God’s Presence Will Not Fit in a Box

Is your view of God too small?

We often put God into boxes. We limit His presence to a church building, His will to our plans, His calling to what feels comfortable, and His power to what we think is possible. But God refuses to fit inside the boxes we build for Him.

In this message from Acts 7:44–50, Pastor Matt Shackelford continues the Dwell series by examining Stephen's teaching about the tabernacle, the temple, and the God who cannot be contained by either. Stephen reminds us that God's presence has always been bigger than a building, a method, or our personal preferences.

We'll discover why we must accept God's invitation on His terms, loosen our grip on our preferences, and begin looking for God's work beyond the walls of the church.

God made us in His image, but too often we try to return the favor by remaking Him in ours. It's time to break the box and see God for who He truly is.

Scripture: Acts 7:44–50
Series: Dwell

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Transcript

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Let's take our Bibles. We're in Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7, verse 44. If you're turning there. As you're turning there, I love the story of the mom, her child, her son, asked the question, Is God really with us? Like, is he is he really everywhere? And the mom said, Yes, absolutely. He's everywhere. Is he in this room? And the mom said, Yes, he's in this room. And then he said, Is he in that box over there? And the mom kind of stumbled a little bit, but she's like, Well, God is everywhere. God is omnipresent. He's, yes, he's even in the box. And he walked over to the box and he put the lid on it and he said, I got him. I got him. And I like that illustration because, in a lot of ways, we tend to live a very childlife, a childlike view of God's presence. I was walking through Costco the other day, and some of you have seen those totes, the black totes with the yellow lids, and I saw I saw a little one and I decided to buy it. Because this really is a great image for our sermon, alright? How many of you have the big version of this in your home right now? You know what I'm talking about. I've got like 20 of these in my house, okay? But but it's like I was walking through Costco and I was like, this is a great illustration of what we're gonna talk about today. Our view of God, the box that we tend to put God in is far too small. The box that we put God in, it's just a little box. And it can't contain him. And here's the problem that God made man in his image, and we tend to return the favor. We remake God in our image, our limitations, our smallness. We try to remake God and box him in. We box in his presence. We limit him to an experience, we limit him to a method, we limit him to a building. And some of you feel close to God when you come into this building. And that's great. But God is working outside of this building. God is working in your job. God is working in your home. God is working in this community. Your box is too small. Some of you box in God's will. You get angry when things don't go your way, and you don't see it as part of God's sovereign plan. You limit his call on your life. In fact, I remember traveling with David Ulford to Africa, and David tells the story. He said, I was doing one of these institutes, training pastors, and there was a guy in the class, and he said, I can't find a job. I'm looking for a pastor's job. And it just doesn't appear that there's anything out there. No one is hiring, no one will hire me. And in the class, this other student, this other pastor stands up and he says, We are desperate for pastors in Nigeria. Would you come to Nigeria and be our pastor? And the guy kind of does like the Homer Simpson into the bushes thing. He kind of he kind of backs up and and he he's like, I don't want to accept that call. You know what I'm talking about? He's like, I don't want that call. And so often we're like that. We limit God. We limit God's call on our life. Lord, I'll go here but not here. Lord, I'll engage here, but not there. We limit his call, we limit his will. I think we even box in his power. We live these lives of I don't think that God could work in my job. I don't think God could work in my health. I don't think God could work in my nation. Some of you have a very pessimistic view on the nation, the direction we're going. Here's the good news: God still knows how to do revival in our nation. Amen? It's not over. We limit God's power, and he still knows how to revive. In Acts chapter 7, we've been in a series I've entitled Dwell. It's a theme of Acts chapter 7. It's the dwelling places of God. It's how God travels with his people. God is mobile through many different forms, many different seasons. And now we're starting to come to the end of this message. It's the longest sermon, the longest preaching in the book of Acts. It's Stephen's defense, and he stands in front of one of the great marvels of the ancient world. Truly, I mean, it's one of the great wonders of the ancient world. It's Herod's temple. This is a giant box. And in fact, if you look at this thing, this is a great image of what it