take off the tie, take off the suit coat, put on the blue jeans and the knitted shirt. Now, there's nothing wrong with wearing those kinds of clothes, but there's a time and place for everything. And I've been busy my whole entire life of trying to fit into the office of the high calling that God has put upon me. You ought to pray for preachers. They have a most difficult life. where they are, who they are. Um, it's not that easy. It's not just, uh, three hours a week and it's over, you know, those kinds of things. But here's the problem I have. This is not my office. This is not my position. I didn't ask to be here. God by his power and direction in his hand put a calling upon my life that I answered after seven years. God had to do a lot of working on me and still working on me. But every preacher is supposed to be God called. If that be the case they work for him. They don't work for the people. Why are they busy trying to come down from a holy and high office to look no more than as a commoner when that was not what Moses did, that was not what the Apostle Paul did. They lived their life, they dressed their bodies to honor and glorify God, not the people. Are you there? I am put out with preachers who want their people to call them by their first name. We're buddies, we're buddies. You're the man of God first and foremost. Whether anyone likes you or not, your obligation is towards God, not to the people. People are second, God is first. Your dress, your demeanor, your actions, should depict who you are as the man of God. To sit on the platform, to stand behind the pulpit, should exhibit the dignity of the office and the high calling of God, not common as dirt. Amen, preacher, thank you. I'm sick of it. But when preachers start coming down to the level of the floor and so on, They've forgotten who they work for. They've forgotten who they are. They want to be buddies. They want to be accepted. They want to be entertainment. And it galls me that they belittled, belittled the office that God has called them to. And so many of them fail and so many of them quit because people don't like them. Bless their little heart. people reject what they do. They don't do it first class. They don't do it with earnest. They don't do it with passion. They do it, it's a job. Or they try to entertain. And I have to tell you that every one of those kinds of guys ought to just quit and go get a truck driving job and give it up and forget trying to be the buddy, the all go around good guy, called by his first name kind of fella. Just quit. Now that's my first message for the day. Open your Bibles to Psalm 22 for the second message for the day and the main one, okay? What a wonderful occasion, 34 years, 34 years, 44 years in the ministry, 34 right here at Southwest Baptist Church. I wanna talk to you this morning about the subject, and it's the time of year. Thanksgiving, what good is it? What's the purpose of it? Thanksgiving obtains the Spirit of God. Thanksgiving obtains, gets, the Spirit of God, think about it. So we're gonna be in 2 Chronicles chapter five, and I'm gonna give you Psalm 22 to begin with. In the 22nd Psalm, you find a messianic psalm. It's the psalm of Christ. It's the good shepherd psalm. He's giving his life for the sheep. The counterpart of that in the New Testament would be John chapter 10, where Jesus talks about being the good shepherd and giving his life for the sheep and so on. In the 22nd Psalm, in verse number one, you find the very words God used when he cried from the cross, remember? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me? And from the words of my roaring, well, thank God that he didn't go to Jesus' rescue because if he'd have come down off of the cross, you and I would still be in a world of hurt, would we not? He died to effect the forgiveness of our sins, to pay the penalty for as a sacrifice, a substitute on behalf of all of us. And he says, why are thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hear us not, and in the night season, and am not silent. But here's what I want you to see. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted. and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. Verse three, but thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. My goodness. If God inhabits the praises of His people, we ought to learn to praise Him more and more. Instead of coming like the prodigal son to the father and say, give me what's due me, give me what my inheritance, I want it now, and spend it foolishly, we should be praising the father for his watch care over us. Praising him for his holiness, praising him for his love and all of his goodness. But I want you to turn, I want you to turn to 2 Chronicles chapter five, one verse. and I'll pray and you can be seated. 2 Chronicles chapter 5 and we're going to be here for a little while this morning. In verse number 13, Solomon is building the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem. Solomon is putting it all together. And in verse number 13, It talks about what happened after they began to praise the Lord at the finishing and the dedication of the new temple, verse 13. For His mercy endureth forever, that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord." Even the house of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful to be here this morning, grateful that you've given us this congregation of people that are faithful and loyal to you. Lord, I pray that they continue to be so, continue to serve you, continue to love you. as I love you. I thank you for your goodness to all of us as we give thanks on this special day. We give the gift of thanksgiving and praise back unto you. And as the psalmist says in so many places that you desire the praises and the fruits of the mouths of your people more than sacrifice and offering, more than sacrifice and