I wonder, who is the most powerful person that you have ever personally met? The most influential, significant, powerful person you've ever met. Do you remember how you got to meet them? As I've chewed on this question over the last few days, the most significant person I think I've gotten to meet is probably the governor of North Carolina, in terms of actually more than a handshake or more than a hi, in terms of actually getting to have about a minute or so to talk with him. That's probably the most significant person. Some of you are saying, hey, you've met me. And I would say, no, you don't count. Sorry. I got to meet him because I was an intern for one week in my last year of high school and I got to see the inner workings of the government down there. And I got to meet the governor and I got to talk to him and he asked me about where I was from and what I was wanting to do and things like that. If you're like me, you don't have a very long list of really influential people in the world that you've gotten to meet. If you go to, say, Forbes magazine, the last year's most powerful people, and they'll list maybe 50 of the most powerful people in the world, how many people on that list have you personally gotten to meet? My second question is, let's say you wanted to actually meet a person like that, like maybe the president or maybe Bill Gates or maybe Janet Yellen. How would you actually get to meet them? About 15 years ago, I was at a concert. I actually was over in England for the summer on a short-term missions assignment. And I was, at the time, a fan of the Irish tenors who were really popular. And I was trying to see if I could get to a concert of theirs in Ireland. And interestingly, while I was over there, they were all performing in America. And I got two front row seats to a concert of John McDermott. John McDermott was one of the Irish tenors. Some of you may know him. Some of you may not. And you say, this guy's not popular at all. That's fine. I got two front row seats to a concert he was doing about two hours from my home in Pennsylvania, and I asked my younger brother John if he would go with me, and we went to see him. And it was a cool opportunity because it was a very local, small venue that he was singing at. It was in the auditorium of a local high school in Danville, Pennsylvania. And we went over there, saw John McDermott, and he just jetted right out to his bus. between the, you know, at the intermission and then also right at the end of the concert. And so John and I thought, man, I was hoping that we might actually just get to shake his hand, say hi to him, maybe get a signature on a CD or something like that. And so we actually walked around after the concert out the back of the school, around the back of the auditorium, and went to his tour bus. And he had a bodyguard standing at the door of his tour bus. And I walked up to him and the bodyguard looked at me and was like, what do you want to do? And I said, we were hoping to say hi to John McDermott. And he said, bug off. He said, John McDermott doesn't see anybody after concerts. OK. John and I walked out. That hasn't been like a source of remarkable bitterness throughout my life. We got over it very quickly. It's like, I guess we're not going to say hi to him. I guess we're not going to get his signature. Totally fine. And we went on with our day. It's interesting, but even in a situation like that with someone who's not particularly popular, not particularly powerful or influential, the only way you're actually going to get to meet them and to spend time with them is how? If they make a way for it to happen, if they allow a line to form after a concert and you go up and get in line and shake their hand or get a picture with them or something, the only way you're going to actually get to meet them is if they make a way. And most influential people actually have numerous walls in front of them to keep a lot of people out because, frankly, they just can't talk with all the people that want to talk with them. And I understand. I'm not trying to say that's necessarily bad. However, what we are reading today should stand in stark contrast to the scenario that I just painted. It should stand in stark contrast because what we're reading today is that the most powerful being in the universe, the creator himself, He has been purposing, even for centuries prior to the point of reading today, He has been purposing to make a way for people, people who cannot approach Him because of our problems, our sin. He has been making a way for us to approach Him, for us to know Him, for us to draw near to Him. Ever since Adam was kicked out of Eden, God has had a plan in place for bringing sinners back into a permanent relationship with Him. And as far as the Old Testament goes, there is no greater height in that pursuit, in God's pursuit of bringing us back into His presence than Solomon's Temple. As far as the Old Testament goes, this is the most permanent, the most noteworthy, the most internationally famous way, internationally known way that people