probably looked like in its glory days, in the height of what it was. People would travel all over the world, Greeks, Egyptians, people would travel to come see Herod's temple. It was beautiful. It was covered in marble. In fact, zoom in on what the actual box looked like, actual temple looked like. It was glorious. It was one of the great marvels of the ancient world. And Stephen stands near it, and he's being accused of blaspheming the temple. You remember to blaspheme, it is to belittle, it is to treat as small. And the Jews were accusing him of blaspheming Moses, the law of Moses, and the temple. And these are the accusations. You're belittling something we really love. And Stephen says, look, I'm not belittling Moses. In fact, I'm celebrating the one Moses spoke of. I'm not belittling the temple. I'm actually worshiping and celebrating the one that the temple is all about. And so this is Stephen's defense. And essentially what he's saying is he's looking at the box, and he's saying, I don't have a problem with the box. It's just that it's too small. Your box is too small. You have boxed in God's presence. And God will not be boxed. God's presence will not be boxed in. And that's what I want to talk to you today. I want to tell you that God's presence will not fit in your little box. So let's stand together. Let's discover that as we look at this passage. Acts chapter 7, verses 44 through 50 says this. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a dwelling place before for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things? Essentially, what he's going to show is that there are three different locations. There's the tent, there's the house, there's the heavens. And there's no box that's big enough to hold in God. God is bigger than all of those things. In fact, I love the story. Before you sit down, I love the story of Prince Caspian from the Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe series, Chronicles of Narnia. Do you remember this? Do you remember when Lucy reunites with the lion? The lion who's the Christ figure of the story, she reunites with him, hasn't seen him in a very long time. And Lucy says that great line. She says, You've grown. And the lion says back, I haven't changed at all. I haven't grown. You've grown. You are seeing me bigger than ever before. You're seeing me as I truly am. One of the great theologians of years past said that what you think when you think about God is the most important thing about you. And what I want to do with this sermon is give you a higher view of God. I want to give you a higher understanding of who God is, that He's too big for your little box. So may God bless his holy word. May God bless each of you. You may be seated. Three boxes the tent, the house, the heavens. And I think there's three ways out of that that God's showing us that our box is just too small. He wants to break our box. He wants us not to have idolatry. In fact, that was the problem with the temple. They were worshiping the box rather than the one that the box was about. In fact, let me sum up the sermon: a man-sized God will create God-sized idolatry. We need to get rid of the boxes, the idols that we tend to worship, the structures, the small things that draw us away from God. And I think there's three thoughts for us in this passage. Number one, if we're going to do that, we have to accept his invitation. That's what the tabernacle was all about. That's what the tent was all about. God inviting a relationship on his terms. Number two, we need to loosen our grip on our preferences. There are some things in life that are good things, but they become God things and they're preferences. And we need to have discernment to identify those things and to loosen our grip on those preferences. Number three, we need to look for God's work outside the church. God doesn't just work in this room from 9 to 12:15. He works in coffee shops, he works at workplaces, he works at all over. And we need to acknowledge, we need to accept his work. Let's start with that first one. Let's learn to accept God's invitation, but do it on his terms. That's what the tabernacle was all about. In fact, notice Stephen begins by going back to in the text it says the tent, the tent of witness. Now, this is a back to the beginning for Stephen. He's drawing on Israel's history and he's stirring up these fond memories. He's stirring up these memories of the past. In fact, I could do that with Central Church. Did you know we started out in a tent? Did you know that? In fact, one of our old logos, we found this one this week, it shows it shows our previous building and it shows the tent. We started in the tent and now we have a building. And that's essentially what Stephen's doing. He's drawing upon the imagery and the history of Israel that God is quite mobile. God uses many methods. Now, what's it called, this tabernacle? It's called the tent of witness. Now, if you haven't grown up in church, I know some of you are new to Christianity. Let me sort of describe what he's talking about in the tent. It's the tabernacle. In fact, this was a place that was named not after God, it was named after the action that it does. It witnesses, it gives