offering. You're our father through the new birth. who has forgiven us and who enjoys to be told that we love you, that we need you, that we long to be with you. And Father, I pray that you'd meet with us this morning and this whole day, within each one that's a born-again child, each one in their own way, I pray you give witness and manifest yourself to them in a special way. In Jesus' name, Amen. Be seated. Now I'm going to do something that I do once in a while and on occasion. I'm going to read a lot from the Bible this morning. I want you to read along with me. I'm going to be in 2 Chronicles chapter 5, but I'm also going to 1 Kings 6. They're both the same story, but but one gives a little more detail than the other. And I want you to understand what's happening. Here we have King Solomon. David was not allowed to build the house of God in Jerusalem, right? He had blood on his hands. He was a man of war, a bloody man. And God said, you can gather the material, but you cannot build my house. And he did not. But King David was responsible for gathering so much gold, so much silver, so much brass, so much diamonds, rubies, emeralds, all of those things he brought and stockpiled for the day when the house of God would be built. David put a lot of that effort into the glory of God and building the house of God in the city of Jerusalem. Solomon his son supposedly the wisest man of all time except for the hundreds of wives and concubines he had. It tells me he was not so wise after all. Amen. Those wives were from all of the nations of the world, and they eventually had to have their own temple to worship their own God in, and Solomon was weak in that area. He built temples and houses of worship for each God that his wives represented. In that, he was not very wise, and he was not very strong. But that was latter parts of his life. In the beginning he was a man after God's own heart like his father David was. But his wives and his concubines and his flesh drove him from the presence of God into the left field of that particular day. But this subject this morning that your thanksgiving obtains the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit of God in your lives. As you give thanks and you give praise and you give worship to God, He inhabits those praises. He inhabits that worship in the power and the presence and the manifestation of His Holy Spirit in your own life. Give an evidence as I will give to you in just a moment. One other place before I began reading in the 69th Psalm in verse number 30, Psalm 69 and verse 30 says the Psalmist David writes, I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that hath horns and hooves." In other words, God cherishes and God relishes the praise of your lips, the worship of your person in song and in magnifying Him by giving Him thanks, by giving Him thanksgiving by being appreciative of the things that God does for you and has done and shall do in your life by turning around and being grateful, not an ungrateful individual. There's so much in America today that people take for granted. There's so much here in America today that people feel entitled to simply because they're born here. Listen, if you haven't paid the price, you're not entitled to anything. You're not entitled to God's love, but he gives it. You're not entitled to a place in heaven, but he's made one for you. But the prerequisite of that is you must go, all of us must go the same way by the same means or we don't make it. It's not about a hundred different ways to heaven. It's not about you go your way and I'll go my way. There's only one way to get to heaven and only one way that God has ordained and that is through his son Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the father but by me. Well, that doesn't mean that we believe there is a Jesus. It doesn't mean that we believe there is a God. Not that we believe in God. Not that we believe in Jesus. But we believe on him. We put our trust and our faith upon him. And we're relying upon what he has done, not what we have done or doing. It doesn't work that way. It never has. So many different denominations have all their own ways and their own roads to get to heaven. There's only one. Jesus is his name. Not believing in him but believing on him giving up and saying I can't do this Lord. I'm trusting you to do so. He forgives your sin. He gives you a place in heaven. He loves you beyond measure. But that's the only way you go. through Jesus Christ and through His blood. The Bible says without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sin. It's not about the goodness that you try to accomplish in your life, it's about the shed blood of Jesus Christ that removes the sin from your life. Thanksgiving obtains the Spirit. And so David said here that He would praise the Lord by song and by thanksgiving again and again and magnify the Lord with thanksgiving. Even in the Old Testament when they were offering bullock and lamb and turtle dove and the blood of goats and on and on and on, God wasn't pleased with the blood. It was not the blood of the animals. It was a type and a picture of the blood of his precious son who would die one day. And David made reference to that. He said, I know you, it does not please you, the blood of the ox and the bullock, but it pleases you that I magnify you with thanksgiving and praise, knowing that Messiah is coming to deliver and to save. Thanksgiving obtains a spirit. In 2nd Chronicles chapter 5 I want you to notice the workings the subject verse 1. Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated and the silver and the gold and all the instruments put he among the treasures of the house of God. