Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, and wholeheartedly building the temple for God according to God's promise. But what did the Lord command King Solomon during the construction of the temple? It was a heart that kept His commandments! What God wants is not an external temple, but a temple in the heart of man. If a person only has the appearance of a Christian but not the essence of a Christian, and is unwilling to pay the price to follow the Lord, such a person is not in the kingdom of God. Next, let us look at Pastor Liu's wonderful sharing in this chapter about Christians who love God.

Questions for Reflection:

• Do you think God values the temple itself the most? If not, what does God value the most?

• Is obeying all of God's commandments a difficult thing for you? How can it be achieved?

• Why did Solomon build the temple strictly according to precise numbers and units? How can this be applied to building the church?

The Lord's Promise Concerning the Building of the Temple

What is the key in this chapter? Chapter 6, verse 11: Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, 'Concerning this temple that you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, and keep all My commandments, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake My people Israel.' After reading this, have you spotted the problem? God says, Concerning this temple that you are building… and then God stops mentioning the temple. Concerning this temple that you are building, fine! The average person would say, Oh, this temple is so big and good, covered in gold, it's all very good! That's what should be said, right? But God does not say that. God says, Concerning this temple that you are building, and then God stops mentioning the temple. The temple is not important. But, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, and keep all My commandments, that is what is important. Is the temple important? No, it is not!

In Deuteronomy, there is a saying: Then the generations to come will say, 'Why did the Lord do such a thing to this land?' Then God Himself says, because they forsook the Lord and did not keep His commandments (cf. Deuteronomy 29:24-26). What is the problem? The problem is that we as Christians must not build our concepts on external things, but must build them on an inner resolution, which is to keep and obey God's commandments, and not just one commandment, but all of them. So when we read the Bible, we must grasp the most crucial words. In 1 Samuel 15:22-23, when Saul, the king of Israel at that time, rebelled and disobeyed, Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. When we read these words, we must grasp these key points.

Loving the Lord God is the Only Way to Obey God's Commandments

Do you know how to obey all of God's commandments? Don't know? Then let me tell you: Love the Lord your God! If you do not love Him, without a strong inner feeling and motivation, I tell you, you will not keep His commandments. If you love God, you will not regard keeping these commandments as a burden. Look, Jesus says this: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28) But this side says if you keep and obey all the commandments of the Lord God, does it sound contradictory? Not contradictory at all. You come before God, take up God's commandments, and obey God's commandments, that burden is light! And those toils and heavy burdens of the world are heavy! Do not get it backwards, do not get it backwards!

Later I discovered that people have a very bad habit, a very, very bad habit! I do not know if saying this will give you pressure or motivation, but I must say it. There is a group of people who, when they get busy, the first thing they give up is going to church to worship God. Calculating the time, this cannot be missed, that cannot be missed, so then just do not go to church! I do not have time! We must know that if we love God and put God in the most important position in our lives, then we will never regard worshiping God as a burden.

Anyone who has been in love knows that no matter how busy a person is, as long as they are in love, they can always squeeze out time! Especially boys, if their girlfriend asks him, Would you like to meet tonight? Do you have time? Then he definitely has time. Why? Because he is driven by love. This is true even of human love, so if you love the Lord your God, and are willing to serve Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, then how could you not have time? And how abundant will be the rewards you receive from God! So we must grasp the meaning behind these scriptures in the Bible, that obeying commandments should come from love, so that we can easily understand.

Building God's Temple Must Not Be Skimpy

Why, when building the temple, does the Bible talk about these dimensions one by one so precisely, and about covering it with pure gold, talking about so much? We do not need to dig into that, what does it mean? These requirements such as covering the cherubim with gold do not have any special meaning, it is just to keep and obey all of God's commandments. Therefore, David said that this was revealed to me by the Lord God using His hand to draw, so that I might understand. Then He told Solomon how he should build it, and told Solomon how those things should be built in the temple. Do you know what God is doing? God is just testing whether you, Solomon, will listen or not! If you keep and obey God's commandments, you will definitely build according to that thing, you will never cut corners.

I saw a very surprising thing in the Bible, that whether it was Moses or Solomon, they were both very rigorous: God told me this, then I will build it like this! It is very simple, absolutely no cutting corners! Absolutely will not say, Oh! This gold plating is too troublesome! Do not need it; that gold plating, do not need that either; this is twenty cubits, oh! I chiseled out this stone, it is just one cubit short, nineteen cubits is nineteen cubits! Just do it like this! No, cannot do it like that!

Today, we must begin to carefully reflect on the church we see! The church we see today is often skimpy! Not only the church we see, but even the things we built ourselves before the turnaround were also skimpy. For example: Oh, look, I am so busy with work, I have to work during the day, serve at night, and then prepare to lead the meeting on Sunday. Oh, where is there time to pray? God, You will definitely understand me. As a result, God did not understand me either, and made me live a life worse than death, very painful. You cannot be skimpy in building God's church. If you truly believe that God is an almighty God, God will surely make a way for you!

