Here we look at the events that led to the presence of God being restored.

<p>Here we look at the events that led to the presence of God being restored.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Stanborough Park SDA Church

Restore the Glory!

Dan Augsburger

1. Restore the Glory- Overview

You are about to listen to the first part of a multi-part series of presentations made in the Stansborough Park Church in Watford, England, that's a suburb north of London, on the construction and the dedication of the Temple of Solomon.

The presentation you're about to hear is an overview where I discuss the comparisons between the 4 temples that are mentioned in the Bible, The first 1 being the tabernacle constructed by Moses in the wilderness.

The third 1 being the second temple built after the exile.

And finally, what I refer to as the Temple of our Heart.

There's of course another temple, that is the temple up in heaven in the heavenly sanctuary, but we do not discuss that in this particular presentation.

But anyway, this is where I give an overview of the entire series.

It was given for the Sabbath morning service at 11 o'clock, again at the Stanbro Park Seventh Day Adventist Church in Watford, England.

I wanted to underscore our willingness to pray and to encourage you to come out this week to pray.

It is not sufficiently exercised in our day.

I remember when I was in India a few years ago speaking at meetings the pastor announced without even asking me, to the members that I would be praying at 6 o'clock in the morning with the members.

I was willing to comply and they came out.

And I remember 1 morning a young girl came, an Adventist teenager with her Hindu friend.

They explained to me that she was failing in school because she was Hindu and still had the marks of being a Hindu.

If God put it on her heart, the least I could do was to pray for her.

And she came back that evening saying, something has happened, something has changed in my life.

I don't think she understood that much because as a Hindu, her world view and her understanding of the Bible is so different from ours, she couldn't have possibly really understood much.

But she began writing me and asking if I would pray and I encouraged other young people in India to pray for her.

And she began passing those examinations and she passed her school where before she had been failing so badly she was staying in her room out of embarrassment over her grades.

Bangalore is a city of about 10 million people.

I was in New York City last week and they said that's a city of around 10 million.

I don't know if that's true or not, but if so, Bangalore is a very big city.

I was at the Spencer Road Hospital Church, and there in that church, I mean in that hospital, I was to have met someone for lunch.

They didn't show up, so another employee took me to a Chinese restaurant quite late, and we had a leisure meal without any thought of some kind of agenda.

Finally, we left and I went back to the hospital where I was to meet with people.

That evening, I was able to talk with this young woman.

And she said, Uncle, Uncle, you wouldn't believe it.

Today, when I was coming down the road in an auto rickshaw, that's those little three-wheeled tricycle kinds of things that they use in India, she said, I saw you come out of a restaurant and I knew you were in Bangalore.

We're in a city of some like 10 million people and at the same moment that I'm coming out of the restaurant she's there and she recognized that it was something larger than just coincidental.

I met with her the next day and she said, she said Dan, she said not only that I passed examinations but I'm in a really good school now and I'm not the best student in class, but I'm the second best student in class and my dream now is to get a PhD in nutrition.

And she says, it's because you are willing to pray for me.

Now, it's not my prayers that made the difference, it's what God did.

But God will honor his people when we're willing to ask him.

And I'd like to suggest this morning that all of you can do far more in simple ways to touch the lives of people around you than you could possibly imagine.

It reminds me of a story of a famous Scottish revivalist, a man by the name of Duncan Campbell.

Maybe some of you have read of Duncan Campbell.

He was holding revival meetings, I'm guessing this would have been in the New Hebrides, and he visited a home where they had just installed electricity.

And the lady very proudly showed him to her home.

He could see the wires, she showed him the appliances that were there.

This is, you know, in the early days of electricity, at least when it came to the islands.

She was able to show him where the wires came through, etc., the appliances and also the manuals.

He expected a demonstration, but she explained to him that something had happened, that during the night, a ship's anchor had caught the wire, broken the wire, so that though the house was perfectly wired and everything was prepared, there was no electricity.

And he said, in contemplating this, It reminded him of what happens too often in the church.

We have all the accoutrements of spirituality.

We have the buildings, we have the microphones, the cameras, the instruments of music, we have the members, and we have manuals galore.

It's true everywhere and that is the life of Jesus manifesting itself in a real way in our hearts and in our lives.

Well Rose and I are here this week not to amuse ourselves or to impress you, just to be faithful servants of the Lord Jesus.

And when you come next week, we're going to be spending time learning about how God wants to bring blessing into our lives.

We're also going to be taking time to pray.

