Building The Church In The Last Days

So brothers and sisters, I am so happy that God has enabled you to build a meeting place where you can meet with greater convenience. I am so happy that God has enabled you to build a meeting place where you can meet with greater convenience. The early Christians did not have such privileges as we have.

The early Christians did not have such privileges as we have. They did not even have a printed Bible in their hands. But we have that.

They did not have meeting halls, but we have that. They did not have the opportunity to watch messages on video like this, but we have that. They did not have the opportunity to watch messages on video like this, but we have that.

It is important to remember the words of Jesus at this time. In our day, God has given us so much compared to people in previous generations of Christianity. So we have the greatest responsibility before God to use all this for His glory.

So even this meeting hall that you have got, from day one you must dedicate it to be used for the glory of God. So I want to read a verse in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14. It is commonly understood that Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

He said that in John 8 verse 12. And that's true. He is the light of the world and even today He is the light of the world.

But there is a difference. When He was on earth, He was the light of the world in His own physical body. But He told the disciples in John chapter 9 that as long as I am in the world, John 9 verse 5, I am the light of the world.

Now He has gone up. Now Jesus is the light of the world through His spiritual body, the church. So He said in Matthew 5 verse 14 to His disciples, now you are the light of the world.

And He said the church must be like a city, verse 14, set on a hill that cannot be hidden. And men, verse 15, don't light a lamp and hide it under a peck measure but on a lamp stand. And it gives light to all in the house.

So the reason why you have this place to gather together is so that you can be a light to all the people in Hubli. We are not in competition with any other church. We don't say we are better than anybody else.

But God has given us a specific calling with a specific message. And we must be faithful to that message. So as I said, we are not competing with other churches.

We are happy if they are better than us. We are happy if they are bigger than us. And we pray that God will bless all the churches in Hubli.

Especially those who proclaim the full counsel of God. I don't know who they are. I hope there are some, I don't know.

But there are many churches that don't proclaim the full counsel of God. Then it becomes like a light whose wattage has gone down and it is now only 10 watts when it should have been 2 kilowatts. It's become very little.

Now we must be fully bright. Bright on all sides. Because we must be like this light set on a hill that everybody can see.

The Bible says the whole world lies in darkness. So when Jesus said we have to be the light of the world, what does it mean? That means there must be as much difference between us and the world as there is between light and darkness. There must be as much difference between us and the world as light and darkness.

How much difference is there between light and darkness? They are complete opposites. Darkness is the exact opposite of light. And light is the exact opposite of darkness.

So that means our value system must be exactly the opposite of the value system of the world. That means if they value certain things very highly, we don't value that so highly. For example, what are the things which the world values? Money, position, power, the honour of men.

They place so much value on these things. Pleasure and comfort. We don't place any value on these things.

We use them. We use whatever comforts God gives us. We use the money God gives us.

We try to please men but we don't seek their honour. We try to please men but we don't seek their honour. They are not very high in our list, these things.

But what are the things we value? The things which the world doesn't value. For example, humility. In the world, they don't value that.

Inner holiness and purity. The world doesn't value that. And close fellowship with one another like one body.

The world doesn't care for that. And serving others freely without charging them. The world never does that.

In the world, anybody does anything, they'll always take money for it. But we do good to people and we're not interested in charging them for it. We preach the gospel, it's free.

So, there's a fundamental difference between light and darkness. So, there's a fundamental difference between light and darkness. And so it must be between the church and the world.

So, each of you who are a part of this church must ask yourself, What are your values? When we first come to Christ, we have the world's values. When we first come to Christ, we have the world's values. But the holy spirit comes to change those values.

For example, here you have a nice building where you have now a meeting together. This is not the grandest building in Hubli. Better than what you had before where you never had a building.

But you must not be taken off with the building. Because God doesn't dwell in this building. In the old testament, God's presence was always on the tabernacle or the temple.