could approach God. And what we're going to do is we are going to read just highlights, like I've done the last few weeks, we're going to read highlights of these five chapters. We're going to pray and then unpack them for their significance to us. So let's just begin looking at chapter five. I just want to give a quick overview. The account of Solomon's temple here begins in chapter 5 with Solomon asking a king of Tyre, a king in Lebanon, that's just north of Israel. He's asking this king if he would provide wood, cedar wood, for the temple. And apparently, we'll find out later on in the chapters, that he's also doing a lot of other building projects while this one's going on. Tyre, like I mentioned, is a city in Lebanon. It's just, if you're at the Sea of Galilee, like in the city of Capernaum, it's just 30 miles northwest of Capernaum. So it's very close to Israel. It would have been the kingdom just north of Solomon's. And actually Hiram, this king, was subservient to Solomon so he was actually paying tribute to Solomon throughout Solomon's reign and the tribute would allow him to have traffic in Israel and he could do trade in Israel things like that. Well Solomon though he could have just demanded that Hiram give him the wood, he actually set up a payment system and Solomon paid him with food for his court, and it actually shows that Solomon was interested in very healthy diplomatic relationships, not doing something that if Solomon's power were diminished, you know, this king would try to rise up and take over. Solomon sent, he employed during this phase of building the temple, the end of chapter 5 tells us, he employed teams of 10,000 men who would go in three shifts, each shift one month long, up to Lebanon and work with Hiram's guys. And then there were also about 150,000 foreign slaves who were involved in all these building projects that Solomon was doing. And this lasted for at least 20 years. The amount of workers is staggering. For about every 50 workers, there was one overseer, one manager over 50 workers. And they would, of course, then report to their superiors. So in chapter 5, you kind of get the idea of how this whole building system is working. And verse 12 actually says that the way Solomon did it evidenced wisdom. It's coming out of last week where we saw Solomon's wisdom coming into this week. The way he's focused on the temple is evidencing that wisdom. Chapter 6 then opens with these words. I'll read the first two verses. In the 480th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, the fourth year of his reign, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. That's right around this time of year. The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. A cubit is about 18 inches. It's the length from your elbow to the tip of your finger, about 18 inches. And so this building, interestingly, was about the size of our building. In terms of the floor plan along this way, it's about exactly what our building is. Now, the interior room, the most significant room, was the most holy place. And interestingly, that was like a 30 foot by 30 foot by 30 foot cube. which is basically, this ceiling is 29'6", so it's basically this ceiling height cubed. So, out not quite to the HVAC vents, you know, about the length of the platform up here, right about back to the clock. That's the size of that most significant room in the temple. So the floor plan here is kind of similar. It's a little bit narrower and the actual finished height of the roof would have been about where the peak of our roof is. The inner room, of course, would have been smaller. But this building, it kind of has that floor plan. Verse 12 of chapter 6 says that while the frame was going up, It seems that a prophet spoke this word from the Lord to Solomon. Of course, Solomon had God meet with him in various ways and speak to him directly. This seems to be indirect, which means through a prophet. Verse 12 says, chapter 6, Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you which I spoke to David your father. I will dwell among the children of Israel. I will not forsake my people. So God's blessing on this house that Solomon is in the process of building is contingent on him and the kings who follow him obeying the Lord and walking according to the law. The rest of the chapter then describes the finishing of the structure of the temple. I just have to describe one feature of the main room there, the holiest place, or the holy of holies is the way the Hebrew words it, the inner sanctuary. I said it was like a 30 foot by 30 foot cube, of course all of the walls were cedar wood and then overlaid with gold. Floor was gold, ceiling was gold. There were two massive statues of angels, of two angels in that room. They were right in the center of the room. And their wings were each 15 feet, tip to tip. So one wing touched this wall and came directly to the center of the room. The other angel's wings went out this way. And of course, their wings met in the middle, right underneath their wings. is where the Ark of the Covenant sat. The