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the chief of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. Wherefore, all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto the king in the feast, which was in the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark." The ark, the ark, you remember the ark? How many of you have seen, I know it's worldly, but how many of you have seen Indiana Jones and that ark thing? Raise your hands, raise your hand. Okay, thank you. Then you have a mental picture of what the ark looked like. It was a small box. And it was made of wood, but it was covered over with gold. And the lid, I was told, was solid gold. And it had two cherubim, one on either end. And their wings were put over their heads in such a manner that they formed a covering over the mercy seat of God. One cherubim on one end and one on the other. And their wings would almost touch as they reached forth their wings Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat of God. You find a description of many of the things that were placed within. The two tablets of stone that Moses had from the Mount Sinai as he spoke to God and the finger of God wrote the Ten Commandments that he wanted on those stone tablets. And God told him, put that in the Ark of the Covenant. It was there. There was a pot of manna that came from the wilderness that which God gave to the children of Israel as a testimony and a witness of His care for them that was put inside the Ark of the Covenant. And Aaron's rod was there as well. But here's here. Notice this. I won't read the whole chapter but I want you to see a few things here because I want you to see how people worship and praise God. We come and spend an hour or 45 minutes or an hour. We think boy we've really done something for God. I want you to see this. I want you to see that oftentimes what we consider great in our own minds or a sacrifice in our own heart and how we've had to endure this, for God's sake, is nothing compared to what people used to do. Times, they are a changing, but not for the better. Notice in verse number six, King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him before the ark, sacrifice sheep and oxen, which could not be towed nor numbered for the multitude." Tens of thousands of animals, not four or five. Are you understanding? Tens of thousands. If we had 10,000 sheep out here in our 16 acres or our 12 acres, if we had 16, 16, I'm pulling a Joe Biden, huh? 16 acres here. If we had 10,000 sheep out here, you could barely step on the place. Sheep everywhere. Tens of thousands. An innumerable host of animals that were sacrificed. I've been in Jerusalem. I have this mental picture. The Temple Mount is up on a mountainside. There's a valley on both sides of it. And there is the rock there. where Abraham was supposed to have offered Isaac. It's a holy place. It was in that temple mount when Solomon put this temple area together and the high walls around it. It was all there. And this rock now has a hole in it from the top to the bottom all the way. There's a tunnel underneath. They can take you around and take you down some stairways and down under the rock so that when you look up you can see the bottom part of that rock. There's a hole in it that goes all the way up to the top. And that rock is not like this but it's kind of flat on top and it has a cross cut on it where the blood would be funneled into that that narrow cross and then it would be directed to the center hole where the blood would run out and down into the tunnel and then it would run out the gate outside the city and outside the temple. The Valley of Gehenna, you've heard that. The Valley of Hinnom, Gehenna. It represented hell to those people in that day. That's where their garbage was dumped, a lot of it. And dead animals and stuff was burned there. It was a constant smoke. And this blood would run out from the temple area and down into that area. They said the hillside below the temple ran red. It was red with the blood of the sacrifices of tens of thousands of animals on the day that Solomon dedicated the temple. They sacrificed sheep and oxen which could not be towed nor numbered. Verse 7, And the priest brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his house, the newly finished temple that Solomon had built, into his place, to the oracle of the house. The oracle is the holy of holies divided from the holy place. into the oracle of the house unto the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims. For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof. Now, here's something I want you to see, and we're gonna go to I Kings chapter six in just a moment. Now I want you to get a description in your mind This fir down here, this first one, you look on the sides of the walls. This fir down that has the lights in the bottom of it is 15 feet from the floor. Mental picture, 15 feet from the floor. This fir down here, the bottom of it, 15 feet from the floor down there. To give you an idea of distance, we're going to Solomon's temple in just a moment. and show you a description of angels. The peak, the very peak here is 29 feet, almost 30 feet high in the very peak. Now I want you to notice something. He said, He said about these angels, these are not those small angels on the lid of the Ark. These are angels inside the Holy of Holies that are standing guard over that whole holy place and over the Ark of the Covenant. We'll give a description in just a moment. Verse 8, for the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the Ark, And the cherubims covered the ark, and the staves thereof above. And they drew out the staves from the side of the ark that they carried it with. And the ends of the staves were seen from the ark before the oracle, and they were not seen without. And there it is unto this day. There was nothing in the ark save the two tablets which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. And when it came to pass, the priests were come out of the holy place. For