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The Father’s House
A sermon by Dr. Roy J.
Smith
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, October 7, 2007
I’m
reading some verses from the 100th Psalm and one verse from the 122nd
Psalm.
“Make a joyful noise unto
the Lord all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence
with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into
his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto
him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his
truth endureth to all generations. In the 122nd Psalm, the word says
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
These
verses point out the significance that the people of God placed upon the meeting
place that had been provided for them, the house of the Lord.
During the wilderness wanderings, God instructed Moses on how to build the
tabernacle. It was a portable kind of building, but it had in it all the
essentials of instruction and worship and so wherever the people went, they
carried the tabernacle as a reminder of God’s continuing presence with them and
his leadership upon their lives.
As
they settled in the Promised Land, they began to build synagogues in almost
every community where there was a settlement of Israelites who believed in God,
the Jewish people. We are told that if there were as many as 10 Jewish
families, they tried to construct a synagogue. It was a place for instruction
in the Law of Moses. It was also a place of social and cultural and political
discussion and the settlement of issues, as well as a place of worship.
Then
the great building of God was a temple, which Solomon constructed, and it was
the most magnificent structure in the land, we are told. If you haven’t read it
recently, go back and read Second Chronicles, Chapters 5, 6, and 7. See what a
magnificent building that was constructed to the glory of God.
God’s
people always were interested in providing a place where they could meet. That
was true of this church. Organized in 1780, as the history points out, when
fourteen brethren got together (they didn’t have any “sistern” who got together
at that point to start the church). Fourteen brethren started the church and
two years later, the first building was constructed. During the years, there
have been four buildings that have been built to house the people of God called
First Baptist Church. This structure was originally built in 1928. It has been
remodeled and updated many, many times, signifying that not only is this a
functional place where the people come, but even when there is no one here, it
is a silent testimony to those who pass by that this is the place where the
people of God assemble to worship him.
In
these verses, which I read, we see what is expected of us as we come into the
house of God. What are we to experience? The house is nothing more than a
house. Dedicated as it may be, standing for it stands for, it is still a
house. The only thing that sets it apart is what takes place when we come into
the house of the Lord. And the Psalmist tells us some of the things and I want
us briefly to look at them.
For
one thing, the house of the Lord is to be a place of joy. “Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, all ye lands.” “Come before his gates with thanksgiving and
gladness.” “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the
Lord.’”
It is
God’s intention for his people to be a joyous people. Nehemiah says that the
joy of the Lord is your strength. Jesus said, “These things have I said unto
you, that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full.” I think that
there is nothing more tragic and more sad than for the people of God to exude
any kind of emotion other than an emotion of joy. Gladness, celebration, for
what God has done. We should not be a dower people who are negative, but rather
a positive people who are joyous.
Several years ago, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale came upon a great truth when he
started preaching the philosophy and the theology of the power of positive
thinking. Think positively, he said, and those things that you think about are
more than likely to happen because what we think about tends to be
self-fulfilling. So we should be joyous and not negative!
I
remember some years ago when one of my favorite preachers, Dr. Al Edwards, the
great Scottish pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Raleigh, was speaking
to our staff at the Baptist State Convention one time and he was saying that God
calls us to live on the sunny side of the street. He said, “I have always
appreciated those people who know exactly the right thing to say, and rather
than being negative can be positive.”
He
said, “I had a friend one day not long ago who was going to work on Monday
morning and he stopped at a stop light. And while he was listening to the radio,
waiting on it to turn, suddenly someone hit him from behind and jarred him quite
noticeably. And he got out and he checked his neck and he looked at the two
cars and didn’t see any damage and he went around and the lady finally rolled
her window down and he said, Ma’am, I don’t see any damage’s been done. Just be
careful and have a good day. So they went on their way. A week later, the
following Monday, the man was stopped at the same stoplight. He was waiting on
the light to turn green. And suddenly he gets hit from behind again. And he
looks in his mirror and he sees this little lady just trying to get in and out
of the line of vision, the same woman who hit him the week before. He got out,
he checked his neck again, and he checked the two cars and didn’t see any damage
and he went up to her and she finally rolled the window down, and he said,
Ma’am, I just want to ask you one question. How do you stop when I’m not here?”
And
Dr. Edwards said of all the things he could have said to make her feel bad,
rather than do that, he came up with something that was positive and helped her
to feel good about the situation, and they went on their way. God expects us to
be those kind of people. People of joy who can celebrate his goodness and his
grace in every situation of life.