actual covenant, the contract between God and his people, which had been given 500 years earlier in Moses' time, 480 years earlier in Moses' time, the actual covenant sat in that box, in the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ark looked like a throne. The most remarkable thing about the Ark and about that room is there was no image of God. God is invisible. His people were forbidden from trying to make any image that seemed to communicate what His glory was. The throne looked empty. It was not empty. It was communicating that the God who sits on that throne is invisible. And in fact, this whole temple thing, it's just a symbol. Because the invisible God, He can't fit into this little space. Not even the whole universe can contain Him. He is bigger than any created space can contain. That's what Solomon's going to pray. That holiest room of all was a symbol of the very presence of God, and as we studied this morning, the hour before, the priest entered that room one time a year to make sacrifice for the sins of the people. One other interesting detail that I'll mention that chapter 6 and 7 bring up is that all of the walls of the temple were carved. They had like relief carvings in them. And the relief carvings were of palm trees, and lilies, they're called open flowers in our translation, but lilies. There were angels carved into the walls. There were different kinds of fruit carved into the walls. What those sculptures were communicating is, this is where you meet with God in the garden. It was to bring up imagery of the Garden of Eden that man had been kicked out of because of his sin. Man used to enjoy fellowship with God unhindered, but as soon as he disobeyed and his nature turned rebellious toward God, there was no way for him to approach God. And here, when you came into the temple, here was the place where you could once again walk in fellowship with God. And of course, it was through the main activity of the temple, which was sacrifice, blood sacrifice, foreshadowing Christ. The temple took seven and a half years to build, but we get an interruption in chapter 7. An interruption. This is the first verse of chapter 7. Solomon was building his own house 13 years. And the next statement isn't translated, I think, as forcefully as it's meant. I'm going to give you the sense of it. The next phrase actually says, and he actually worked on his own house until it was completely finished, unlike the temple. We get this interruption because it appears that after about seven years, Solomon stopped the temple construction and actually then started working on his own palace complex. And what we get at the end of chapter 7 with all of the temple furnishings, he didn't actually do that until his house was completely done. So he goes seven years, takes a break, builds his own temple complex, completely finishes it, and then finishes the temple with all of its furniture. As Ian Proven calls it, it was like the temple was just an empty shell sitting there for 13 years until Solomon completed his own house. Now, his own house was remarkable. It was bigger than the temple, much bigger. It seems to have been a four-building complex. There was a treasury building, a justice building, and then there was a his and hers palace. The hers palace was for the daughter of the pharaoh of Egypt that Solomon had married. And apparently, Solomon was making a political move, giving her her own space because she had not converted to Judaism. So what you're getting in chapter 7 is a look at the other side of Solomon's glory. He is glorious in what he's trying to do for the Lord, but his heart is very divided. At the end of the chapter, of course, you get the furnishings of the temple. We're not going to go through them each individually. The most remarkable ones are the two bronze columns that were made. These were massive columns, two columns that sat out in front. They were actually named Established and Strength. Those were the names given to the columns to say, God's faithfulness toward his people because of his covenant with them is rock-solid. And those two columns were symbolizing the strength of God in keeping his covenant. And then of course there was a massive, they called it the Sea of Bronze, the Bronze Sea, S-E-A, because it was a 10,000-gallon pool. This is bigger than, you know, church bells. The bronze, the metallurgy that must have gone into it, the craftsmanship was of a high skill indeed. So these are some of the pieces of furniture that ended up going into this temple. Chapter 8 then, as Tavis read for us, is Solomon's dedication ceremony where he prays for God's blessing to be on this temple. The chapter begins with all of the furnishings being brought in, including everything that had been in the traveling tabernacle, as well as the Ark of the Covenant itself being brought from Gibeon and set into the most holy place. These things come in, and as soon as the Ark gets established and the men leave, a dark cloud came over the temple, and the men actually had to leave, the priests had to leave the