In Exodus, Chapter 25, it’s interesting when Moses was up on the mountain.  Most of our minds emphasize and are preoccupied with the two tablets.  And Moses was there, face to face with God.  We all know that when he came down, his face shone—he wasn’t aware of it.  The people said, “Moses, you’ve got to do something.  The glory of God’s on you.  We can’t even look on you because of the glory of God.”  One of the things we forget is that when Moses was there on the mountain receiving the Decalogue, he was also receiving specific instructions on how to build a church, a physical building.  God took all of that time to specify every specific detail of that tabernacle.  It was important to God.

I think we need to have that same mentality.  The Scripture says that for the true church and our gathering together from the Old Testament on, there’s a place where God chooses to put His name.  We recognize that, and we gather around that name.  We gather around the presence of God.  We gather around the fact that God had spoken, and in opposition to every person’s counsel to stay where we were, God spoke to us and said, “Come up here and buy this property.”  How foolish we were to buy these thirty-one acres.  We’re sitting on a fortune.  Just look around you and have thirty-one acres in the midst of it.  Thank God for it.  We get calls constantly.  “Do you want to sell your property?  How can you use twelve acres of property for just a ball field?”  They’re not making any more planet.  You can’t make more land.  So, God has blessed us.  He sent us here, and over the years, this is where He chose to put His name.  I want you to know that all thirty-one acres of this is consecrated to God.  It’s God’s.  It’s consecrated to God for His use.  That’s why we don’t, up on the ball field, just throw a bunch of cups around and leave them around after events or whatever else, and trash blowing around in the trees.  When we see it, we pick it up because this is God’s property; amen?  Everything we do on the property, in these facilities, is to honor God.

I just love this phrase in the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus.  Moses was looking face to face with God, receiving the Decalogue, now all of the specific directions of building the tabernacle, of preparing the altar of incense, the brazen altar; everything is specified to the nth.  In Chapter 25, verse 8, God says, “And let them make me a sanctuary...”  Hallelujah!  What a blessing!  "And let them make me a sanctuary."  I don’t want to digress too much into the details, but that’s where God chose to visit; that’s where we can come.  There is a special presence of God in this room when we recognize it.

Over the years, there have been times, based upon certain aspects, that we use this room as a multi-purpose room, but all the way, all the time, recognizing this is the sanctuary of God, this is where God comes and visits us specifically.  Many of you sense the same thing.  I know that I do when I’m gone for a week or two.  I come back, and I just can’t wait to come back in here.  I walk in for prayer, and it’s like, “Ahh!”  Anybody else know what I’m talking about?  Hallelujah!  It’s just like, “Whooo, back home, man; this is great to be back in the presence of God.”