse 11 where God says I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare not for your calamity, to give you a future and a hope. And he says that if you read in chapter 28 and chapter 29 of Jeremiah where a false prophet had come and said things are going to be easy it's going to your trial is going to end very quickly in two years. And actually God said no you're going to be in captivity for 70 years.

And Jeremiah stood for the truth and was persecuted because of it. But in the midst of that trial that Judah was facing God says this promise I know the plans I have for you. I'd like to start by turning to a verse in Psalm 66 along that line if you could please turn there with me Psalm 66 verse 8 says bless our God O peoples and sound his praise abroad who keeps us in life and does not allow our foot our feet to slip this is all the way in the Old Testament isn't that an amazing promise but look at how God does that how does God keep us in life and bring us to a place where our foot will not slip he says you have tried us O God verse 10 you have refined us as silver is refined you brought us into the net you laid an oppressive burden upon our loins you made men ride over our heads can you imagine what that felt like all those things he described we went through fire and through water yet you brought us out into a place of abundance this is like Jeremiah 29 verse 11 that place of abundance dear brothers dear sisters and dear children that place of abundance is on the other side of a time of testing it is always that the resurrection life is on the other side of taking up your cross and denying yourself that's true for us individually that's true for us in our marriages that's true for us in our homes and that's true in the church and I've been meditating recently about what is the purpose for the church for a church in general why do we gather like this God's purpose for the church I believe is not that we have a reputation you know even walking in this building I noticed there's another church a few feet away with a different name and here we are called NCCF and within a square mile there probably be a few dozen maybe churches that have met today and when I hear about people talking about their church I often hear you should come to our church because of this or because of that church is trying to establish a reputation for themselves why are we the church that you should come to that's not our purpose as a church our purpose is not that other people will know we exist and that they should want to come here our purpose is because we have a responsibility and as I often say even at our churches I'm hesitant to necessarily want a lot of people to come to our church because that increases our responsibility and that's something I have been meditating on not just as an elder in my local church but also for all of us as members the church has a responsibility and out of that responsibility I hope you have seen what the responsibility you have as a member of the church we have a responsibility and in that responsibility it's very easy for for us to think because of what we hear in the church that as long as I take care of my own self my own spiritual well-being that's enough we we hear a lot and it must start there that we must each learn to take up our cross daily in our personal life and that happens mostly when we're away from each other it does start there but it doesn't end there and I noticed in my life at different periods in my life a sense of satisfaction that things are going well with me spiritually and a lack of care and burden for how it's going with somebody else spiritually so we have a responsibility as a church because God has placed us in a body you read in 1st Corinthians 12 that the characteristic of the body is that there is a care for one another let me show you that verse 1st Corinthians chapter 12 whenever people come to RLCF and want to become members we usually ask them to attend the church regularly for at least three to six months so they get to know us and we get to know them and when we talk about membership some people ask us is membership in a church a biblical principle some churches say it's not important you don't have to be a member in a church as long as you're a member of Christ's universal body other churches that are really clubs insist on membership that you must commit to this church and you must put your money here and very controlling it's true that membership is a biblical principle and you see that here in 1st Corinthians 12 and this is the verse we share with them when they want to become members 1st Corinthians 12 we read in verse 25 you can read the whole sentence which begins a few sentences a few verses earlier that God has composed the body this is the middle of verse 24 giving more abundant honor so that to that member which lacked so that there may be no division in the body but that the members may have the same care for one another the same care for one another as the head has for the body and one thing the Lord has been impressing on my heart recently is to have the same care for my brother and my sister and the children in the church that God has placed me in as he has for them the well-being of the church a burden for the well-being of the church let's turn to a verse in Haggai chapter 1 I hope you know where Haggai is it's the third last book in the Old Testament if you work backwards from Malachi Zachariah and then Haggai Haggai was an interesting prophet because after the people of Israel had of Judah had come back to the land after those 70 years of captivity that we heard about earlier and God allowed them to establish themselves in the land and they all started to have their personal lives come back to a state of well-being you can say can you imagine it must have been very burdensome to be in captivity as slaves and then God brought them out and established them back in their own lands and their own homes but Haggai had a burden from the Lord that these people should build the house of the Lord the temple of the Lord was in