And I pray the Lord that you will come because I believe it can be a life-changing experience.

Not because I'm so clever, but because as we seek the Lord together, more promises, More power has been promised.

I know this is a long introduction, but I really hope you will come.

We're going to learn, as I said, about these 4 temples.

I've never really quite thought of it that way, But in the Bible, when the children of Israel crossed the wilderness, Moses was instructed to build a tabernacle, right?

Later, Solomon is asked by his father David to build a temple, which is amazing.

Then after that had been destroyed due to the wandering and the backsliding of the people, they built a second temple and it wasn't quite as pretty as that 1 of Solomon's and some people cried over it.

They were not real thrilled about what was happening.

But it's interesting that Haggai told them that actually this temple is more beautiful than the last because it would also have a greatness about it.

But then that 1 was also sadly destroyed, right?

And Jesus came and on the day of Pentecost a new temple, so to speak, was constructed and that was the temple of the heart.

And I believe Jesus said greater works than these, that when the Holy Spirit is really resident in our hearts like he wants to, there will be a miracle working power in our lives that even the press and the neighbors will know about.

Someone said that until our neighbors know that there's something supernatural about our lives that they're not going to be very interested.

They're going to say, well you have your hobby, we have our hobby, we are as good as you.

Unless they see there's something of God in us, we should not expect them to be interested.

My favorite quotation on church growth goes something like this, when people see that God is with us, then a multitude, none of our faith, will join us in serving the Redeemer.

And I say this respectfully without throwing stones, but I believe the issue is not buildings.

I don't believe the issue is advertising.

It is the presence of God in our midst that is the problem today with the dwindling attendance in our churches.

That's true everywhere I've been in the world.

And it's true, by the way, in my life, too.

So I want to talk with you a little bit about these 4 temples just to examine some facts, because I think they will speak to you about what the new church is all about.

Without Jesus, that sanctuary is just like the woman who had the nice house with the wiring and the lights and the appliances and the manuals.

Looked good, but that which it was all about was lacking well in Exodus 25 verse 8 if you want to look that up we're gonna look at some Bible verses and sometimes I'll just tell you what they say but this is a key text on what your new sanctuary will be about Exodus 25 verse 8 it says And let them make me a sanctuary.

God wants to dwell among us And that was the purpose of the temples that were constructed so God could be there in the midst of his people.

In another verse, God told Moses, there I will meet with the children.

I will be their God." And when you come to church, it's not just to hear the pastor, it's especially to meet with God.

When you've come this morning, have you come prepared to really meet God?

I mean you're around your friends, you know you're seeing the service, but if Jesus were to come, how would it be?

2. Chosen and Blessed to Restore the Glory

You are about to hear 1 of a multi-part series on the dedication of Solomon's Temple, entitled Restore the Glory, by myself, Dan Augsburger.

I shared these presentations in the fall of 2015 in the Stanbro Park SDA Church in Watford, England, which is a northern suburb of London.

In this series we look at the construction and the dedication of Solomon's Temple.

In doing so, however, we compare the building and construction of that temple with the prior construction and dedication of the first tabernacle in the wilderness, and the subsequent construction and dedication of the second temple, which was constructed after the exile.

We will also look at the construction and the dedication of the temple of our hearts.

I believe you will learn much from these presentations and will be blessed.

I hope you'll be able to hear all of them.

They can be found at my website DiscipleHeart.com.

If you have further questions or want to communicate with me for some other reason, you can write me at PathToPrayer, P-A-T-H, number 2 prayer, PathToPrayer at gmail, G-M-A-I-L, gmail.com, you can write me at path to prayer, P-A-T-H, number 2 prayer, path to prayer, at gmail, G-M-A-I-L, gmail.com, path to prayer at gmail.com.

I appreciate your taking the time to listen, and I pray that you will be blessed.

I appreciate all of you coming out this evening.

Was everyone there on Sabbath or there's some newcomers?

Cause I gave a fairly detailed overview of what we're studying it, but I'll just give you just a little hint and then I have a story to begin.

But we're actually looking this week at the construction and the dedication of Solomon's temple.

But we're doing it through the filter of the construction of the first tabernacle, Solomon's temple, the second temple that was built after the exile, and also the temple of our hearts.

Because they're all connected, they're all connected, and they're fascinating lessons to learn when you look how things kind of progressed through all of that.

And so as we're studying, keep those 4 places that God wants to represent himself.