testimony, it gives invitation to God's people on how to have a relationship with God. Look at verse 44. He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Moses didn't design it, Moses just built it. In fact, it says that Moses, he built it how? How was he to make it? According to the pattern that he had seen. Just follow the instructions. If you read the book of Hebrews, it says that the tabernacle was actually something that was an image of what's going on in heaven. There is a heavenly, this is a copy of a heavenly item, a heavenly place. It's a shadow of heavenly things, Hebrews 8 says. And so what is this? Well, it witnessed. You might even write that word down. The tabernacle was a witness. Every part of the tabernacle was designed to give a witness. In fact, we could just walk through these. Let me just give you several things it witnessed to. First of all, God's love. If you're here today, you're feeling far from God, you need to hear this. God loves you. God is drawing near to you. In fact, in this sermon, that's an expression of God's love. It witnessed to God's love. In fact, let's put a picture of it. It looks something like this. It was this box in the wilderness. It had a fence around it. There were several barriers there. But the way that God wanted this to happen was that the tabernacle would be at the very center of the camp. And the twelve tribes of Israel would camp around it. It would be in the center, conveying love, conveying fellowship, conveying nearness, the offer of a relationship. God does that. God is offering that you and I can enter into a relationship with Him, but it has to be on His terms. Another thing, write this one down. God's love, it conveys, it witnesses to God's love, but it also conveys God's holiness. Write that down. God is holy. That's one of the most central things to Christianity that you have to understand to become a Christian. God is holy. Every element is showing the holiness of God. There are barriers. Sinful man cannot just come into the presence of God on his own without help. In fact, there was a washing basin. You were to wash your hands, you were to wash your feet, there was all sorts of other barriers. There's a barrier into the tabernacle structure itself. There was an inner holy of holies that only the high priest was allowed to come into on the Day of Atonement. There were all these barriers, and there's only one entrance. God is holy. In fact, it's so interesting. Jennifer, would you go to the next slide? This is so interesting. In the Holy of Holies, there was this large curtain. In fact, tradition tells us that it was about 18 inches thick, and it was one piece. And what the high priest would have to do when he offered atonement for sin was that he would he would lift it up, I suppose, and he would go underneath it, crawl underneath it, and he would have a rope tied to him in some way, because if he walked in there with sin on his conscience, sin on his heart, he would be struck dead and they would have to pull his body out of the room. It's this conveying of the holiness of God. God is holy, he's entirely other, he's separate from sinners. That was the ten of witness. It witnesses God's love, it witnesses God's offer of a relationship, it witnesses God's holiness. I think it also witnesses his exclusivity. Notice in this structure, there's only one entrance. You can't come in from the back, you can't come over the side, you have to come through one eastern entrance. And in the same way, God witnesses to us today that there is one way to God. There's one way for sinful man to be reconciled with a holy God. So it witnesses his love, his holiness, his exclusivity. It also witnesses his commitment. In fact, these inner parts are. I'm just walking you through kind of the parts of the tabernacle. It says it's the tabernacle of witness. Let's let's let it witness to us, maybe minister to our hearts. Some of the parts inside. You've got the table of the show bread, the reminder that God provides for his people. God gives you your bread. God gives you provisions. You've got the candle obra. The candle that was never to go out, was always to be filled with oil, always shining. It's almost like the old uh how many of you remember the Motel 6 uh commercials? We'll keep the what on for you. We'll keep the light on for you. We'll keep the lights on. It's the idea that God's presence, God's availability, God's light shines for us. You come to him, he'll never put you out into the dark. He'll be in a relationship with you for the rest of existence. Access to God. It's an invitation. It's all pointing to Jesus. I think it also witnesses not only his love, his holiness, his exclusivity, his commitment, it witnesses his mercy. It witnesses his grace. How sinners can become right with God. In fact, in this inner area right here, you see what's called the Holy of Holies. And we recognize this piece. This was the Ark of the Covenant. In fact, you guys have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indiana Jones, right? That's what this is. In fact, go to that next slide, Jennifer. This one is, this is maybe an image that you've seen before. It's the idea that God's presence was dwelling above the