ruins and that's what we see here in Haggai chapter 1 verse 7 thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways go up to the mountains and bring wood and rebuild the temple that I may be pleased with it and be glorified says the Lord and look at the condition of their lives for a while I'm sure their personal life had some success to it better to live in freedom than in captivity but they soon came to a place in their lives where all of their hard work was not resulting in fruitfulness and the same you'll see spiritually as well that when our focus is only on ourselves I just want to make sure that I thrive spiritually and my wife and my husband and my children as long as they're doing spiritually it's okay I don't have a burden for others in the church as well likewise we'll find that our personal life will also start to lack in fruitfulness and so you see here that these people it says in verse 9 you look for much but behold it comes to little when you bring it home I blow it away why declares the Lord of hosts because of my house which lies desolate which each of you while each of you runs to his own house therefore because of you the sky has withheld its due and the earth has withheld its produce I called for a drought on the land on the mountains on the grain on the new wine on the oil on what the ground produces on men on cattle and on all the labor of your hands verse 12 then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehoshadak the high priest with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the Prophet as the Lord their God had sent him and the people showed reverence for the Lord and you'll see they ended up building the temple so God sent Haggai with a mission he says you've been so focused on your own life and your own home and your own personal well-being but you don't have a burden for my house you don't don't you're not concerned you're not burdened when you see some part of my house in ruin in decay that's a word that the Lord's been impressing on my heart recently that to have the heart of God is to have a burden for his house as well David was called a man after God's own heart and one of the things you see about him if you turn with me to 2nd Samuel chapter 7 to be people after God's own heart is to have the same burden for his house that is the church the the spiritual house of God as God himself has 2nd Samuel chapter 7 here's this what it means to have the heart of God what it means to be a man after God's own heart 2nd Samuel 7 verse 1 it came about when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies maybe you're there today dear husband and wife dear parents God has brought you to a life of victory you're overcoming sins that used to be defeated by your marriage is doing pretty well your children are growing up and doing well this is what happened with David but David wasn't satisfied he was a man after God's own heart and if I could paraphrase or put words into David's mouth I hear him saying Lord you've done so much good for me you've brought me to a place of rest these things that used to defeat me these enemies that used to defeat me I now have victory over them but it's not enough for me Lord when I look and see your house in ruin that would be like me saying Lord I thank you for all the wonderful blessings you've done spiritually you've blessed me I've been here in this church now and you've done so much for me I'm I've entered into the new covenant I'm experiencing victory but it's not enough for me Lord when I see somebody else that's back slidden or I see your house that's that's in disarray or in decay and God and he says verse 2 the king called Nathan the prophet and said see now I dwell in a house of cedar but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains and he had a burden to make a permanent dwelling place for the Lord he had a burden that God's house would succeed would thrive that God would have a resting place that's the burden that God has for his house as well today and to share and to become people after God's own heart is to share that burden it's said about Jesus if you turn with me to Luke chapter 2 most of you know this story where Jesus at the age of 12 and you met some of your children may be thinking well okay what does this have to do with me Jesus when he was your age maybe you're 6 years old 8 years old 10 years old 12 years old not even a teenager yet he had a burden for the father's house when he was sitting in the synagogues he wasn't only thinking of living a life of personal victory as we know Jesus never sinned never sinned even once is that an amazing thing children Jesus never once disobeyed daddy and mommy never once fought with his brothers and sisters never once fought with his friends at school and he's our example he's your example as a young boy as a young girl and in addition to that it wasn't enough that he lived a pure holy life he had a burden for the father's house we read in Luke 2 that when his parents forgot about him what did Jesus do what would you do dear 12 year old boy or 12 year old girl if accidentally your parents left without you somewhere maybe this now it's not going to happen hopefully not but if your parents left and you realize you're all here by yourself what would you do Jesus didn't get into a panic but he says okay Lord father I'm here to further your business I'm further I I care about your house and that's what he tells his mother when his mother comes back and finds him and says what you know she almost blames him that she forgot him but then he says why is it that you were looking for me don't you know that I had to be about my father's business think about it even dear children that from this young age if if somebody sees you reading your Bible let's say one of your friends at school sees you reading your Bible you know maybe they'll make fun of you but you can say I'm here I care about my father in heaven it's his business that I'm about in fact later on when he was 30 you read this in John chapter 2 that that being about his father's business and