In the old testament, God's presence was always on the tabernacle or the temple. But not today. Today the temple of God is God's people.

If you meet in a garden, that's where God is. That's God's house. In the first centuries and all, they met in caves.

That was God's house. That's where God's people were. Or you met in a hotel room.

That was God's house then. Or your room in somebody's house. That is God's house.

Because you were there. The moment you leave the hotel or leave that room, that's no longer God's house. So God's house today is not a building.

We must remember that. This building is not God's house. It's you, the people, who are God's house.

So just like people are very careful to keep the church building clean and painted and looking nice, much more than that, we have to keep our heart looking clean and nice before God. It says about Noah in Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11, and verse 7, that God gave Noah a warning about things that were going to happen in the future. He told him about what was going to happen in the future.

That the world was going to be destroyed. And Noah believed it. And the Lord told Noah that you have to build an ark.

That's the only thing that will remain after the world is destroyed. Now once Noah realized that, that everything in the world is going to be destroyed except this ark. You know what he did? He spent all his time building the ark.

Well, not really all his time. He had to work as a farmer and support his family also. He was not a full-time worker supported by anybody because there was nobody to support him.

He supported himself. He worked as a farmer and grew crops and sold them and earned money and took care of his family. And he took as much time as possible the rest of the day to build the ark.

And when his children, his three sons saw that their father was so wholehearted, they also got converted. They were converted to the same faith that the world is going to be destroyed. And their wives also came to the same faith.

So there were eight of them. Noah and his wife, his three sons and the three wives. That was a much smaller church than all of you.

But they did a fantastic work for God in their generation. One family was the means of salvation for the whole world. You know all of us sitting here, all of us are descendants of Noah.

Every human being is a descendant of Noah today. All the other descendants of Adam have been destroyed. So only Noah's descendants in the world today.

And that was just one family. Eight people. So you see how one family of eight people could influence the whole world.

How was that? It says here that Noah in reverence prepared an ark and by doing that he condemned the world. So we read here that he built an ark and that act of building the ark condemned the world. So how did Noah condemn the world of his time? What does it mean to condemn the world? To say, I don't care for this world.

I don't have its value system. I don't care, I don't bother about its opinion, I don't want its wealth or comfort. How did Noah do that? Not just by preaching it with words.

There are a lot of people preaching with words today that we don't care for the world. But how did Noah do it? He did it by his life. Morning till night for 120 years he spent his life building the ark.

But it took a long time to build the ark. Because there was hardly anybody else interested in helping Noah. I don't know if he got any help from anybody else.

Maybe just his family members. Even the sisters there. They also helped in building the ark.

Brothers and sisters. There were four men and four women. They built the ark.

And where did they get the money from? To buy all this wood and all the things necessary. Maybe Noah sold some of his land or worked a little hard. And earned some money.

So that is how he condemned the world. Now in the world, people would like to save up as much as possible for themselves. Now that's wise to save some money for the future, for our needs.

But Noah, we see something more. He spent his money also to build the ark. And in the eyes of the world, that was an absolutely foolish thing.

What a foolish thing, spending money on this. But when the flood came, and destroyed all the buildings and everything else in the world. Then we see that all the people who spent their money on buildings, they were the fools.

And that Noah was the wise man who spent his money building the ark. Now the Bible says. Jesus said this.

That the last days will be like the days of Noah. He said in Matthew 24. And verse 37.

The coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah. So we are living in those days. These days are going to be like the days of Noah.

There was a lot of wickedness those days. A lot of hatred and violence and people fighting with each other. Just like today.

And a lot of sexual evil. And we are living in those days today also. But there was also a man called Noah those days.

And Jesus meant that there will be people like Noah in the last days too. Who bring up their children and they are in the ways of God. Who get their children married to God fearing girls.

God fearing partners who walk in the ways of God. And who together with all of them will seek to build the church. So Noah is a great example.

That he did his own work and along with his own work he concentrated on building the ark. So you and I have got to be like Noah. Where we work and support ourselves but we spend all our time building the church.