Ark of the Covenant. You have the two angels not pointed outward, guarding like in the Garden of Eden, when man was expelled from the Garden of Eden. They had a that there was an angel with a flaming sword, and it guarded against the presence. The angels are faced inward over the ark. God's presence is looking down on what's in the ark. It's the law. It's the law that you and I break. The Ten Commandments were inside of the ark. And so there's a problem with our fellowship. We have broken the very law that God has laid down. But the priest would come in and he would cover the mercy seat. He would sprinkle it with the blood of a lamb sacrifice. And what that means is that our sins have been covered. God is offering his mercy, but it's by blood atonement. All of this speaks to some amazing witnessed truths. The tent was never meant to contain God's presence, it was meant to communicate how sinners can have a relationship with the Holy God. It's all pointing ultimately to Jesus. Let me prove that. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 1. In fact, it tells us that the law, the tabernacle, what was it? It was a shadow of the good things to come. In fact, what were the good things to come? All you need to do is read John chapter 1 to understand the point of the tabernacle. In John chapter 1, verse 14, it says that the word, the logos, became flesh. That's Jesus, and he dwelt among us. In fact, this word for dwell is the word of our passage. It's he tabernacled among us. Jesus is the tabernacle. He is God's expression of holiness and love and exclusivity. He is God's expression of mercy and grace. He fulfilled all that the tabernacle witnessed to. And so Stephen is saying, friends, your box is too small. You've got to expand your box. Jesus tabernacled among us. And it's through him, that one way, that exclusive way, that you can have eternal life. Couple of thoughts here. God still invites people to himself, but it's on his terms of salvation. In the same way that God came to Israel and said, Israel, we can have a relationship, but it must be on my terms. You must come by my means. God is still saying that through Jesus Christ. You cannot come to salvation. You cannot be saved. You cannot be saved by your own method. And so many people do this. They try to get salvation by being a good person, by taking out the trash for their neighbor, by picking up limbs, which I'm going to have my kids do today, by doing good deeds. You can't be saved by being good. And I've talked to people like this. Like I have I have had evangelism encounters where I've had someone say to me, I just have done so much bad in my life, I feel like I have to make up for it. Before I can come to God, I've got to clean up my life. And the Bible actually says there's one way of salvation. It's not by your good moral deeds, it's by Jesus Christ. It's He died in your place for your sins. He rose from the dead. And if you would trust in Him, if you would enter into a relationship of faith, hope, and love, it's through Christ that you regain life. And then He changes you. He asks you to come to Him on His terms. And He asks to lead you on His terms. It's learning to say yes to His leadership for your life. When you become a Christian, what happens is it's this whole pattern of Lord, I submit to your will. I submit to what you call me to do. When I first got married, 21 years ago, I felt the call to ministry. I was already doing ministry for a few years before that, but I felt the call that God was calling me into ministry, and I knew that this might mean that I would go to all sorts of places, like Memphis, Tennessee. But I never dreamed that it would take me some of the places that it took me. All over the world. Been to Africa, been to Europe, I've been to South America. I looked at my wife, and in those early years I said, sweetheart, I think we're going into ministry. And she said, okay, let's do it. And she said those, those, those famous last words, I'll go with you anywhere except California. I promise. That's exactly what she said. And it was a very short time later. I would move to California, be a youth pastor there. And we loved it. Everything was great. When you're in God's will, um, when you're in God's will and you submit to God's will, even the things you thought you wouldn't like, you love. But but that's that's what we have to learn to do. We have to learn that God is bigger than our box. And we have to learn to accept his invitation. We have to accept what he calls us to, and we have to live our life that way. And so, what has God called you to? Has he called you to motherhood? Has he called you to work a job that you don't like? Has he called you even? I hate this one, but I'm gonna say it. Sickness? Disease? Hard family environment. You have to learn to embrace God's calling on your life. You have to accept his invitation. And you have to do it his way. That's how you break your little box. Number two, if you're taking notes. Number two, you need to loosen your grip on preferences. This one's so important. Not just in ministry, but in life. You see, we tend to love the things that God doesn't care about. For those Jews, they loved the temple. It was just a