When I speak of the temple of our hearts, we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And so what God did through the tabernacle in Solomon's temple and the temple after the exile, he wants to do in our hearts, okay?

And I would add that this is all somewhat related to moving into your new sanctuary.

And those temples were built so that God could dwell amongst his people.

And when you come to church, it's not just hear music and good sermons, but it's to experience the presence of God.

And so when you do worship, what is worship about?

Actually, when you worship in a church, it's an audience of 1.

And so we're going to try and look through the progression of the building of the temples, what God wants to do in us and in our church, okay?

Let me say a word of prayer, then I wanna share a story.

Father in heaven, it is a privilege to be here this evening.

I thank you for each person that has come out.

I Ask, Father, that you would give me freedom, give me the unction of the Holy Spirit, help me to speak in such a way that my accent will not get in the way of people understanding, and that, Father, the Holy Spirit would be doing the work here for me and for them.

I'm not praying for my success at all, I'm praying for your success and the success of this church.

I want to tell you folks about a missionary by the name of John Patton.

John Patton was a missionary that was born in 1824 and he was a missionary to what was then known as the New Hebrides Islands.

It's a series of islands in the South Pacific.

And I share this story because we see in John Patton a picture of a family who raised their children to know God by way of the example of their parents, children who were raised to believe that God had a purpose for their lives, and when he became old enough, he went to serve in spite of the tremendous dangers that he would be facing.

As I said, he was born in 1824, he was from Scotland, and he went to the New Hebrides Islands.

The New Hebrides Islands at that time was populated by cannibals and much of his mission service would be spent being chased by natives with muskets and knives and other things.

He was in constant danger, but he believed that he'd been called.

He had been chosen to serve God there, and therefore he went willingly.

He was raised 1 of 5 sons and 6 daughters in a humble three-room house.

From the age of 12 he began working 14 hours a day, I believe it was.

And there, he would still take several hours a day to study and to learn.

But there was something very significant about the family.

3 times a day when they would eat, the father would go to his prayer closet and there he would pray and the whole family could hear his prayers.

I'm not saying that's the way we should pray in our prayer closet, but the whole family could hear his prayers and they said it was as if they'd been ushered into the presence of God.

There was no question that God existed in that family.

They knew because of the prayers and the example of the family.

So eventually he heard the call to go and serve overseas.

Other people told him, you shouldn't be going, that's such a dangerous place.

When he asked his parents, he discovered that the father had made a decision when the children were younger.

The father had said, since I am not able to go into ministry, I choose to consecrate all of my children, all of my boys rather, to go into ministry.

So he learned that already the parents had given him and the parents said, it's not for us to decide, it is for you to go.

And so he went, he had gotten training at a seminary there in Scotland, and he married Marianne Robson, and 14 days later on the 16th of April, accompanied by 1 other man, they sailed to the South Pacific to the New Hebrides Islands.

They arrived on the island of Tana in the southern part of the New Hebrides on November 5, 1858, and built a small house there.

They chased them around, they made their lives difficult.

3 months after their arrival, a son, Peter, was born.

They rejoiced, but just 19 days later, his wife died.

His wife died to soon be followed to the grave by the newly born Peter who only survived for 36 days.

It's interesting that he was devastated by the loss, but he knew that he'd been called and did not feel permission to leave.

And so he stayed there, enduring much hardship.

Eventually, he left, and because of the danger and the difficulties, he went.

He married again, and he went back in 1866, not too much long after, and settled with his wife on the island of Anoa, the nearest island to Tana.

There they built themselves a house, and 2 houses for orphaned children, et cetera, and over the years they worked hard, and by the end of his life all of the natives of Anoa had become Christians.

So when he went to the first island, his wife had died, his son had died, and he's chased.

He talks about how there were times he spent entire nights in trees because he'd been told that was the only safe place and he would hear the natives shouting, but he made the following statement.

He said, without the abiding consciousness of the presence and the power of my dear Lord and Savior, nothing else could have caused me to not lose my reason and perishing miserably.

In his words, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world, those became so real to me that it would not have surprised me to see him appear 1 day and looking at me.

He says, it is a sober truth and it comes back to me sweetly after 20 years that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smiles of my blessed Lord in those dread moments when musket club and spear was being leveled to me.

Oh the bliss of living and enduring and seeing him was invisible.

There are joys that this world gives that do not compare with the joy of knowing you're living in the presence of God and serving him.

The world has fooled us, it's deceived us in thinking that there's so much joy everywhere else.

