BUILDING THE PEOPLE
INTRO Many of you were stirred last week to get up and go home and
claim the inheritance God has for you!
Ezra 1:5 (NLT)
Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and
the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild
the Temple of the LORD.
Now look at it
again... God moved in their hearts and gave them a purpose: rebuild the Temple.
They got up and went home with a calling!
Ezra 2:1 (NLT)
Here is the list of the Jewish exiles of the provinces who
returned from their captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar had deported them to
Babylon, but now they returned to Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah where
they originally lived.
Ezra 2:70 (NLT)
So the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers,
the Temple servants, and some of the common people settled in villages near
Jerusalem. The rest of the people returned to their own towns throughout
Israel.
Why a complete
listing? Because people are important! Each number represents a life that got
up and went home! Ministry is all about
people, whether they be king, priest, prophet, worked, or layman, everyone is
important to God!
VIDEO "Can You See Me?" Danielle
Strickland
The truth is
that people are the Temple of God today. Those in our story went to rebuild a
physical building, but we are building a spiritual house!
2 Corinthians 6:16b (NLT) And what union can there be
between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God
said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they
will be my people.”
Ephesians 2:20-21 (NLT) Together, we are his house,
built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone
is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a
holy temple for the Lord.
1 Peter 2:4-5a (NLT) You are coming to Christ,
who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but
he was chosen by God for great honor. And
you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.
Several years ago
God spoke to me on a Sunday service just like this one... “Stop building a church and start building a people!”
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NLT) Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and
that the Spirit of God lives in you?
1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT) Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who
lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.
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