Because we know that the church is the only thing that is going to remain when everything else is destroyed. It's a very clear word. In 1 John 2. Verse 17.

Just like in Noah's time. The world is passing away it says here. What's going to remain? And that's what we preach in the church.

That we are to do God's will and not our will. That is what God is building in our day. He is not just making individual people ready to go to heaven.

No that's very good to evangelize and preach the gospel and get individuals ready to meet the Lord. We can compare that to Noah bringing the individual planks of wood to the place where he built the ark. But this pile of wood, that's not an ark.

Those piles of wood are needed to build the ark. So Noah and his sons went and brought these planks of wood. But if they hadn't built anything with it.

Then they would have also perished with the flood. And Noah would also have perished with his family. But what did they do? They took these planks of wood and joined them together with nails and made it waterproof.

That's the picture of the church. Many people are only interested in getting individuals converted. As I said that's good, cutting the wood and bringing the planks.

But Noah built them together and that's what we've got to do in our day. If there was a gap between the planks of wood, the water would have come in and the ark would have sunk. All those planks of wood were so closely joined together.

And that is our calling, to build a church where we are in fellowship with one another. When Jesus said the most important characteristic is to love one another. That is the mark of the church.

That means people are so close they don't have any gap between each other. And that is to love one another means there is no gap. Even if you disagree on something, there is no gap because we are one in spirit.

That's the type of church we are called to build. And it's better to build a small church than to get a hundred thousand planks that are not joined together. It's better to build a small ark than to just collect wood.

And that's what we emphasize. That God is gathering together people who are united with each other, careful and honest. That God is gathering people who are united with each other, loving and caring for each other.

Like Noah said, the world is going in the wrong direction. We don't have the same values as the people of the world. Our values are from heaven.

Each of us has a responsibility there. Everyone has a responsibility to make sure your way of life condemns the world. When such people come together, say two people who don't have the values of the world but have the values of heaven, say two people who don't have the values of the world but have the values of heaven, they have only one wish.

To do the will of God. To build the church. And everything else is secondary.

That becomes a beginning. Then there may be four after that. Or eight.

Or sixteen. Just like a baby grows in a mother's womb. It starts so small.

But it grows on the basis of unity. See, for example, this building that you are sitting in now. This is not a pile of bricks.

It's built with bricks. You know, trucks, lorries came and brought the bricks here. But if there were only bricks here, there wouldn't be any hall today.

Those bricks were put together and cemented and joined so there's no gap and that's why we have a hall today. That's the church. A picture of the church.

Where brother and brother and sister and sister are joined together like that by the Lord. Where we recognize that we are all one family. It doesn't matter if you're not big in size.

Our values must not be the values of the world. And I want to ask all of you who are a part of this church. Are you seeking to live in such a way that people can see your value? Your values are not the values of the people in the world.

That is our calling. The worldly people get upset if some little earthly thing is broken or destroyed. That doesn't disturb us.

We are disturbed if we had a bad thought. Or a dirty thought. But the world is not disturbed by such thoughts.

That's one example where our value is completely different from the world. We don't get into debt. We don't cheat anybody.

We are honest. If we do a business, we do our business honestly. In everything.

We don't hate anybody. These are all the ways in which we are completely different from the world. It's a number of people who come together like this.

That is really the church that is in the last days. We are different from the world just like light is different from darkness. When we are like that, we will draw to ourselves those whom God is calling to be different from the world.

There are many ways in which today churches try to attract others. Some churches try to attract people with a lot of good music. So, who will they attract? Those who want to listen to good music.

Or some people try to attract people by having a grand building. Who will they attract? Those who like to go to a dignified place for worshipping God. These are not the type of people we want to attract in our church.

We want to attract people who are attracted by the message of freedom from sin. We don't want to have the best music in Hubli. We don't want to have the best church building in Hubli.

