Make Way for the Broken
Restoring the Temple • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewIt is our responsibility to make a way for the prodigals to come home.
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Transcript
They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the brook Kidron.
And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord.
They took their accustomed posts according to the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites.
For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to consecrate it to the Lord.
For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone
who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.”
PRAY
As the ministers begin to arrive or return home there is more work to be done…
the church body needs the people who are called to serve
There is a need to ready more workers to send them out
Those being sent will endure some of the hardships you have
The work set before us now is to contend for all “those” people who the church has treated as “those” people
Drugs, Sex, Sexuality, Broken, misfits, has been, mental disorder,
These will put those who have ignored the command of the Lord for too long to shame
That is why you have been processed this way. This is why its been so hard… you no longer hold a “those” people mentality
It is our responsibility to make a way for the prodigals to come home.
It is our responsibility to make a way for the prodigals to come home.
Purposely Hidden
Purposely Hidden
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.
And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.
Recap- David had faced severe persecution to this point.
it wasnt those who were “ready” “the most qualified” or “next in line”
The distressed, the indebted, the bitter in soul, gathered to him
it was the outcast, the misfit, the oddball
It took this process to make David commander of an army of people who had been thrown away
We are reminded consistently when everyone is looking on the outside God is looking into the heart of the person.
just as David forges a path for the wayward it is now our responsibility to forge a path for the prodigal
Messengers Sent to Gather
Messengers Sent to Gather
So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.
They are sent forth from those arriving
They are sent with authority
They are sent with a purpose
Cause the people to return
Today there are many who are departing the captivity that once held them… it is up to us to go and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ that they would turn away from the captor and turn to the Lord.
Commands
Do not be like your Fathers
faithless to the Lord God
Do not be stiff necked as your fathers
yield yourself to the Lord
come to His sanctuary ( it has been consecrated forver)
serve the Lord your God
In doing as He commands
His fierce anger will turn away from you
Promise for the one being gathered
Promise for the one being gathered
For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”
If-then promises: we have the honor of being able to stand in the gap for
family, friends, city are at stake
Remember how I mentioned last series… what you do and what you decide impacts everyone around you
You went through it, they are going to go through it
You went through it, they are going to go through it
So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.
Laughed at them- made jokes about them;
To scorn- made to feel worthless;
mocked- “oooh turn to God… AnD He WiLl hEaL YoU”
…not the unsaved this is being done by the ones that should be building the altar of worship
many of you have gone through this but it was only to ready you to stand strong for the prodigal
v.15 the prodigals will put to shame the priests and levites who should have been doing the work…
they will cause them to return to the work they were assigned
Fighting for the Lost to Come Home
Fighting for the Lost to Come Home
Pay close attention to Hezekiah’s Prayer
2 Chronicles 30:18–19 (ESV)
… For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.”
this people that are arriving are not “church people” they are not you “model citizens” they dont even know how to properly be Christian
The church has spent way too many years condemning the:
in debt, distressed, bitter in soul
The shifting ground is that we are to care for these not condemn them
Then the suddenly occurs
And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
Why He has chosen you to intercede; why He has chosen you to pray for; why He has to fight for His people
There is an honor that is to be as you fight for “those” people as they will cause the priests to finally turn away from being faithless to Him and to finally render right worship to the living God
Minister to heart of the David’s and Hezekiah’s in the room
Minister to the prodigals in the room