The Work Is Great

That beautiful building rising like a precious ear of corn is a sign that the kingdom of God is advancing, and one of the reasons we are building that temple is precisely to tell the world that the kingdom of God is advancing and is not retreating, right? I want to turn quickly to 1 Chronicles, chapter 29, where King David, when he is going to build the sanctuary, the first temple, Solomon’s temple—Solomon was the one who built it, but David, the father who conceived in his heart the desire to build it, was told by God, “It will not be you; it will be your son who will do it.” But when David was about to entrust the work to Solomon, he gave a speech to the people, and that speech is something very beautiful and exemplary, and it shows us the heart of this man of God.

First Chronicles 29—Brother David says, in 29:1, it says: “Then King David said to the whole assembly, ‘God has chosen only my son Solomon; he is young and inexperienced, and the work is great.’” Everyone say, “The work is great.” “For the house is not for man.” You know that this house is not for man; it is not meant to glorify a man, it is not meant to glorify a church. No, it says, “but for the Lord our God. With all my strength I have prepared for the house of my God: gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver, bronze for the things of bronze, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood,” and so on, right? And every kind of precious stone. In addition to this, it says: “Because I have set my affection on the house of my God.”

How many have set their affection on the house of God? That needs to be unpacked. It is one thing to go to the house of God and another to set your affection on the house of God. “Because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have in my private treasury gold and silver, which, in addition to everything I have prepared for the sanctuary, I have given for the house of my God: three thousand talents of gold.” I do not know how much that was, but I assure you it was a great deal of money. “Gold of Ophir”—it was not just any gold; it was pure gold—“and seven thousand talents of refined silver to cover the walls of the buildings. Gold, then, for the things of gold, and silver for the things of silver, and for all the work to be done by the hands of the craftsmen. And who is willing today to make a voluntary offering to the Lord?” Go a little farther on afterward, to verse 6. It says: “Then the heads of families, and the princes of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, offered willingly, and they also gave a great amount of money for it.” Verse 9 says: “And the people rejoiced because they had contributed willingly, for with all their hearts they offered willingly to God; and King David also rejoiced greatly. And David came before the house of the Lord and said, ‘Blessed are You, Lord God of our Father, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, are magnificence, honor, and power, for all things are Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom, and You are exalted above all. Riches and glory come from You, and in Your hand are strength and power, and in Your hand it is to make great and to give power to all. Now, Lord, we praise and extol Your glorious name.’”

Brothers and sisters, what a beautiful prayer, right? And here we see so many beautiful things. One of the things about David that strikes me is that he says, “Our work is not a small work; it is a great work.” And you look over there at that framework rising up, and you realize that it is a considerable undertaking. We have gotten ourselves into something of great magnitude. This effort is not for cowards. It is an extremely ambitious work. There are financial risks. We have to construct a building that would normally cost eight million dollars for three or four million dollars. Why? Because God has given wisdom and knowledge. We have built these buildings in very, very economical and incredibly efficient ways, and I know that we can build this one. Thus far, God has blessed us with methodologies that we have learned from Him. But it is a work that allows little room for errors or inaccuracies. We must be impeccable in the way we carry it out, because it is a great work and we are trying to do something bold—unprecedented, I would say, in these parts: undertaking a work like this through the simple accumulation of income. These works we have done are something very great; it is a very great work and tremendously creative as well.

David says that the work is great. Why? Because it is not for a man; it is for God. God deserves precious things. God deserves the best. And you know what? You also deserve the best. Your children deserve the best. Our future generations deserve the best. The church of Christ in New England deserves the best. It deserves a testimony that God is powerful and that God blesses His people. And when we come to worship the Lord, we want to give glory to God, and we do not do it out of pride. God knows it. I have searched my heart day after day to see whether some pharaonic principle of building pyramids for my own glory is ruling within me. No. Nor am I trying to prove anything to any man. This is exclusively for the glory of God.

We are building a space because there is a need. You see how this place fills up every Sunday. My heart aches, and many no longer come because they know that if they arrive after a certain time, they will be uncomfortable and scattered throughout the sanctuary. We are doing it out of necessity. It is not as though we have only one service—okay, that’s it—and have not pushed this further. We have two services. Right now, there is an English-speaking group meeting in another space, and the second space they are occupying is already becoming too small for them as well. This morning I was coming in my car, ready to park, when I saw an African American sister in a wheelchair, with the drizzle falling on her, her little wheelchair crossing Reed Street. Beside her was a young African American woman as well, from that housing project next door. She stopped me and said, “Pastor, pastor.” I stopped my car, backed it up, and greeted her. She said to me, “I am bringing a sister from the project here who is coming to Lion of Judah for the first time.”

God is doing wonderful things, and I know we are going to need space for that group when it grows. Perhaps they will occupy this place at nine in the morning while we are meeting over there. Say, “Glory to the Lord.” Because we want to impact the community with the gospel. We started that English-language project because we know this community needs a biblical presence. There are good churches in this area; I know that. But one more will always be needed, because there is a terrible need here. And this group of crazy Hispanics believes it can bless English speakers too, because I know that this is why God has brought us here: for such a time as this in the history of this nation. This is for the glory of God; it is not for man.

And David had to call the people and tell them, “We need your help.” And we need your help and your participation. The kingdom of God wants you to respond as well. We want continuous prayer. On Friday the 24th of this month, we are going to have 24 continuous hours of prayer. We are going to have an early-morning prayer service, and we will continue until eight o’clock on Saturday. It has to be bathed in prayer. David prayed and cried out to God, and blessed the Lord, and called out to the people. As the Bible says, pray to God while swinging the mallet. If you do not know what verse that is in, do not look for it, because it is not in the Bible. But I do believe that we must leave it to the Lord while also getting our hands to work—both things: “Bless the Lord and pass the ammunition,” as Lito Gutierrez says.