box, guys. It was just a box. But just because you don't love something doesn't mean that God doesn't love it. We have to learn and learn to differentiate. There are things in my life that are really preferences. They're not laws from God. And in fact, we see that in verses 45 to 48. We see this progression, and I just racked my brain all week long. What is this even talking about? What is the point of the progression? You see three generations, you see Joshua, you see David, and you see Solomon. And what is this progression from tent to house all about? I struggled with just discerning what this was about. Stephen wants them to see that God is in the habit of using all kinds of boxes, all kinds of processes, but we're not to turn any of them into an idol. With Joshua, God was always there. God was always in the lead. In fact, in the wilderness, God led Israel through the wilderness, and he was mobile. His presence has never been sightlocked. In fact, you might write that down. God's presence has never been sightlocked. Even when it transitioned from tent to brick and mortar building, it's never been, he has never been sightlocked. He's always on the move. The nations witnessed his mobility. In fact, I think about Israel going through the wilderness. I think about Israel dispossessing the other nations. I think about Israel dwelling with God, encamped around their God. And I think like, what must have the other nations have been thinking about? They're looking out there and they're seeing, like last night, very strange weather patterns. I happened to be out driving last night in the first five minutes of the storm. And it was the craziest storm I've ever been in. I had to put my lights on, my uh my caution lights on, and uh I called Ashley and I said, I've never driven anything like this. The wipers can't even keep up with as fast as the wind is blowing. Finally got home, and uh it was a wild night. But I mean, there's nothing as wild as what was going on in the wilderness around Israel at this time. There's this cloud, and the cloud for years, 40 years, is around Israel, and God is dwelling in the midst of his people, and there's this cloud constantly covering the people of God. And then they're being led by a pillar of fire. And it's like this. They don't just set up the tent wherever they want. What happens is the cloud or the pillar of fire, it the cloud, the the picture of God's presence, he moves first, and then Israel follows. And so the nations are looking on and they're like, well, these are strange weather patterns. They're out there in the wilderness and their God is with them, and there's this witness of God's mobility. Now, this was far different than the gods of the day. In fact, the Greek gods were not really operating in that way. They weren't viewed as operating in that way. Um, in fact, if you how many of you grew up with the uh the movie Hercules by Disney? How many of you know what I'm talking about? Hercules. Um, the picture of the ancient world was that God dwells, their gods dwell on Mount Olympus or in their temple, and that's it. This is um one of the sites we got to go to in Athens. This is the temple to Zeus in Athens. And we were there about a year and a half ago uh uh touring, and we saw this location, and in the cartoon, this is kind of interesting, in the cartoon, there was uh this scene where Hercules says, I gotta go talk to my dad, and the only place he can go to talk to his dad is the temple. That was the Greek mindset. God is not mobile, God is isolated, God is in a box. And that's the same thing that this passage is trying to show us. God is not isolated, your box is too small. God is at your work site, God is in your family, God's around your dinner table, God is with you everywhere you go. Your box is too small. Stephen will say that we have a very mobile God. In fact, notice he's mobile through the changes of life. Look at verse 45. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God. God is still working even in the days of David, as the tabernacle. They're looking for a place for it, they're looking for a building. David wants to build the building. God's still working, he's quite mobile, he's giving favor. And yet it was Solomon, it was Solomon who built a house for him. Now, here's a point of interest: God never asked for the house. But it wasn't a sin either. The text doesn't tell us that it was a sin to build a temple. I think what this is saying is the problem is that we worship a form rather than God Himself. We have a preference that overwhelms us. In the Mishnah, we see their veneration, their worship of the temple. The Mishnah says that anyone who has never seen Herod's temple has never seen a beautiful building. Put that picture of the temple up. You can go there today and you can see some of the remnants of its beauty. There's Robinson's arch. These are the steps of the temple that Jesus taught on. You can go stand on those today. Much of this is gone. All that's left, this is the western wall. You've seen pictures of the western wall where people go and pray. This is largely the big part that's that's left. Actually, it's over here that they're at. This is the western wall. But it was