temple. Because they couldn't do their work the dark cloud overshadowed it and again it was a symbol that God was giving the people that I am dwelling here and Again God's gonna come in chapter 9 and and affirm that with his words to Solomon his second appearance to Solomon and Solomon's life He's gonna say yes. I have heard and answered your prayer That's coming in chapter 9, but here in chapter 8 as as Tavis read I'm just gonna summarize it with one phrase Solomon says seven times over God You do not actually dwell here, but your reputation is at stake in this house. So when anyone prays to you looking toward this house, no matter what situation they're in, no matter what sin you've committed, when they pray to you and they confess their sin, will you hear? Will you answer? Will you forgive? Will you restore us? And his prayer actually ends anticipating the exile, when your people actually get kicked out of Jerusalem because of their sin. And they look toward this place from a foreign country, just like Daniel did. When they pray toward Jerusalem, will you hear? Will you forgive? Will you restore? Solomon prays that same thing over and over and over. And then he holds a week-long feast with all the people present. In the last line of chapter 8, verse 66 says, So all the people returned after this dedication ceremony, joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people. He has been faithful. Chapter 9 then, like I said, opens with God saying, Solomon, I heard your prayer. I will answer it. And the final words of God to Solomon are ominous. Look at chapter 9, verse 6. God says to Solomon, if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I've set before you, but you go and serve other gods and worship them, then I'll cut off Israel from the land that I've given them. The house that I've consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight. And Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. In other words, this temple structure, don't think that there is anything special about the building. God is much more concerned about the obedience of the people who profess to be worshiping in that building than the actual glory of the building itself. Verse 8 says, and this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished. They'll hiss in ridicule. They'll say, why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house? And the answer will be, because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods. They worshipped and served them. That's why the Lord has brought all this disaster on them. We've just finished doing a quick overview of almost five chapters, and these are really long chapters. It goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway, an overview is no substitute for reading the scriptures. What I'm doing here is taking a unit of the scripture that all focuses on Solomon's Temple, I'm taking one unit of material about Solomon's Temple, and we are driving at the heart of it, at the main point, and working out the major applications for us. There's so much more here than I have time to actually work out in detail. So much more here. I actually told Greg last night, I said, can you please pray that I would be able to cut out more material from my sermon?" And he said, yeah, if you had put that in the Churchwide email, I guarantee you everyone would be praying for you. Just so you know, the sermon is shorter this morning than it was last night. I have been able to cut out material, but I am trying to give it to us in the most helpful way that I know how. There's tons more here, and an overview is no substitute for actually reading it. Let's pray, and I'm going to go right at the main point. Father, I thank you for graciously making a way for us to draw near to you. We read about this way through Solomon's temple, knowing that it was all the while pointing to Jesus. And we praise you for your grace in Christ. Right now, as we study your word, I pray that we would worship you, that we would submit ourselves to it, whatever we find here. In Jesus' name, amen. What we're reading here is the high point. It's the high point of the Old Testament. God had made promises to Abraham 1,000 years before. And he had said, Abraham, I'm going to make your descendants innumerable. I'm going to make a nation out of you. In fact, I'm going to make nations out of you. And I am going to take your children, and I'm going to give them a land. And I'm going to be their God, and they are going to be my people. And in them, in your offspring, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. Those promises at this point, in Solomon's day, those promises are a thousand years old. Then, 500 years later, Abraham's descendants, like God had promised, are a million strong. And he carries them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He enters into a covenant relationship with them. That's what's in the Ark of the Covenant that's inside this temple. The most sacred part of the temple is that throne. And inside it is the Ark of the Covenant. It's actually bearing the covenant. that