Introduction

In the bible, the main topic for the new testament is building a victorious Church
Today, the topic I am sharing with everyone is “Building God’s temple, you have to be faithful to the end”. This chapter was written with more concepts; on the contrary, there was no mention of God’s temple such as rest and God’s house. It seems to be quite confusing. When we study the Bible, we have to learn to grasp the main topic the author is telling us. There is a Chinese saying, “When you are in the forest, you only see the trees and not the forest”, we are focusing on the details but not grasping the main concept. The main topic of the new testament is building a victorious Church.

Looking at the previous chapter, we were talking about salvation and this salvation is to be united to build a victorious Church. We had also mentioned uniting with God and putting everything under our feet, claiming our victory over death and trials. If you came across a Church without victory, not putting everything under its feet, and have never claimed its victory over death and trials. My advice to you is to beware of their preaching as they are only using the name of Jesus Christ to build their Church, in actual fact, their preaching is full of demons preaching.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where ha e was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Matthew 3:7 NIV

Let us look at Matthew 3:7, through John the Baptist, God said to the Pharisees and Sadducees “You brood of vipers!” God referred to them as the family of snakes, be mindful that a Church is not a building, or putting up a sign on the building as a Church, does not mean it is God’s temple.

Several brothers and sisters told me they were fascinated by the architectural design of the Churches in Europe when they were having their holiday. They were feeling impressive and thought that is God’s temple. No, that is not God’s temple. If you are living in the Qing Dynasty in China, walking past the Tiananmen gates, you will be experiencing the same feeling but that is not from God. I would like to emphasize to everyone that we do not follow our feelings but we must follow God to the end for his revelation on building His glorious Church.

Be faithful in building God’s Church to the end

What is required to build a Church? God has already put everything under our feet, claimed victory over death and trials, and unity with God, full of God’s glory and these are the requirements of building a church. We obtain rest in our hearts when the church is full of glory and we are part of Jesus Christ. In the book of Hebrews, house, and rest were put together to summarize the main topic. The main topic for the new testament was writing about building a glorious Church. Similarly, in the book of Hebrews chapter 3 was writing building God’s temple, you have to be faithful to the end.

But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. Hebrews 3:6 NIV

The house is referring to God’s temple and that is the church.

We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. Hebrews 3:14 NIV

When we are building God’s Church, we have to be faithful to the end. The author was facing a very challenging situation at that time when building God’s Church. He had seen many Christians who are enthusiastic today and gave up the next day. Today we have seen many people who have the faith and hope to build the church and the following day, their minds are changed completely. They would tell people around that they are baptized in which year and hoping after death they are returning to their heavenly home.

Are they returning to their heavenly home when they are dead? Absolutely not. The most important part is to be faithful to the end. I have seen many Christians looking like demons devouring people around them. They criticized, gossiped, and destroyed people’s confidence yet they declared to everyone that I am baptized and saved. Unfortunately, I could not find anything from him that was looking like Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, the author is reminding us that building God’s temple, you have to be faithful to the end. Do not think that I am saved forever once I have received the salvation. During this journey of walking with God, we could face many obstacles of falling down and we have to learn how to avoid them. There are some people said God is holding the authority but I am telling you it is your choice.

Our choices are very important. If you come to the gathering, not for the purpose of building the glorious Church then you could not continue the journey anymore. This journey will be very exhausting for you. We are a group of people who are putting our life on the line and this is our destiny in Chinese we say, Ming Ding is a stronger word than destiny. Ming Ding is why we live. The reason why we were born, the reason why we are living, and the reason coming to this world, willingly to pay the price to sacrifice ourselves.

If your goal is to live better with better-paying jobs, to make more money and I have to tell you that you will not be able to continue the journey with us. At Ming Ding we believe, when we look at our jobs lightly, see through this life, putting God as our first priority and being faithful to God right to the end. Our purpose is to build God’s temple together and if you are among us but your heart lies in the world, you will be very tired of keeping up with us.

The author of the book of Hebrews had clearly shown us no matter what difficulties he was facing; he did not compromise. In Hebrews chapter 6 verse one, the author mentioned “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God. If you do not have Ming Ding, you are unable to continue the journey with us. Hebrews Chapter 3 verses ten to eleven had clearly stated “That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’

You shall enter rest in God’s Church

We have to understand rest is the solution to all our problems. The English word rest is not expressed as clearly as the Chinese word 安息An Xi. Rest is not referring to not doing anything or an off day from your job. Many of us misinterpreted this word as I need a rest after working too hard. Rest means resting in God’s temple while building God’s temple. Rest in the bible means peace in your heart and nothing in this world can cause turmoil in us. In other words, nothing in this world bothers us.

We need to know deep inside us we are a group of people who have a destiny or Ming Ding. We are building the church together; God’s spirit is with us; the Church is the body of Christ and it is where we receive rest.

Why our Church is so strict? Our Church is not a group of people just sitting and chatting together. We are a group of people with Ming Ding building the church together with actions and according to God’s teachings. I encourage brothers and sisters to walk with God, working with God to build a glorious Church. We are faithful to the end, we do not bother how much we have to bear in terms of time, suffering, or lack of sleep.