that burden for the father's house consumed him John 2 when Jesus chased the money changers out of the temple you see that that chasing the money changers out of the temple wasn't some sort of personal vendetta, vendetta means he didn't hate these people it wasn't a fight he had with them he didn't know most of these people the money changers but for 30 years up to that point he had a burden for the house of God and I believe as a 12 year old even he watched these money changers who were there even before he was 30 years old and he watched them and every time he saw it there was a pain in his heart there was a burden Lord this is your house my father and they're dishonoring your house by their behavior and the father said not yet not yet and it just consumed him you know what that word consumed means it's like eating at you it bothers you bothers you bothers you bothers you bother you most people are consumed by bitterness unforgiveness oh that person did something to me now every time I see him or her it consumes me ah that's that same person who did that to me most people are consumed by that bitterness Jesus was consumed with a burden for his father's house as one who lived perfectly without sinning that's convicted me I say Lord if you bring me to a place where overcoming in all known sin and I'm living a life of victory that's wonderful but it shouldn't stop there Lord can you allow your that burden for your house to consume me where when I see God's name dishonored when I see things in the church or I see things in Christendom that are dishonoring to God's name especially when it comes to money does that consume me then I've understood what it means to be a man or a woman after God's own heart as Jesus was it says in John 2 verse 17 when he chased them out the disciples remembered oh this is what it means when it said that my servant my son would have a zeal for his father's house which would consume him I have a little question maybe for the children or for the adults we will start with the children who is it about it whom it is said it was reckoned to him as righteousness anybody know it says about somebody that he did he had something and therefore he was called righteous considered righteous you can shout it out any guesses I heard it what is it Abraham yes you can read it multiple times Genesis 15 and then Romans 4 2 or 3 times Galatians 3 he was reckoned as righteous now that's the easy question there's another person about whom it is said it was reckoned to him as righteousness let's turn to Psalm 106 I don't know most people don't know that here was another man who did something and because he did that he was considered righteous it was reckoned to him as righteousness Psalm 106 verse 30 Psalm 106 verse 30 it says then Phinehas stood up and interposed we'll talk about that in a second what does that mean and so the plague was stayed and it was reckoned to him for righteousness to all generations forever an amazing story now Phinehas I'll just tell you about him you can read about it where is it somewhere in numbers how if you know offhand where it is you can tell me later on 25 numbers 25 my margin tells me that so numbers 25 you can read it now there was you read go back to 28 it says a verse verse 28 here they joined themselves also to Baal Peor this is through the influence of Balaam if I remember correctly and the people of Israel committed sin immorality and joined themselves to Baal this other God back then it was God and Baal the gods that were competing for the attention and devotion of of the Israelites and because of their allegiance because they started worshiping Baal they ate sacrifices offered to the dead and they provoked God to anger with their deeds verse 29 and God sent a plague now Phinehas was not one of those who had sinned he was a descendant of it was a son of Eliezer a descendant of the Levites he was not one of those who had fallen into sin but he saw these people in sin and he saw the anger of God at their sin and he took a stand and he went and killed those people killed the one who had started the problem and addressed it and because of that zeal God said I'm gonna count it as righteousness and you think about Jesus when I think about his life for 30 years having lived a sinless life without ever falling into sin if God the Father had allowed him to finish his course of life at the age of 30 having lived a perfect life at that point if he had died for my sins it would still have been an acceptable sacrifice a perfect man as God as man dying from Santosh's sins acceptable but God had a plan that for the remaining three and a half years the father had a plan that Jesus would expose the sin in religious circles he would have the zeal for the father's house exemplifying as an example to us and I think if Jesus had finished the course of his life at 30 years old none of the Pharisees would have hated him in fact I think they rather enjoyed his experience encounter with them at the age of 12 they probably thought oh this is a smart kid and they sat and talked to him they asked him questions he asked them questions it was a an interesting time they weren't ready to kill Jesus when he sat with them and talked to with them at the age of 12 but when the zeal for the father's house consumed Jesus at the age of 30 and he started exposing the things that were going on in the name of God Jehovah then they wanted to kill him and the anger that Jesus faced was because of his zeal for the father's house and God forbid if I should ever be content with a comfortable Christian life that doesn't offend anybody that doesn't cause any unrest in the people around me because I'm just living a good Christian life I tell you nobody will persecute you if you overcome sin and that's it if you overcome your personal sin and you're more kind to others and you're more giving to others they won't kill you that's an enjoyable person to be around but that's not all of God's will God's will extends beyond that where we come to a life of victory we're overcoming but a zeal for the house