beautiful. They worshiped it. They worshiped the box rather than God Himself. They made an idol out of the box. And we do that. We do that. It's not wrong to have preferences. It's not wrong to have likes, but it becomes wrong when we put God in a box and we demand our preferences. We moralize our preferences. That God can only move in this method, this time, this way, that leader, that event, that format, that music style, that's when it becomes wrong. And we all do this. I mean, I found myself doing that uh this week. I um I was grieving in my heart because for years, maybe a little more than a decade, I've been going to uh a pastor's conference. And the pastor's conference used to gather about 10,000 people. And I loved that pastor's conference. I felt God moving there. All those pastors lifting their voices and singing and sitting under God's word. And God really worked in those days of my past. And it doesn't exist today. I can't go to it anymore. They blew it up because of their fighting, because of some failures. And I can never go to it again. And it's it's heartbreaking. It's sad. I look back on that period of my life and I'm like, man, I wish, I wish we could go to that. But it doesn't exist anymore. God is bigger than my little box of Christianity. God is bigger than my past. God is bigger than the events where God moved in my past. And so what we have to do is we have to start learning to release our preferences, release our little boxes so that even if our little version of Christianity comes crumbling down and Christianity in the West, Christianity starts to decline. God is not failing. God is still building his church. He uses all kinds of expressions of it, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Someone say, Amen. I just about went country on that last line. Did you hear that? Again it. The gates of hell will not prevail. Again it's over there. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean that God won't use a different method in a different season, in a different leadership, and a different style. I know a friend of mine, this is such a great story. He moved to Florida and I asked him, hey, what church are you going to? He told me the church. I got on the website, looked it up. I actually couldn't believe that he was going there. Sermons were kind of shallow, the worship was a little wild, and I just said, Hey, that I I can't believe you're going there. And he said, Ah, I'm really glad to be there. I said, Tell me about that. And he said, Well, my son is going to that church. And God is transforming my son. And so I I really don't care about the other little boxes. I don't care about my little preferences. I can see God's movement in places and structures that I don't care about. And I can release those. I love that story. He's like, I can give up my preferences because God's doing something great. My church in North Tulsa, when I was there, I left and the demographics of that area started changing. That even the demographics of the church, and they they started purposefully playing worship songs that half the congregation didn't like. And so one song half the congregation would like, one song the congregation the other half would like. And they tried to plan it that way in both, in all of their services. And the thing that I found amazing about that was the glory of that situation was the church may not have liked the music, but they liked that other people liked the music. And I loved that. I thought that was so powerful. You see, what this is doing is this is crushing our little structures, our little boxes. That's why I love mission trips. Let me put up some pictures. This is uh the team of New York. They are, they flew out to New York, they're there right now, and uh they're doing all kinds of ministry at a church in downtown New York. We we sent uh a thousand backpacks to them, and we are doing all sorts of missions there as we speak. It's happening right now. And this team went out to partner with this church, and as they partnered with that church, they don't have the resources that we have here in our church. And yet God's still working there. When you go to Africa, here's a picture of uh David and I in Africa, and they wrapped us with these tribal wraps. And can you remember this? The the sound system there is nothing like the sound system here, is it? It's basically a couple of speakers that they put up the morning of, and it's loud and it's it's peeking out, it doesn't have the polished presentation, doesn't have the cool lights, it doesn't have the screens in the background. And yet God's working there. God is building his church in Africa. And that's why I love mission trips. It trains us to sort of release the things that we think have to be there, the preferences that we think have to be there. They really don't. God is mobile. God can work in a tent, he can work in a building, he can work in a in a small little church meant for 200 that's holding 600 in Africa. God is quite mobile. We need to release our little boxes. John Stott says the God of Israel is a pilgrim God who is not restricted to one place. He has pledged himself by a solemn covenant to be their God. Therefore, according to his covenant