We strongly believe according to the book of Ecclesiastes “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. The only meaningful in our life is to build a glorified Church of God. If this is not the reason you are living for and the rest of the content, I am going to share will not be relevant to you. You might be thinking I am harsh in my words but in the book of Hebrews, the author’s words were harsher than mine.

Taking a rest cannot solve any problems. There was a Pastor suffering from hydrocephalus, a condition with an excess fluid build-up in the brain. He could not sleep when he wanted to sleep, he had no strength when he started to work and he did not know how to keep on living with all these symptoms. Someone had introduced me to him and honestly, it took a lot of courage to serve a Pastor like him.

When building the glorious church, God is with you, and the rest will be inside you. Our goal in our life is to build God’s glorious church. When the Israelites came out of Egypt and entered the wilderness their first priority was constructing God’s tabernacle. At that time, the most important thing for the Israelites was building God’s tabernacle.

When David had become King and he knew the most important thing is to build God’s temple. God told David not to build His temple and revealed that his son Solomon would build God’s temple. I believe this is what we could not comprehend. When David lusted over Bathsheba and married her. David and Bathsheba gave birth to Solomon and he would be the one building God’s temple.

Why Solomon, building God’s temple and other children from David? I believe at that time, David always mentioned building God’s temple to his children and they were not interested except Solomon. Building God’s glorious church is our Ming Ding (destiny). Why had God chosen Solomon? The reason is that Solomon has the desire to build God’s temple. If Solomon’s brothers had their heart desire of building God’s temple, they would have become the king but they were not interested.

We have to understand coming to this world if our hearts desire only God’s holy temple, building His glorious Church, how can we not receive rest in our hearts? The rest in our hearts is the only solution for all our problems. There are many people who do not know and what a pity it is! The rest mentioned in the bible is not the same as what you understand the word rest and what I have figured out is closer to it.

The foundation of healing deliverance is a victorious Church

on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16: 18-19

Our Church has already the foundation of healing deliverance and is a victorious church. It is not about anointing, spiritual gifts but building a victorious Church. God wants to build His Church on the rock, the gates of Hades will not overcome it, and we claim victory over the devils. We have to understand our illnesses are related to the power of the devils. In the book of Matthew chapter 16 verses, 17 to 19 states very clearly that we will be given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, whatever binding on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. We have to remember these verses.

If we are not in the victorious Church, there will be no healing. Receiving healing is not because you have a glorious Ming Ding (destiny) but simply because you receive grace. Do not stay on the same level as you are saved because of your faith, it is time to commence walking into Ming Ding or destiny. It is extremely important to understand, Jesus had chosen 12 disciples who followed Him not because they were healed by Jesus.

The foundation of healing deliverance is building a victorious Church. When we are building a victorious Church, healing deliverance helps us to save an enormous amount of money as well as save a lot of trouble. We cannot do anything if we do not have a victorious Church. Today I am shepherding the Singaporean who was punched by someone in his chest and suffered fractured ribs for almost a month. He went to his Church and one of the brothers an orthopaedist told him that the healing will take one and a half months to recover but these are not the words from God.

When I prayed for him, his pain lessened. I told him to think when his church prayed for him, he did not recover but why when I prayed for him, he got better. When everyone heard what I said might wonder and said, “only you are capable?” This phrase, I have heard many times and if it is going to be said again, I am not bothered. What is the problem? The problem is not whether I can do it or not but most importantly that I have the will and determination to build the glorious Church. I have put my life on the line. The more I say it, my tears are flowing. Today I am telling everyone, there is nothing hindering me from building God’s glorious Church. I do not have the idea of living a nitty gritty life. I hope everyone knows that rest only comes from God’s temple.

Do not be deceived by sin and harden your heart

Let us recall what I mentioned in the beginning, first point is in the new testament the main topic is building a victorious church. The second point is “Be faithful in building God’s Church to the end”. The third point is “You shall enter rest in God’s Church” and the fourth point is Do not be deceived by sin and harden your heart.

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? Hebrews 3:16 NIV

There are many people who said that I prayed to hear God’s words. Do not forget about those Israelites who died in the wilderness and heard God’s words. We have to be clear in listening to God’s words and acting on God’s words, doing it according to his instructions is different.

So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. Hebrews 3:7-9 NIV

Brothers and sisters, you have to understand seeing many miracles are not accountable or able to hear God talking to you are not accountable. Being faithful to the end is the only way that is accountable in God’s eyes. Those who died in the wilderness are those whose hearts were deceived.

That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’

It did not mean anything if you had witnessed God’s miracles because there were many people witnessed Jesus performed many miracles. Real faith is when we see, listen to God’s words and ways following by doing it according to His words and ways.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, God is building His Church, cleaning up His house in order to make His Church into a holy Church and to manifest His Glory. God’s temple has to be built with treasures not a heap of garbage so we have to be a treasure in God’s eyes. Our life pursuit is to build a glorious Church, no matter how much we have to sacrifice and put our life on the line. We will never give up and be faithful to the end.