Now, we are not merely building with steel, cement, and wood. This is about something much more significant. It is not merely a building over there. We want to have more space for our mentoring programs, to bless young people. I see in that place a place for revival. I see communities coming there one day. May that building be used 24 hours a day: prayer, worship, praise, revival, anointing, the impartation of power, pastors coming to be reeducated in the true faith, and all these rooms being used continually for the glory of the Lord. That is why we are building: for revival. It is not for wood, it is not for cement, it is not for steel; it is for work, mystery, mission, vision, and the advancement of the kingdom of God. And you can be part of that. Do not miss it. Tell the person next to you with a nudge, “Do not miss it.” Like that—move their shoulder. “Do not miss it.” I suddenly even became Pentecostal. Tell the person next to you—that is one of the Pentecostal tics—“Do not miss the opportunity.”

I say as David did, “And who today is willing to make a voluntary offering?” Who dares? Who has the guts? If you have not done it yet, I urge you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, His angels, His saints, and everything up there: get moving and make a commitment, and join the work so that the kingdom of God may reach the place it is meant to reach. David says that he built with all his strength: “With all my strength I have prepared for the house of my God.” There you can hear David the warrior speaking. He was not just any God; He was “my God”—the same God whom I honored by beheading the giant who was cursing and insulting Him. For that same God, I now want to offer a great work, so that He may be glorified and there may be a public testimony from Israel.

I tell you that we have to work hard. I have asked us to focus on this effort. We have to be conservative with our finances. We have to be stingy with the church’s finances during this time, because we have to gather up as much as possible and prepare ourselves for whatever may arise during this process. And we have been very conservative. We have to focus on that work. I have said that, for a time, we have to limit ourselves in the different things we do—missions and other things. We have continued; there has been missionary work. But please understand when someone says, “Please, brothers and sisters, let us focus on this,” because there is a saying that those who try to grasp too much end up holding very little. People have to understand that some things take priority, and right now we have to focus on that work, because it is an evangelistic work. It includes all the evangelistic values of this church, and the church is involved in it. So, for now, I beg all the brothers and sisters: let us close ranks and move forward together toward one thing.

We will continue doing the Lord’s work in many ways, but understand if we say that we cannot keep adding different efforts and different things—not because we do not want to, but because now is the time to do other things and move in another direction, and that work has to be completed. When the time comes, we will continue with all the other things, but we cannot keep adding more and more and more. We have to remain focused on what God has called us to do now, because it is a great and demanding work.

I have seven minutes left. We have not had to—brothers and sisters, as I was saying, we have to make sacrifices for this. But you know, in one sense I thank the Lord that throughout all this work the church has done over the years—constructing these two buildings and spending all this money—look, many of us have not suffered. I thank God that I have never had to come before this congregation and say, “Brothers and sisters, if you do not raise one hundred thousand dollars, they are going to take me to jail, or God is going to take me to heaven; they are going to kill me.” No. Many of us have slept through the whole process, and there has never been panic or extreme suffering. We have never had to say, “You know what, Pastor? I am donating my house to you. I am giving you my wedding ring.” Thank God. How many of you have heard of—no. It has been a logical, orderly, biblical process. You have always known what was being done. There have been no great sacrifices in which you had to offer your body there as a burnt offering to the Lord. No.

The church has given according to its means. I know that you have given as well. Sister María gave while unemployed. I know that many of you do not have extra money, but when we do things for God, brothers and sisters, when we do things for the Lord, He never comes up short. He always blesses us. We have to make sacrifices. How beautiful that David says, “My affection is set on the house of God.” He could have said, “I love the house of God.” No. He said, “My affection is set on the house of my God.” When I say that my affection is set there, it is as though I were saying, “My delight is in the house of God. The house of God is my dwelling place. I rejoice in dwelling in the house of the Lord. That is where I think and meditate and dream.” You know what? For many of us, the church is the center of our social and family life. Many of you bring your children here for I Wanna; you eat downstairs, read the Word, attend discipleship classes, and develop your gifts here. This is better than a Lions Club or a Rotary Club. I would put it up against any Rotary Club in the world.

This is a place of great blessing and of great joy and growth. Our affection is here. This is our home. This is where our lives are taking shape, and that is why it also warrants our putting our money into it, because this is the place that supports our lives. This is a stronghold of the kingdom of God here in Boston, in New England, and in the world as well, with the Lord’s help. You can help with it. You can donate in the name of the Lord. And the final thing I will say is that there is something beautiful David said as well. In verse 16 he said, “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build a house for Your holy name comes from Your hand, and it all belongs to You.”

How interesting, isn’t it? You know that everything you give to God belongs to God. The hand with which you take the money out of your pocket or write that check—God made it. The paper on which you write the check—God made it. The paper money—God made it. The atoms in your brain that coordinate numbers—God made them. Everything belongs to God. That is the most basic concept of stewardship: the concept that everything you have and everything you are belongs to God, and that when you give to God, you give out of generosity; you give God from the one hundred percent that He gave you. I live by the premise that nothing belongs to me—not my wife, not my children, not my body, not my work, not my brain. Nothing is mine; everything belongs to God, and I have to spend twenty-four hours a day saying, “Father, what are Your orders for today? What do You want me to do? What do You want me to invest my life and my money in? You tell me to jump, and the only things I will ask You are how high and how long I should stay in the air.”