The
house is also to be a house of thanksgiving. In the 100th Psalm, the
Psalmist mentions so many reasons why we are to give thanks. He says, “Enter
his courts with thanksgiving because …” Let me just mention three of them. He
said, “Because we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. It is he who has
made us and not we ourselves.” We are to thank God because we belong to him.
There is no greater sense of security, no greater blessing that we could ever
achieve than to realize that we belong to God.
In
the prayer that Jesus was praying in John’s gospel, he said, “Father, I ask you
to bless them. They are mine. You have given them to me out of the world and
now then I have given them to you. They are in your hands and no one can take
them out of your hands.” What a wonderful, wonderful affirmation – we belong to
God. Regardless of what life brings our way, we can be thankful unto God because
we are his. As Paul said, “We are not our own. We have been bought with a
price.” Thank God because we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
We
are also to thank God because God is good. His goodness endures to all
generations. We are a most blessed people and sometimes we tend to forget how
good God has been to us. As you go into cultures and you see what is going on
there, you find out that we have so much to be thankful for.
North
Carolina Baptists
were in partnership with the country of Togo for some seven years. And I will
never forget going to worship services in Togo. The churches basically were
thatched roof structures with no walls, and the pews were logs that had been
shaved off on one side. The worship services were quite different from ours.
They spent most of the time in prayers of thanksgiving, thanking God for all of
his goodness and grace to them. And I thought what a difference in their
attitude toward God and oftentimes our lack of gratitude toward God. They
didn’t have decent water to drink. In the dry season, they literally went to
the dried up river bed and they scratched in the gravel until they got down to
water that was the color of iced tea. And that’s what they had to drink. One
of the things we were doing there as North Carolina Baptists was drilling wells
so that the village could have clear drinking water. But they spent their time
thanking God for all of his goodness and grace and they would enumerate every
blessing they could think of as they worshipped God in thanksgiving.
The
house of the Father is to be a place where we thank God for his goodness.
And
we are to thank God for his everlasting love. “His love and mercy that endure
forever,” the Psalmist said. Elsewhere, the scripture reminds us that his
mercies are new every morning. Isn’t it wonderful we don’t have to reach back
yesterday or five years to remember the goodness and mercy of God? His mercies
are new every morning and we need his mercies every day.
Each
of us is a member of the human race and we are all susceptible to the frailties
that come to every person who lives. We will each and all experience the
frailties of the human race. We are susceptible to the failures of the human
race. Each one of us will fail at something important; most of us will fail at
something today. We are all susceptible to the sin of the human race.
Regardless of how hard we try, regardless of how sincere we are in our faith
commitment, each of us will experience the sadness of realizing that we have
sinned against God in our daily lives. What a blessing it is to know that his
mercy is always there. His love is always there. To forgive us, to sustain us,
and to help us in every situation of life.
Thank
God for his mercy which endures forever.
And
then the house of the father is to be a place of prayer and praise and worship.
When Solomon finished building the temple, they had a glorious celebration and
dedication. It lasted for days. And finally, after all the celebration, they
came to dedicate the temple of the Lord, and Solomon said, “We dedicate this to
you, O God, as a house of prayer. Will you not be alert and will you not pay
attention to the prayers that are offered in this place?” And God responded and
said, “I accept it as a house of prayer. And my eyes shall be opened and my ears
shall be attentive to the prayers that are offered in this place. And if my
people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my
face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven. I will
forgive their sins and I will heal their land.”
This
is a place where the people of God are to come for prayer and praise and worship
and of course, we can worship God anywhere. Any time. Any place. But there is
no substitute for the corporate worship of the people of God as we share
together and we fellowship together and we draw strength from one another as we
celebrate his presence and his goodness in our lives.
And
there is no higher moment of worship than when we come to the table of the Lord
as we do today. The scripture reminds us that on the night in which Jesus was
betrayed, he gathered with his apostles in an upper room and he said, “I have
desired with great desire to eat this supper with you.” He knew it was the last
time. And after the supper, the word says that he took the bread and he broke
it, and he said to them, “This is my body which is broken for you. Take and eat
all of it.” And likewise, the word says that he took the cup and he poured the
wine in it and he handed it to his disciples and said, “This is my blood which
is shed for you. Drink ye all of it.”
May
we pray?
Our
Father, we are reminded again of the words of the Apostle John who said, “Herein
is love, not that we love you but that while we were yet sinners, you died for
us and gave yourself that we might know the forgiveness and the grace of God in
our daily lives.” So we thank you for the gift, which was freely given for you
reminded us that no one took your life from you. But for that cause came you
into the world. So bless us with this realization and help us that we might be
strengthened by the renewal of your love in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray.
AMEN
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