God has made with his people. That happened 500 years before. Then in the next generation, Joshua takes the people into the land, and you find out for centuries, these people need a king. And God makes a promise to Solomon's father, David, saying, it's your dynasty through which I'm going to send a king. That king is going to reign forever. He's going to be the king of all kings on earth. And we find out through that covenant that God makes with Solomon's dad, we find out that that is the one, that long-awaited king, that long-awaited descendant is the one through whom all the world is going to be blessed. And when we get to this point in Scripture, Solomon is the one whom God is giving wisdom. God is giving him a reign that is greater than any before him. Israel's borders are extending. He's becoming internationally famous, as we'll see next week. It seems that this might be the one. This is the high point. It looks like all those promises are being fulfilled. Von Roberts says, it's the pinnacle of the Old Testament. It looks like all the promises that God made to Abraham, Moses, and David are going to be fulfilled. God's kingdom has come on earth and it's just going to expand. That's where we're at right now. Throughout this passage, the wisdom that God gave to Solomon is now evident in his desire to make God's name famous. The actual phrase, my name, or the name of the Lord, or your name, it appears almost 20 times in these couple chapters. Solomon is doing this for God's name. And we might actually put in there, for his fame, or for his reputation. What we see is, last week, God gave Solomon wisdom. This week, that wisdom is being used to make God's name famous. That's the main point. Wisdom is evident in a life that's passionate about God's fame. Wisdom is evident in a life that is passionate about God's reputation. And I want to point out three ways, real quickly, three ways that we demonstrate God-given wisdom, just like Solomon, in seeking to make God's reputation known, in seeking to make our God famous. So first one is this, and it's from the first two chapters, chapters 5 and 6. Focus your life on skillfully building God's temple. Focus your life on skillfully building God's temple. Solomon's wisdom was evident in building God's temple. God's reputation was at stake in what happened at that building. This temple, just like the tabernacle for 480 years before it, it was the way through which sinners approached God in the Old Testament. That doesn't mean that Israelites couldn't pray at their home, as if their prayers weren't heard. But if they prayed, they had to pray toward the tabernacle, toward the temple. Because worship of God, and even prayers that God would hear and accept, it had to be understood that they were heard and accepted only through the sacrifices that took place at that temple. All of which were, of course, picturing Jesus, right? The temple and all of its priests who were serving there were preparing us for Jesus, our great high priest, who would offer himself as the once for all sacrifice. So there was a tabernacle and then a temple, and they're all foreshadowing Jesus. When Jesus comes, the priesthood, the temple, the sacrifices, they're obsolete. No need for a temple anymore. That's why Jesus could tell the woman at the well, a day is coming and is actually now here, when it won't matter whether you worship here or there. Because those who worship the Father will worship Him through me, through the truth about me, my death and resurrection. Jesus is actually the temple through which we approach God. And one more step, and I'm going to apply it, one more step, When we come to God through Christ, we actually are made into a temple. In Christ, we are the temple. And we actually offer God's sacrifices of thanksgiving. We offer to God ourselves. Because Jesus has changed our hearts. We say, God, here I am. Use me however you want. And God calls us. to be active in edifying each other. The word edify is a building term. We are called to build each other up. And Paul is actually going to say, be very careful how you build. He says, by all means edify. That's why the Holy Spirit gives us each gifts, but be very careful how you build. So the idea is skillfully build God's temple. As you read about Solomon's careful preparations for the temple, and then his building it in such a glorious and ornate way, you should say, how am I seeking to edify God's temple, the church? Am I a skillful, wise builder? How am I using the gifts that God's given me for His temple? How am I using them? How am I sharpening my gifts? These are the questions we should ask. As you look at Solomon and you look at the elaborate and detailed construction process he went through. Think about the gold. One of the things I think all of us should come away from is in terms of giving ourselves to the Lord and giving ourselves to building up the Lord's temple, let's be sure that we don't give Him the leftovers. Let's give God the first of our time, the best of our energy. Let's try to give Him the best that we have. When you