Recovering the Sense of the Sacred to Build with God

Introduction

Pastor Samuel YEO opens his message with an obvious point that shakes things up: this year, the Church has taken as its theme "Let Us Rise Up and Build," echoing the words of Nehemiah 2. But he raises a tough follow up question: build, fine. Build with what? Build in what spirit? His answer comes down to one phrase he will not let go of: building within the sense of the sacred.

He invites you to open four passages: Exodus 25:1-8, Exodus 25:40, Nehemiah 2:16-18, and Ephesians 2:19-22. He first reminds you of a small detail that isn't so small: the word gospel, in Greek, means "good news," not good news because you got a promotion or you're retiring, but the good news of the coming of Jesus, announced from Adam all the way to Malachi and fulfilled at the cross for every nation. And the word epistle simply means "letter." What Paul writes to the Ephesians is a love letter from God to his children, with a specific purpose: to make them "a dwelling place for God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22).

The preacher then reminds us where the people of Israel come from. They come out of Egypt, after 400 years of slavery in a country that counted more than 120 deities, with Pharaoh himself considered a god. It was not in that context of darkness that God asked for the sanctuary. He waits for them to come out. Exodus is the going out. Leviticus: holiness ("Be holy, for I am holy," Leviticus 19:2). Numbers: organization. Deuteronomy: the repetition of the law to prepare them to enter the promised land. Nothing is placed there by chance.

It is in this God (the holy God, the God who delivered, the God who has a plan) that Moses goes up the mountain, waits seven days in silence, then stays forty days and forty nights, before coming back down with his face shining, a spokesman ("nabiy" in Hebrew, "prophētēs" in Greek, quite simply) of a message that is not his own. And the first order he brings back is this: "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst." (Exodus 25:8)

Outline of the message

1. God does not ask for a temple, he asks for a sanctuary

• Look closely at the vocabulary. God does not tell Moses, "Build me a building." He says, "Let them make me a sanctuary." (Exodus 25:8) A sanctuary is a holy place, a place set apart.
• He even spells out how: "You shall make it according to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle." (Exodus 25:40) God does not leave Moses to improvise. He gives the plan for this sanctuary himself.
• And he asks for an offering: "You shall receive it from every man whose heart makes him willing." (Exodus 25:2) This is not a membership fee. This is not a fundraising association. It is an offering made from the heart.
• The preacher stops himself right there: this message I'm bringing this morning is an offering. But am I giving it from the heart? The question applies to you too. What you do for God (your singing, your service, your welcome, your words), do you do it from the heart, or because it has to be done?

2. Your body is today the sanctuary of God

• Paul picks up this same thought in 1 Corinthians 6:19, asking you the question directly, personally: "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you?"
• The tabernacle in the wilderness was portable. Every time the people moved, the tabernacle moved with them. In the same way, today, you are God's tabernacle wherever you go. At work, you are his tabernacle. On the plane to Congo, you are his tabernacle. In the street, you are his tabernacle.
• It is not first the church building that is sacred. It is you. It is your body. And when person-tabernacles gather on Sunday, that's when the great tabernacle of the Lord takes shape.
• God does not just say "I'm going to make a place." He says "I will dwell in their midst." In the midst. Not in front. Not behind. In the midst. Two reasons: to make sure of their safety, and to control everything from the center. It's the same promise Jesus repeats in Matthew 18:20: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

3. Your church is a place of encounter

• When someone crossed the threshold of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the first thing they encountered in the courtyard was the altar. Then came the holy place, then the most holy place. It was first a place of encounter: "There I will meet with you," God says on several occasions.
• This morning, when you come to worship, you are not first coming to meet the pastor, or the elders, or the brothers and sisters. You are coming to meet God. The one who delivered you. Just as Israel was not coming to meet Moses but the One who had freed them from slavery in Egypt.
• And if you are on the worship team, or on welcome duty, or preaching, the goal of your service is for someone, through you, to meet God. Not for someone to think you're talented. For someone to meet the Savior.
• That's why the preacher says: "This microphone becomes a sacred microphone. This pulpit becomes a sacred place." Not by magic, but because these are instruments used for a sacred purpose: meeting God.

4. Your church is a place of fellowship

• Second dimension of the sanctuary: a place of fellowship. In Greek, koinōnia: something held in common.
• There were twelve tribes around the tabernacle. Different cultures, different temperaments. What did they have in common? The covenant. Yahweh. The blood of the Passover lamb.
• Today, in your church, there are French, Ivorian, Congolese, Gabonese, Romanian, and Haitian people. What do they have in common? Just one thing, but it changes everything: the precious blood of Jesus.
• The preacher warns plainly: you can be an evangelical church and not be a community of God. You can preach the right message and live as separate tribes. That is not what God asks for. He wants both: sound doctrine and genuine community.
• And Paul reminds the Ephesians: "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19). In the sanctuary, there are no more strangers. At the cross, every flag comes down: what matters is no longer being French, Ivorian, or Congolese, it's the Gospel.