But he went, and he was grateful that he went.

He says at the end of his life, let me record my immovable conviction that this is the noblest service in which any human being can spend or be spent.

And that if God gave me back my life to be lived over again, I would, without 1 quiver of hesitation, lay it on the altar to Christ, that He might use it as before in similar ministries of love, especially among those who've never heard of the love of Jesus.

He said, if I were to do it all over again, I would want to have the same kind of life.

And he says not only that, He says, nothing that has been endured or nothing that can now befall me makes me trouble.

When Jesus makes you glad, nothing can make you sad, nothing can make you afraid.

And he says, I breathe the prayer that if it may please the blessed Lord to turn the hearts of all of my children to the mission field, that he may open up their way and make it their pride and joy to live and die in care of Jesus and his gospel.

He said, I pray that my children will go and Even if they die in the mission field, that would be fine.

Now all of you know your British history better than I do.

1 person that's famous over here is that lady by the name of Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley.

She was the last of 25, she had 19, but only 10 or 11 of them survived.

But when John and Charles come and ask permission to go to George as missionaries, by that time she was a widow, her response was, if all of my sons asked to go and I never saw them again, I would want them to go.

So as we turn to a time of prayer now, here's my suggestion for you.

3. Building For Eternity

We will also look at the construction and the dedication of the Temple of Our hearts.

They can be found at my website discipleheart.com.

If you have further questions or want to communicate with me for some other reason, You can write me at PathToPrayer, P-A-T-H, number 2 prayer, PathToPrayer at gmail, G-M-A-I-L, gmail.com, PathToPrayer at gmail.com.

I'd like to welcome all of you again this evening to our prayer meeting.

It's a privilege to come and spend time thinking about Jesus during the week.

I know some of you have traveled a distance.

I haven't uploaded last night's yet, but I'll try to get it up there as quickly as I can on my website, DiscipleHeart.com.

And if you know of others who perhaps should be coming, don't hesitate to call and invite them.

You're the early adopters, and maybe some might come because you've invited them.

Earlier there was the quotation there on the screen Speaking about how day by day we are building characters and building them for eternity.

That's an awesome thought, that what we're doing here is not just for today and tomorrow, but it's for eternity.

You know, The things that we think that were so wonderful here, they don't even begin to compare with up there.

Something that I only thought of after the meeting ended last night was Regarding the people who were involved in building those temples, all of them, or the people or individuals, all of them had been redeemed and forgiven in some way.

When you think of the children of Israel, They had been in bondage in Egypt, and God led them out of Egypt to enjoy new freedom.

It was David who wanted to build a temple for God out of gratitude.

He had made some horrible mistakes in his life, but God had forgiven him, God had restored him, and out of his love, he wanted to build this temple.

And God said, you're not allowed to build it but your son will.

The second temple was built by exiles who'd come back from captivity because they had so fallen from God that God had actually destroyed the temple, which is almost an unthinkable thought.

And when it comes to the temple of our hearts, there's not a person here who can say, I've never made a mistake, I don't know Jesus.

We're all individuals who need redemption and forgiveness.

And so We come as individuals who have lots of gratitude.

And the story I want to share with you this evening comes from a missionary that originated from the British Isles, a man that many of you have probably heard of, Hudson Taylor.

Hudson Taylor is responsible for taking Christianity to the interior of China at a time when it was very difficult.

When he arrived in China, they were having a civil war and he would go out witnessing and he would literally see people dying in front of him as he was going.

And it's interesting where today we often hesitate and say it's too dangerous.

His attitude is people are dying, I need to get out there quickly to reach as many as I can before any more die.

As a young man, he grew up in a home with a very spiritual family, but unfortunately Hudson had great difficulty coming to Jesus.

He wasn't able to really connect and give his life to Jesus.

And so he'd pretty much given up on God, but His mother 1 day decided that she was going to pray for her son 1 afternoon until he was converted.

She was going to be somewhere else, and so there where she was she began praying, begging God to convert him.

Hudson that afternoon was looking for something to do.

He wandered into his father's study and saw a tract by the name of poor Richard.

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Series

Restore the Glory!

5. Restoring the Presence

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

1. Restore the Glory- Overview

29m

2. Chosen and Blessed to Restore the Glory

38m

3. Building For Eternity

37m

4. Distractions that Diminish the Glory

43m

5. Restoring the Presence

38m

6. Restoring the Power

42m

7. Restoring Godly Relationships

40m

Sound Doctrine