think about the gold in that temple, let it remind you, I am to build God's temple by not giving Him the leftovers, but giving Him the best that I can. It should be inspiring to us. Second point, never let your priorities in life shift away from God's temple. This is what we learned from chapter seven. Never let your priorities in life shift away from God's temple. As I said in the first two chapters, it is clear that God's blessing is on Solomon. God is giving him wisdom and he's using that wisdom to skillfully build the temple. But in chapter seven, We see that he interrupted the temple project for the construction of his own palace complex, which took much longer, twice as long, and it was much larger. He didn't finish the temple until his own house was finished. And the message for us here is this. Our wisdom actually stops when our focus in life and our passion in life shift from advancing God's name, advancing the gospel, advancing the message about who Jesus is and why it matters. Let me be clear, there was nothing wrong in Solomon building himself a palace. He was the king, it was fine. Nothing wrong for him in building a justice hall. They needed that, the kingdom needed that, that was a good next step. The issue was his priorities shifted, his focus shifted, his balance shifted. And the message for us is pretty clear. I can't tell you where your line is, where you've crossed and your priorities are wrong or your balance is off. I don't know where that is for you. But you should ask yourself, is my passion in life, is my mission in life to make God's name famous? And is that why I'm working at home? Is that why I'm doing my work? Is that why I'm building these relationships? Or has my mission in life and my priorities in life and my balance in life, has it slowly shifted to my own comforts, my own priorities, making my own name great, making my own mark? Do you need a refocus today? Solomon certainly needed a refocus in chapter 7. Just before I move on to the last point, let me say this. Solomon got 11 chapters. 1 Kings 1 to 1 Kings 11. He gets 11 chapters. And what are the chapters about? Chapter 3 is all about Solomon's prayer for wisdom, his exemplary prayer before God, evidencing his humility. It's about his prayer life. Five chapters focus on this temple that he's building to make God's name famous. And two chapters, which we're going to get to in a few weeks, focus on his disobedience. So when God looks back on Solomon's life and writes Solomon's biography, look at the details, look at the attention, look at the balance of material. Even this four building, you know, four structure palace complex gets like 10, 20 verses. Is that instructive to you? I think that's actually a helpful picture for me to major on the majors, right? The things that really count in life are the things that we do for the Lord to make His name great. Is that why you're doing your work? Is that how you're trying to orient your budget? Please do not hear me saying that what you're doing at work and home don't matter. That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying, are you doing it for the Lord? Are you doing it to make His name great? Or has your focus shifted? When God looks back on your life and my life, And he actually writes our biography in 11 chapters. He's going to focus on what we've done for him. He's going to focus on our obedience or our disobedience. He's going to focus on, did we trust him in times of trial? How wholehearted was our devotion? These kinds of things. This is why we've been saved. for devotion to the Lord, for offering Him sacrifices of praise and thanks and ourselves and our time. This is why we've been saved. And these are the things that matter. A little plaque that I saw pretty regularly in my home when I was growing up. A little phrase, powerful. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Are you living? Are you sleeping? Are you recharging yourself? Are you working? Are you raising kids for Christ? These are healthy, healthy questions to ask ourselves. The second point was never let your priorities shift away from God's temple. Third and finally, always expect God's grace when you pray toward His temple. Always expect God's grace when you pray toward His temple. I think this is the central message of chapter 8. One man, Don Wiseman, points out that Solomon began this prayer kind of like Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. He began it with a reminder of God's incomparability, his trustworthiness, and his transcendence. Solomon says, this temple could never contain you, Lord. He reminds himself of the greatness and the trustworthiness, the faithfulness of his God before making his requests. What an example for us. Solomon reminds us when he says, God, this place could never contain you. He reminds us that this wasn't a place for God manipulation. And too often that's how we think about praying, right? We're going to get God to do what we want. And this temple was the farthest thing from God manipulation, even though Israelites eventually came to think