5. Your church is a place of celebration

• Third dimension: celebration. Careful, the preacher insists: celebrating is not exactly the same thing as praising.
• Celebration points to something already won, a victory, a recognition of something that has already happened and that you are recalling. You celebrate a healing that God has already granted. You celebrate a salvation that he has already given you. And it is within that celebration that you praise him.
• If you praise God without that dimension of celebration, it is not yet fully the worship of God. You come to church with problems, yes, but you come to celebrate a victory already won. "Darkness, retreat before the work of the cross."
• Like the Samaritan woman in John 4: she met Jesus, entered into fellowship with him, discovered who she truly was, and went back to celebrate among her townspeople: "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did."
• That is the purpose of your worship service, your ministry, your praise: bringing someone to meet God, to enter into fellowship with him, then to celebrate him. Nothing less. Nothing else.

6. The ultimate goal: that the kingdom of God be known

• The preacher goes back to God's overall plan. The tabernacle was not an end in itself. God had told Israel, even before asking them for the sanctuary: "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (Exodus 19:6) The kingdom is already being announced. The tabernacle is the agreed upon place for it, so that the King may be known.
• And in the New Testament, Jesus takes up the same movement in Acts 1:8: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
• That is why you build. Not for yourself. Not for your church as an institution. So that the kingdom of God may be known, first in your neighborhood, then in your region, in your country, to the ends of the earth.
• But all of this must be done within the sense of the sacred. God did not say "make me a temple." He said "a sanctuary": a holy place. So everything you do must lead people to be gripped by the holiness of God: your songs, your worship, the way you speak to a brother or sister, your welcome, your prayer.

Key takeaways

• Building with God is not first about laying bricks. It is about offering a sanctuary, a space set apart for him. The first sanctuary God wants is you (1 Corinthians 6:19).
• What you bring to God (singing, service, a message, welcome) is an offering. The question is not whether you are talented. The question is: am I doing it from the heart?
• Your church is a place of encounter (with God), of fellowship (with him and with each other, through the blood of Jesus), of celebration (of the victory already won at the cross). If any of the three is missing, something is missing from the worship service.
• The blood of Jesus dissolves every nationality. At the cross, every flag comes down. In the sanctuary, there are no more strangers (Ephesians 2:19).
• The tabernacle is not the goal. The goal is for the King to be known to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). And all of it must happen within the sense of the sacred.

Personal application

1. What you bring to God this week (a service, a song, a word, your presence), are you bringing it from the heart, or out of habit, obligation, or fear of how you'll look? What do you need to lay down before him to recover the joy of the offering?
2. When you walk through the doors of your church on Sunday, who are you really coming to meet? Do the exercise honestly: rank in order of importance what you expect from the service. Is God truly first?
3. In your church, is there a brother or sister from another culture, another country, another background, with whom you struggle to live out fellowship? Does the blood of Jesus count for him or for her? What do you want to do concretely this week to close that distance?
4. When you praise God, are you celebrating something specific he has already done for you? Take a moment today to name three victories God has already given you, and let them launch you into celebration.
5. Your body (your hands, your mouth, your eyes, your schedule) is God's sanctuary. Is there an area of your life where you have stopped treating this sanctuary as sacred? What needs to be put back in its place this week?

Verses cited

• Exodus 25:1-8 · "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst."
• Exodus 25:40 · "You shall make it according to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle."
• Exodus 19:6 · "A kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
• Leviticus 19:2 · "Be holy, for I am holy."
• Nehemiah 2:16-18 · "Let us rise up and build."
• Psalm 92:1-6 · "It is good to praise the Lord."
• Matthew 18:20 · "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
• John 3:16 · "For God so loved the world..."
• John 4 · the Samaritan woman, from encounter to celebration.
• Acts 1:8 · "You will be my witnesses... to the end of the earth."
• Romans 12:1 · "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God."
• 1 Corinthians 6:19 · "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you."
• 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 · the Lord's Supper, proclaiming the Lord's death.
• Ephesians 2:19-22 · "You are no longer strangers... you are being built together into a dwelling place for God in the Spirit."
• Colossians 1:13 · "He has delivered us from the power of darkness."

FAQ

What does "building within the sense of the sacred" mean?

It means building while constantly keeping in mind that what you are doing is set apart for God. It's not just constructing a room, running a service, or preaching a message. It is offering God a place (first your body, then your congregation) where he himself comes to dwell. The sacred is not primarily a solemn atmosphere: it is the awareness that God is genuinely present in the midst, and that nothing you do for him is ordinary.

Why does the preacher distinguish between praise and celebration?

Because they are not exactly the same thing. Praise is recognizing who God is. Celebration is joyfully remembering a victory already won and recalling what God has already done. The preacher explains that if you praise God without any celebration, something is missing from the service: the memory of the salvation, the healing, the deliverance already given at the cross. Praising and celebrating go together.

How do I actually live out "my body is God's sanctuary"?

By no longer separating Sunday from the rest of the week. The tabernacle in the wilderness moved with the people; in the same way, if you are in Christ, you carry God's presence at work, at home, in the street, on a plane. Practically, that means praying before you start your day, keeping your words clean, refusing what defiles your body, honoring God in how you treat others, celebrating his presence even where no one sees you pray.