all the priests that were present were sanctified and did not then wait by course. All of the priests All the priests were all sanctified that day and all of them were in the house of God on this dedication day. It was not by order or by course. There were like 30 priests that were serving at this and 30 priests at that and something else. It was all of them together were here described. Verse 12 says, The Levites, which were the singers, all of them, of Asaph and Heman, of Jethathun, and with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests, sounding with trumpets. He came even to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praise the Lord saying for he is good for his mercy endureth forever. that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, that cloud being the cloud that led them by day from Egypt all the way to the promised land. That cloud was described as the very presence of God, a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day that overshadowed them and kept them from the heat of that desert sun, literally as God protected them in so many different ways. This is the same cloud that came and filled the house on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 when they were all seated there, sitting in their Joe Biden moment. And they were filled with the presence of Almighty God. The house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, or the temple of Solomon, so that the priest could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. Now I want you to go to I Kings chapter six, and we won't read the whole chapter. I picked out a few verses. We're gonna begin reading in verse one. And I want you to get the vastness of this. What's the purpose of this, preacher? Why are we looking at, I want you to see the vastness. I want you to see the enormous amount of time and wealth spent in preparation of the house of God. I want you to see the enormous time and wealth that was spent in preparation of the house of God for worship and praise. of Almighty God. And I want you to think where we are today. We give God all the leftovers. Leftover time. Leftover presents. Leftover offerings. Leftover dress. We've dressed down a lot in the last 50 years. We give God second best. And we expect that he ought to be satisfied with what we get. After all, some moron says. After all, God doesn't look on the outside of people. He looks on the inside of people. That's one of the most moronic statements I've ever heard in my life. Giving excuse to people not to give God their best. God accepts you as you are. And basically he does. If you're too poor and you have nothing at all God accepts you exactly that way. But if you have an ability to give honor and glory to God by giving God your best then that's what you ought to do. And Solomon set the pattern for this. Actually King David did but David was not allowed to build the enormity of the building of the house of God in the beginning. And so so we see it now look first King six. It came to pass in the 480th year after the children of Israel would come out of the land of Egypt in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel. In the month Ziph, which is the second month that he began to build the house of the Lord and the house which King Solomon built for the Lord. Notice the spelling of Lord, capital letters, L-O-R-D, Messiah, the Anointed One, Jesus, Lord. He built the house for the Lord. The length thereof was three score cubits. A cubit is about 18 inches. If you figure it up, that's about 88.5 feet long, 88.5 feet long. And the breadth thereof was 20 cubits, 29 and a half, almost 30 feet wide. I think our building in here, I forget now, actually, I think we're 80 feet from wall to wall. No, actually it's 50 feet, I think. I don't know, don't quote me. We're 15 feet to, I know that's 15 feet to the fur downs. 29 feet to the peak. So the house of the Lord was three scores cubits and the breadth thereof was 20 cubits 29.5 feet wide. We're talking about the temple of God the actual worship place not to include the porches the outside coverings and and the outer courtyard. We're not talking we're talking about the actual temple itself. Now listen and the height thereof was 30 cubits 44 feet, 44 feet high. This is 29 feet right to the peak of this room, 29 feet. I want you to drop down to verse number 12. Concerning this house which thou art in building, God says to Solomon, If thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments, to walk in them, then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father. Verse 13, listen. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel. So Solomon built the house and finished it. And he built the walls of the house within with boards. Now the outer walls was constructed of limestone. And it was chiseled and put together in another spot, brought to the Mount of Jerusalem on that mountain, and all fitted together without hammer, without chisel. It was put together and assembled. And here he says, concerning this, where am I? So Solomon built the house in verse 15 and he built the walls of the house within on the inside with boards of cedar both the floor of the house and the walls of the ceiling. He covered them on the inside with wood that is with cedar and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir. Now listen. And he built 20 cubits on the side of the house. I'm not reading that verse 18 and the cedar of the house within was carved with knots with gourds and open flowers. All was cedar, there was no stone seen from within. Midland Baptist Temple on A Street was a concrete block building with brick on the outside and they painted the blocks on the inside and one of the things that I did after I was there a few years is, you know, I said let's get rid of this, we put new windows in the building and we covered the concrete blocks with sheetrock, textured painted it, made it look nicer at least for the house of God. Here he had those stone blocks that built the actual building. He covered those with cedar and then watch this. He covered them with cedar and there was carving, innate carvings within the cedar. Verse 20, and the oracle in the forepart was 20 cubits in length. He's talking about the holy of holies. In the holy of holies, it was almost 30 feet long, 20 cubits in breadth, and 20 cubits in height thereof. He overlaid it with pure gold, and so covered the altar, which was of cedar. The walls were carved and then covered with gold plating so that the carving was not hidden but the gold plating went into every crevice and every crack and it was gold. Oh my goodness. Look in verse 21. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold. Oh we do well if we paint the sheetrock. I've been in places where they said, this is good enough. This will get by. I don't like those words. I think we ought to do the very best that we possibly can. And we have, we tried and we wanted. I've been in buildings where the ceiling was seven feet tall. Why is it so small and cramped in? Well, we're conserving, so it won't cost much to heat and cool with that. When you get this tall building in here, yeah, but wait a minute. Is this for you or for God? Who are you building this for? Well, you know, we can't afford, we can't afford, but God owns all the, everything on every hill. He owns all the cows. He's got all the gold and all the silver. What can God not do? I've been in there where cheapskates and tightwads pastored the churches and they were more concerned about, you know, getting by than honoring God. Listen, it ought to be for God's honor and God's glory, not for our convenience again. Solomon, verse 21, overlaid the house within with pure gold. And he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle, and he overlaid it with gold. Now listen. The holy place, when you came in, when the priest came in to worship, it had the lamp stands there, it had the table to show bread there, and so on. And then there was a partition. In Herod's day, remember, it was made of brodery, and it was really thick, and it was split from the top to the bottom, not from the bottom to the top. God split it when Jesus died on the cross, you remember? But that was Herod's temple. And Herod's temple was not nearly as ornate as Solomon's temple. In Solomon's day, that holy of holy place back here was separated from the holy place by a wall of chain that hung from the ceiling. A wall of chains, not just any chains, chains of gold, he said. You could not see the Ark of the Covenant back here. And only the high priest could go back and offer sacrifice after it was all finished. But it was a wall of chain gold. Listen, look right here. Verse 23. And within the Ark. No, no. Verse 20. Where is it? Verse 21 Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle and he overlaid it with gold and the whole house he overlaid with gold until he had finished all the house also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold by the oracle on the other side on the holy place there was a table of showbread And it was gold. And within the oracle, verse 23, he made two cherubims of olive wood. Olive wood, the olive tree, is symbolic of Israel, the nation of Israel. And the oil of the olive is symbol of the Holy Spirit of God. And look here. And within the oracle, in the Holy of Holies, he made two cherubims, two angels of olive tree, each 10 cubits high, 14.9 feet high. Here, the fir down is 15 feet. He made two cherubims that were almost 15 feet high. Listen. And five cubits was the one wing of the angel. One wing was five cubits. That's 7.4 inches, that's seven feet, four inches, one wing. And the other wing would be 14.9, almost 14.9. Spread. Now listen. That's a wing spread of the fur down to the to the floor a wing spread of almost 15 feet from tip to tip. OK. So what. Listen. Verse 24 and five cubits was the one wing of the cherub and five cubits the wing of the other from the uttermost part of one wing onto the uttermost part of the other were 10 cubits from tip to tip almost 10 cubits. And the other cherub was 10 cubits. Both the cherubims were of one measure and one size. The height of the one cherub was 10 cubits. And so it was of the other. 15 feet, the angel stood 10 feet high, but his wings would reach higher, almost to the 15 foot level. They're inside the holy of holies, which is almost 44 feet high. Notice verse 25, or verse 27. He set the cherubims within the inner house, and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house, inside the holy of holies. No one ever saw them but the high priest. What's the point? They're there as symbols of God's protection and watch care. And he overlaid the cherubims with gold. Verse 29, he carved all the walls of the house round about with card figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers within without on the floor of the house. He overlaid with gold within and without the floor of the house of God was overlaid with gold. Apparently this is not a get-by situation. This is not a good-enough situation. Verse 30. The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within, without. And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree. The lint on the side posts were the fifth part of the wall. The two doors also were of olive tree. And he carved upon them carvings of cherubims, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims and upon the palm trees." That's enough. I won't read anymore. Why did I read that? I wanted you to see the preparation of worshiping God. There's so much junk that goes on that's not real worship of God in so many places. Oh, they call it praise and worship, but it's more about entertainment of the people than it is actually