that. You know, we sing a few songs, we offer a few sacrifices, and we get God to do what we want God to do. No, that's not what's going on. Prayer begins with a focus on God's transcendence, his incomparability, his greatness, and his trustworthiness. But the way this prayer proceeds in terms of the request is Solomon assumes that he and the people are going to sin. He actually says there's no one on earth who doesn't sin. And that doesn't mean no big deal. It means we need a way to be forgiven. And he prays seven times over, God will you restore us after we fail. And one commentary says that the way chapter 8 ends is that grace will have the last word. Even when we've sinned and you've disciplined us by kicking us out, even when we're in that foreign land because we're under your disciplinary judgment, When we pray and we repent, we confess our sins. Will you hear? Will you forgive? And the stamp of chapter 9 is yes, God says to Solomon when he appears to him. The last word is grace. Non-Christian. If you are here this morning and you say, you know what, I'm not a committed follower of Jesus. I know about religion, I know about Jesus, but I wouldn't call myself, you know, one of those all-out followers, you know. I'm talking to you right now. I'm thrilled that you're here. I'm thrilled that you're listening. Do you realize that God will forgive anyone who approaches Him through the temple? I said in the first point, this temple was just foreshadowing something that's already come about in history, and that is the death and resurrection of Jesus. Do you know that if you say, God, I read what your word says about the sacrifice of Jesus, I read that He paid for my sin and then you raised Him from the dead to prove that you accepted the payment in full. Jesus is the one that I need. I need His blood to cover me, to pay for my sins, to deal with my punishment. If you will come to God looking toward Jesus, just like the Old Testament folks looked toward the temple, If you will look to Jesus, trusting Him, it doesn't matter how far you have fallen. It doesn't matter what kind of miserable situation you've gotten yourself into. Grace is going to have the last word if you pray to God repentantly through Jesus. If you say, forgive me, oh Jesus, I believe in your sacrifice. I believe in your resurrection. You're my only hope. God will, just like He did with Solomon, He will put His stamp and say, I have heard, I will answer, I will restore. Have you put your faith in Jesus? This chapter 8 should remind us that anyone who prays to God for forgiveness, looking toward Jesus, will be forgiven. Christian, the assurance to you is actually the same. How badly have you sinned since you've been saved? How many times have you blown it as God's child? Grace is going to have the last word. Grace is going to have the last word. Your life will not end in failure. Your life is actually going to end in a relationship with God where you will forever testify to His grace. Your life is going to stand as an eternal testimony. Your life itself is going to preach a message. God was gracious to me. God was gracious to me. We have on the front page of our website. We are great sinners, but Christ is a great Savior. My whole life, for the rest of eternity, is going to be communicating those two things. I'm a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior. And that is true all throughout my life. Do not ever believe the lie that your failure is final. That is a lie. You are never so low that Jesus can't restore and cleanse and change you and make you new. You are never beyond the reach of God's grace. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, you are never, ever beyond God's ability to cleanse and forgive you. Because of Jesus' mighty resurrection, you're never, ever, ever beyond the reach of God's power to make you new. He can make dead things live. You're never beyond the reach of God's grace. And I preach that same message to believers and to those who don't believe. Just like Solomon said, no matter what situation we find ourselves in, if we pray toward this temple, will you hear us? Will you forgive us? Will you cleanse us? Will you restore us? And God says, yes, I will. Well, that temple was picturing something much, much greater. The work of the Lord Jesus. And if you approach God with faith in Jesus, His answer is, yes, I will hear. Yes, I will cleanse. Yes, I will forgive. Yes, I will restore. Interestingly, the way the ceremony ended was with a feast. The last verse, like I pointed out of chapter 8, says, the people went home in great joy after they had feasted together. So what we're going to do, ending today, we're going to end with a celebratory feast. We're going to remember the once-for-all sacrifice that Jesus made that rendered the need for this temple obsolete. Jesus' sacrifice of himself has paid for our sins. We are forgiven and cleansed through him. And we now rejoice in this feast of celebration, and I trust that every believer in Christ, no matter where you're at today, will walk out of here with great joy.