The Temple And The Cornerstone Of Our Faith

Description

Available MP3 Download: The Temple And The Cornerstone Of Our Faith, by Gary Hargrave. This message was spoken in Jerusalem, Israel on Friday, February 23, 2018.

The Temple And The Cornerstone Of Our Faith

The rubble and stones of the Temple ruins in Jerusalem inspire us to look more deeply at both the natural and spiritual events in God’s relationship with His people. For both Jews and Gentiles, those events impact our walk with God today just as it did for the people who lived when the Temple stood. God’s covenant with the Jewish people is still alive and His Word over them will be fulfilled, yet the Temple itself no longer exists. The Temple ruins are a consequence of disobedience. God dwelt in the Temple, but when His people began to worship other gods, He left. Christianity must not separate itself from the significance of this. God will remove His presence from our lives if we are not living in and maintaining our personal relationship with Him. Although we have received salvation through Christ, we continue to live with the consequences of our sin. We must reach for a deeper salvation in Him that not only washes us from our sin but delivers us from its consequences. The Temple ruins remind us how much God was willing to take the most precious thing that existed on the earth at the time–the Temple that housed His presence–and tear it down. The only thing precious to Him is His relationship with you. He will do whatever it takes to get your attention on Him, even if it means ravaging something you hold sacred. God is calling all of us, Jews and Gentiles alike, back to Him. He will not be angry forever and He will remove the consequences of our sin. As we look at the destruction of the Temple, we are also looking at the rubble of our Christian faith. Christianity in its beginnings grew out of Judaism, and what we would have become is buried in the rubble of the Temple ruins. Instead, we see today a Christianity that has been built upon a foundation of division and paganism. We must return to the cornerstone of our faith and build upon it. Father, show us the truth. We reach for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. We seek the relationship with You that is the foundation of that faith. This Word was inspired by a visit to the archaeological site at the southern end of the Temple Mount during Shiloh University’s Israel Tour, February 2018.