reaching the throne of Almighty God. There's a place and time for everything. We're going to go next door and have coffee and tea and food in just a moment. I can hardly wait. But do you think God is honored? If they brought it into the temple, if they tried to bring it into the Holy of Holies and had coffee while all the priests walked around and drank coffee and ate doughnuts while all this is going on in preparation to worship God and to give him praise, you think God would be happy with that? We're doing it today. Church after church after church is doing it today. And it's to draw people and make sure they're comfortable and make sure they're getting along and make sure that you know we try to entertain them with everything just to get them here. When David worshiped God he said I will not give to God anything that did not cost me first. This temple that Solomon built, overlaid with gold on the inside like a mirror. When they had the candlestick lit, it was the only source of light in the holy place. The light from those lamps would reflect off of that shined, polished gold on the walls, on the ceilings, on the floor. And that little lamp would be enough to illuminate that whole place. The temple would have been the greatest wonder of the world in that day and time. The temple was the greatest wonder of the world when in fact it should be. Why? Because it was symbolic of God's presence and God in that cloud came down on this dedication day and filled the house of God with His presence and by night the pillar of fire that was up over the Ark of the Covenant in that Holy of Holies behind that chain link wall of pure gold was the Holy of Holy with those 10 foot tall angels that had 15 foot spread on their wings and they were covered over with solid gold watching over the Ark of God in that holy place. And then on the lid of that Ark of the Covenant two other cherubims that were smaller watching over the mercy seat where the blood was applied. How ornate. Well, we just wasted money on that. God doesn't care. God just accepts us the way we are. Absolutely. You can't buy your way to heaven. Absolutely. There's no price on earth that can guarantee that you can reach God. Absolutely. It's not about the outward. It's about the inward. God seeks those to worship him. that we'll worship Him in spirit and in truth. And it's an inside-out job. But it brought about the fact that here is an effort to worship and praise God and spare no expense because God is worthy. And not like the second-class, second-rate God that we give our gospel rock praise band to today, but one of holiness and righteousness. And thanksgiving obtains the Spirit of God. They were thankful and they began this preparation and the house of God was filled with the cloud. The very presence of God Himself when they began to worship and praise Him. You can read the New Testament version of that in Acts chapter 2 verse 1 through 4 where it says they were all gathered together in one accord on the day of Pentecost when there came a mighty rushing wind that filled the house and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, the presence of God on that day. Thanksgiving obtains the Spirit. Now here's what I want to give you very quickly. I'm finished. The reason for their praise, you find it in 2 Chronicles 5 and verse 13. It came to pass as the trumpeter's singers were as one to make, to make one sound, to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. To be in one accord as they thanked God. to be in one accord and one voice and one sound as they played the instruments in thanking God and praising God for all that He is and all that He was and all that He shall be. The reason for their praise was God is so good. He says in the latter part of verse 13, and they praised the Lord saying, for He is good. He is good. The Bible says, speaking about me and you, in the book of Romans chapter three, there's none good, no, not even one. But God, God is good. And they praised him for his goodness. They praised Him for His holiness. Look in the 99th Psalm, hurry. I spent a long time in the description, but I wanted to tell you this. We should never shortchange God. Oh, I don't need to dress up today. I just go to church, you know. God doesn't look on the outside. He look, yeah, but what am I telling God? He doesn't amount to a whole lot in my life. When I wear the same pair of blue jeans that I wear feeding the dogs, and feeding the hogs, and feeding the cows, and I wear the same boots, what does that tell God? That he doesn't amount to any more than the dogs, the hogs, and the cows. In my life, he does amount to more. He is valuable. in the 99th Psalm, verse number three. It says plainly, let them praise thy great and terrible name, for it is holy. Terrible. We did the study on the word terrible the other day, remember? And I think it's in the book of Hebrews, chapter four. And we talked about God being terrible. God's not terrible towards his children, but he's terrible towards the heathen. He's terrible towards the enemies of Christianity. He's terrible towards those who try to defile His holy name. He's terrible. He's quick to avenge. Exalt ye the Lord. That means lift the Lord up in your life. Lift Him up in your praise. Lift Him up in your sight. Lift Him up in your opinion and your appraisal of Him. Let them praise thy great and terrible name. for it is holy. Praise him for his holiness. Look at verse five. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool for he is holy. Verse nine. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy. The reason for their praise is that God is good and God is holy. We praise him for his holiness. You and I do not meet. equally up to God's holiness. We praise him for his infinite wisdom, none wiser. God knows the yesterdays from the tomorrows. God knows everything. He knows what's in your heart and mind. He knows what's in your mind and mine. We praise him for his power. I can call upon him and not be limited because of God's lack of power and authority. He has all power. Is there anything too hard for God? No, there isn't. Then I can feel quite liberal to ask God for help and guidance and direction and all things because I praise him for his great and wonderful power. Praise him for his love, Romans 5, 8. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Unworthy am I of Christ's death. Yet he gave it because he loves us. We praise him for his mercy. The 103rd Psalm, one page over. The 103rd Psalm, verse one. says simply, bless the Lord. That means praise the Lord. Oh my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Look at verse 11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them. that fear him, for he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. We should praise him. There's been times when the pressures have risen so high and the difficulties been so numerous in my own life that I've had to cry out to God and say, Oh God, please remember that I'm nothing but dirt. I'm frail. I'm temporary. Help me, Lord. I'm weak. And God comes through. Thank God for His mercy and His enablement. Thank God for their manner of praise. In 2 Chronicles 5 in verse 13 it says that they praised Him as one. in unison. They came. They didn't come to see their friends at church on Sunday morning. They didn't come to wear something better than everybody else and promote themselves. They came to worship and praise together because in numbers as we praise Him our voices are heard even more and mightier by Almighty God. I was at a ball game last night for my grandsons in Abilene. And there were times when the crowd got a little loud. And to make noise and to be louder, they would stomp the aluminum seating in the stands. I wish you could have heard the roar throughout that whole stadium. As people in mass were stomping their feet and yelling for their team in mass, stop and think one person doing that. It sounds like some moron up in the stands has lost his way, you know. No, in mass, we mean business for God, we worship. and we praise him together as our hearts are knit together as as our lives have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are all the same as brothers and sisters in Christ because of him. We have the same father and because of that we should worship and praise him together and come for that very reason. There's power in that. as on the day of Pentecost, the manner of their praise as one, the effects of their praise. In verse 13 of 2 Chronicles it says, as they began praising God and were heard in praising and thanking the Lord and they lifted up their voices and they lifted up the trumpets, Symbols the instruments of music and praise the Lord saying for he is good for his mercy endureth forever that then Then is one of those conditional words And it's one of the promises and precepts of God that we talked about a few weeks ago That when God gives us a promise there's a precept that goes with it that if we'll do our part God will certainly do his part and and praise and thanksgiving and worship is one of those things. If we come together, John chapter four, Jesus told the woman at the well, you worship in Samaria, you say we worship in Jerusalem, but there comes a time when neither in Samaria nor in Jerusalem shall the true worshipers worship God, but they shall worship him in spirit and in truth. What that meant was there's no one temple where the presence of God is, but that the true worshipers would assemble together and worship in mass anywhere and everywhere. That's when Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. When they've come together to worship and praise I will be in the center of them like in Solomon's temple where when they praised God and they played the instruments for the glory of God that then the house was filled with a cloud and the house of the Lord where they could hardly stand the presence there. Wow. There are places in John where Jesus said I will manifest myself to you. And then he said again, the Father and I will come and make our abode with you and manifest ourselves to you where we are. So thanksgiving not only obtains the spirit of God, it obtains the very person of God. When you cry out in thanksgiving with your audible voice and or your heart, you're telling God that you appreciate, you love him, you long for him in every aspect of life. It's like telling your earthly father, Daddy, I love you. There's nothing that a father loves more to hear than that his children love him and they don't want to disobey him. They don't want to cause shame upon his name. They don't want to dishonor him because of their respect and their love for him. And they live a certain way out of respect that they've been taught by their father. And when they say, Daddy, we love you. And then they live like they really love me. Boy, there's honor and glory there. And that's what he's saying here. When we give thanks to the Father by the way we live, the thanks to the Father by our audible voice, he makes his abode with us, he lives with us, he manifests himself. That means he manifests him presence to us. He walks with us and he talks with us all along the way. Yeah, all along the way. The effects of the praise. The house is filled with the cloud. You are filled with the presence of God. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and then God will manifest Himself to you. Thanksgiving brings honor and glory to God, and Thanksgiving and praise brings about a special presence of God in your life. He said, what? Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and that God dwells within you? It's worthy that you and I praise Him, honor Him, glorify Him in all of our ways. Father, thank you for the Word.