Today, a sister contacted me on QQ, and she was very troubled. She is scheduled to come to Singapore on the 18th, and she has already booked her flight, completed the visa application, and borrowed the money. Everything was ready. But now, the issue is getting leave from work! Not only is it a problem to get leave, but it just so happens that the company is holding new employee training on the 18th. If it weren't for the new employee training, her team leader would have said, Oh, just go ahead, my approval is all that's needed, and no one will notice. Just come back to work afterward. But now, the new employee training is scheduled specifically for the 18th. You can't hide something like that! I can understand how she feels. A new employee in a new company is bound to feel anxious and uncertain. I just arrived, and each level of management needs to approve this special leave request. It's going to be so difficult! But I'm telling you, nothing is impossible. Actually, as I was typing the QQ message, I really wanted to say, If you can't come, just forget about it! But I deleted that sentence! I told her God will surely open a way for you. And later, she told me that it was actually quite simple.

What do I want to say through this experience? I want to say that when a person builds the church with an uncompromising attitude, they will see God's glory in the church. Everyone must understand that if a person believes in the Lord with an uncompromising attitude, they will surely see God opening a way before them. By Solomon's time, you know that the gold used to build the temple was not obtained by Solomon, but by David! Over two hundred tons of gold and over six hundred tons of silver. It's hard to imagine those quantities! And that's how Solomon built.

I can imagine David saying, God, I want to build a temple for you. And then God draws it out with his hand, drawing... gold-paved floors, gold-wrapped walls, and this stone should be placed like this... I think David must have had a struggle in his heart, How much gold will this take? Where am I going to get all this gold? Wouldn't he have thought that? We would all think that way. Today, we say we want to build a temple, we want to begin to see God grant us things. Is there money? How much will it cost! I tell you, I often think about that. But Mother's faith is greater than mine. God will freely give it to you! That is to say, this is a test of faith. Do you really believe that God is the Almighty God? If you believe that God is the Almighty God, you will definitely let go, and you will absolutely not have any major problems.

Today, as we build God's church, we truly see God leading us step by step. Just that everyone is able to dedicate so much time to Bible study and gatherings. I can calculate how much time we dedicate each week: Wednesday and Friday, three hours each, Thursday two hours, Sunday six hours, not counting the time spent on public transportation. Just for Bible study and gatherings, we dedicate fourteen hours each week. And then we read the Bible and pray every day, at least one and a half hours. Even if we only manage to do it six days a week, how much time do we dedicate each week? Nine hours. Adding that together, that's twenty-three hours a week! That's equivalent to spending an entire day each week not doing anything else, but simply drawing near to God, worshiping God, and learning to know God.

What is my purpose in calculating this? The number you calculate, the amount of time invested is so much, but have you delayed anything? Not at all! To say nothing else, what have we delayed in the past year? Nothing! Right? Everyone is living a good life, isn't that right? What we see among us is that those who were troubled are no longer troubled, and those who were poor have now become wealthy! Right? Three years ago, it was so difficult for us to take everyone out for dinner, because most of us were very poor! We were repeatedly calculating which restaurant was cheap and delicious before going out to eat! Afraid that the brothers and sisters would spend too much money! Now, going out to eat is not a problem at all! Has everyone become wealthy? Yes, they have become wealthy! So why do some people not see God's glory in the church? The reason is that you are shortchanging God in your service!

The reason why people do not see God's glory in the church is one thing: shortchanging! Originally twenty cubits, Oh, fifteen cubits will do! There will be no glory of God! An individual's faith, shortchanging, is not reflected in whether you have time or not, not the issue of this excuse, it is a saying, As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave David your father. That is to say, God's promise is not fulfilled in a person's life, a Christian does not see God's glory in their life, for only one reason, that is you do not carefully keep and follow God's commandments, God's word!

So today we begin to see, with such faith, let it be death! You will find that not only have you not died, you are living quite well! Let it be death! When you encounter challenges, encounter difficult choices, give it a try, or what's the most you can try? Try a few times, try it and see, put down your things and come and do it. Among us, if there are busy things right away, a little challenge, and immediately put down things that pertain to God, it is difficult to experience God's grace and glory, and it is also difficult to experience God's promises. Because when God arrives, when God is busy, he puts you down first! Is that life-threatening? When God has something else to do, he puts you down first, do you want that? You don't want that! Then you can't be busy either, and put God down first. No matter how busy you are, you begin to say, this time, I have set myself apart! You will see God's glory.

Actually, you will not delay anything, nothing will be delayed! So you listen to me, the decision is up to you! Maybe you have struggled before, maybe you have not struggled, in the days to come, you may struggle with this decision, but haven't we who have struggled over come to see God's glory? Among us, who has problems with work? No! There is no such problem! Who has problems in life? No! So, everyone should mark this sentence down. Don't think it's strange, God will not mention the temple? The temple is not important! Obeying God's word is the most important thing.

Brothers and sisters, in the church, in life, we strive for holiness, unity, bear the fruit of the Spirit, and are uncompromising with sin. With this attitude, you will see that those things in life are not a problem at all! Why? Because God gives you peace on all sides, with no enemies, no disasters. Have you seen it? These promises will be fulfilled.