of God consumes us and that's what was true about Phinehas and that's why it was reckoned to him as righteousness I had to face a situation years ago this was even before I became an elder in 2008 a few weeks before I was appointed as an elder there at River of Life something I've never forgotten a situation came up in our church where I was faced with something that was going on and I wasn't sure if it was my place to speak up or not because I wasn't yet officially an elder I we had prayed about it and God had made it clear to those of us who were involved in the situation that I was going to be an elder I was going to be appointed in a few weeks but then situation came up that I had to deal with and the person who was an elder at that time didn't deal with it didn't want to deal with it because it was a friend of his and I was sitting there and it was a situation where somebody was asked to speak for five minutes and I was sitting there this was the other the other elder had asked him to speak and I was sitting there and I wasn't sure after this person went on and the spirit in which he was speaking was not good at all went on for 10 minutes 15 minutes and and I wasn't sure what to do I said do I have authority here and will this cause an offense and I sat there and I was just praying as seeking the Lord and the Lord gave me a word that I've never forgotten he said Santosh if this was your children that he was speaking this way too and if this was in your house how would you deal with it do you care more about your own family than mine exactly the word the Lord gave me and immediately it settled it and I had to ask him to stop and sit down and I've never forgotten it and that's a question that the Lord often asked me now not just as an elder but just as a member of the church do you care about your own family if somebody was treating your children that way if somebody was taking advantage of your family that way would you speak up as a husband and as a father and do we have the same care for the family of God for his house as we do for our own children I've never forgotten it I'll close this verse in Matthew 21 a beautiful picture where Jesus comes into Jerusalem the triumphal entry before he goes to the cross he comes into Jerusalem and before he comes in as you know he came in riding on a donkey but he went looking for a donkey you read there Matthew 21 verse 1 when they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives Jesus sent two disciples saying to them go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her untie them and bring them to me if anyone says anything to you you shall say the Lord has need of them phrase I want us to remember I encourage us to meditate on the Lord has need of them the Lord has need of you and later on you see that the term that's used to describe this donkey and the cold to the end of verse 5 is the a beast of burden a beast of burden and I've made it my prayer Lord I want to be one of your beasts of burden I want to be one on whom you can put your burden Lord whatever it is is there a burden a specific need in the church I'm not aware of and you don't have to be an elder for it and you don't have to be a busybody in matters that don't concern you but are you willing are we willing dear brothers and sisters and even dear children like it was for Jesus at the young age to allow God to put his burden in our hearts where I'm not trying to get involved in things that don't concern me I'm not trying to be a busybody I'm not trying to go outside of my circle of responsibility but I'm saying Lord what is your burden for the church not just for me and my wife and my children not just for me and mine but for your church Lord what is the burden you want to place on me how can I intercede for my brother for my sister for my children as if they were my own how can I pray for somebody else's daughter or somebody else's son when I see them backsliding and being wayward in the same way that I would pray for my own how can I pray for somebody else Lord who's in the church how can I pray about some matter and just instead of just leaving it for the elders to deal with help me Lord to be a beast of burden and you see that it's a wonderful thing God is looking for donkeys not smart people donkeys and one more verse if you turn back with me to Matthew chapter 9 I've been challenged by this recently in most of Christendom you'll hear the word go Jesus is saying go go yes he did say go Matthew 28 verse 19 says go into all the world and preach making disciples of all men teaching them to obey all that I have commanded them to do baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit that's Matthew 28 19 and 20 but before he said that in math in Matthew 9 you read this verse verse 36 seeing the people he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd and then he said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few so go is that what you read what did Jesus say he says beseech the Father and that's the correct response to a message like this it's not okay fine I'll be a shepherd I'll go Lord I'll be your beast of burden no the response my response is I'll tell you this Lord I want to fall on my face and beseech you beseech is a heavy word it's a strong word it's a word that I imagine somebody on their knees crying with tears down their face saying Lord send shepherds if I'm the one you want to send sure send it send me Lord but beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest how many brothers and sisters and children are there who are willing to beseech the Lord for his church to stay up late at night carrying the burden that God has for his church that's a much more difficult thing to do than to just go out and preach not everybody's called to preach not everybody's called to teach but all of us are called to beseech the Father to send out shepherds may the Lord use us we all have a responsibility as members of his body to care to have a burden for the Lord's house like Jesus had and God will reckon it as righteousness to us as well amen