We don't even want to have the best preachers in Hubli. In all the churches. But, we must have the highest level of music.

We must have the highest standards of holiness that any church preaches in Hubli. The Old Testament says, holiness is what is proper for God's house. That is the primary thing that should characterize God's house.

That is the primary thing that should characterize God's house. We should prioritize that. As I said earlier, we don't want to differentiate between any church in the world.

We want to preach the highest standards of holiness that any church preaches in Hubli. So that we attract to our church only those who are interested in a holy life. Those who are interested in listening to good music, they can go to some other churches.

Those who want financial help from a church, must go to some other churches. Those who like to find some security in a big number, they should go to some big church. We must only attract those who are interested in being free from sin.

Because, Jesus came to set people free from sin. He didn't come to make us better musicians. He didn't even come to make us better preachers.

What did He come for? He came to make us holier people, just like Himself. So that must be the primary thing in our church. I remember in Bangalore when we started.

For six years, God never gave us a building. And that was very good for us. Because, when we met in a house, we really became one with each other as a family.

And I saw, now when I look back, I see that God was first interested in building the church, which is the people, then giving us the hall. If the people in a church are built together, it doesn't matter even if you don't have a hall. Because, that is the real church.

But, if all of you are not one with each other, and then you just have a grand hall, you're fooling yourself that God is happy with you. God is not happy with a building. A building is just a matter of convenience.

It's like Jesus and Paul used to walk. Today we go by bus or scooter. It's just a convenience.

It doesn't make us any better than Jesus and Paul if we travel in a bus. In the same way, the early Christians may not have had a hall like this, but we have one. It doesn't make us better than them.

This is only a convenience. Don't any of you ever think of this building as the church. There are a lot of foolish Christians who call a building a church.

We can say the church meets in this building. That's okay. We can say that the church meets in this building.

If there is a name for a church outside, it means that the church meets in that building. The worldly people think that a building is a church. No.

This building has no value before God. This is a convenience. You don't have to rent a house elsewhere.

In that case, what should we dedicate to God today? Not this building. You have to dedicate your bodies to God. Let's look at Romans 12.1. That is an acceptable spiritual service of worship.

What are we going to dedicate to God today? Not a building. God will say, I don't want that building. I'm not going to live in that building.

In the Old Testament, yes, they dedicated the temple or the tabernacle to God. That was only a picture. Today, it's our body.

Each of you. Today, I want to encourage you to dedicate your body to God. Especially your eyes and your tongue.

Because we sin a lot with those two things. Say, Lord, I dedicate them to you. And I want you to fill me with the Holy Spirit.

Because I realize the temple of God is the body and we people, not the building. And Lord, thank you for giving us this building. Help us to use this for your glory.

In that sense, we give you the building also. Like we give our time and money and earthly things also to God. So that this place can be used for your glory.

We pray that people who come here will sense your presence in every meeting. In this place, many will find the gate to heaven. And they will come into this church, the family of God.

So that is our prayer for this place. Always remember. You are the church.

This is a purely a matter of convenience that you can meet here. So now we want to pray. We bow our heads.

All of us. And close our eyes. And we will be conscious of God's presence.

Jesus is here. And we want to honor him. And we want to dedicate our bodies to him right now.

Do that individually. I give my body to you as a dedication today. Please take it.

Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Help me to be united with my brothers and sisters in the church here. To forgive everyone.

Ask forgiveness quickly. To love everyone. And to have a different sense of values than the world's people.

Father, thank you for giving us this building. It's your gift. And we want to use it totally for your glory.

And we pray this place will be the gate of heaven to many people. And from the very first day. Till the day you return.

Lord Jesus, this place, this building will be used for your glory. So just like we give our bodies first. We also give this building to you.

As you bless our bodies. Make us united in the body of Christ. We pray this building also will glorify you.

Thank you for helping us to finish it without getting into debt. And providing all our needs. We give you the glory.

In Jesus name.