promise, wherever they are, he is there also. And that's good news. Because we have a greater covenant, and Jesus Christ has promised to never leave us, never forsake us, that though the ministry context changes, though the forms change, though the boxes change, God will always be with us and he will accomplish his will. So release your preferences. You need to have the mindset of Solomon. Look at verse 48, and we'll go to our final point. He he built the building. And yet, the very guy who builds the box says this, and Stephen's reminding his audience of this the most high does not dwell in houses made by hands. I think that's the key to this second section. Your box is too small, your preferences are too small. So, what do we do? Knowing that God the Most High does not dwell in boxes built by hands. He's far too big for that. Point number three. We need to loosen our grip and we need to start looking for God's work outside of the church walls. Did you know most people will never don the doors of this building? Most people in our city will never come through those doors. But God does his work outside of this building. It says that heaven is my throne. Next verse. The Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says. Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstoolstool. This is this picture of him as completely sovereign in every place. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or what is the place of my rest? Where are you going to provide for me? I don't need to rest. What's going to contain me? The heavens can't contain me. What he's essentially saying is you and I need to understand that God is not confined to working only in this place from eight from nine o'clock in the morning on Sundays until 12:15. Or if I'm being honest, 12:30, if the sermon goes long. He's not confined to that window. He works in coffee shops. He works in office cubicles. He works in families. He works in your home. He's with you in every part of life. And that's what keeps you growing from that view of God is actually idolatry. Look at verse 50 and we're done. Did not my hands make all these things? Did not my hand make all these things? This is um this is interesting because these two words, it's it's actually, I think the original hearers would have got this. This is idol language. Things made by hands. Stephen is essentially saying, you're just like Israel in the wilderness. You are worshiping the golden calf, the idol, the thing made by hand all over again. You've turned a building into a box and you are bowing down to it instead of God. That's what he's saying. And it's your idol that keeps you from seeing God's movement. It's your idol that's destroying your life. And we do that. We cling to a service, we cling to an event, we cling to a past experience, something we've done previously, a way of doing things. We cling to all sorts of things and make golden calves. We do that. Now I've told you this before. I grew up in Oklahoma. Yes, God does exist in Oklahoma, contrary to what Todd Parr says. I grew up in Oklahoma. And uh my family owns some acreage in this place called Tallaqu, Oklahoma. Now that's a famous place if you ever if you've ever read the book Where the Red Fern Grows. Did you ever read that in high school? Yeah? And and we own some land where people did a lot of that that raccoon hunting back in the day. And it's a story about a boy with his two dogs, and he goes raccoon hunting. And one of the ways that you initially catch your first raccoon is you build a box, a little square box, you drill a hole in it just big enough for a raccoon to stick its hand in, and it will grab the food or the shiny object that you put inside, and it will not let go, and which means it's making a fist and it can't get its hand out of the box, and it's trapped. It's trapped. And so it can't get its hand out of the box. And essentially, that's what our idols do to us. We cling to them so tight that we are trapped into saying that God can only work in this way, this event, this method. And God is saying, I'm far too big for that. Your box is too small. You've got to repent. There are some preferences you have to lay down. Now, what does this do for us? I want to end with application and response. All right? I want to end with some applications. And this is what's so good about this passage, this sermon, is that each point is your application of what you should do this week. The application matters. I don't want to miss that from week to week. So what? We know more about the tabernacle. We know more about the worship of Israel. So what? I like the guy who walked up to his pastor after the sermon and said, uh, Pastor, your your sermons are like a cold drink of water to a drowning man. It's not helpful at all. I want to be helpful. Three main thoughts for us. First, you need to start looking for God to work outside of this church. Again, most people will never don the door of this church. You may be the only church they ever meet. And everywhere you go, God is with you. Write down 1 Corinthians 3.16. 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, Do you not know that you are God's temple? And that God's Spirit works in you. God is tabernacling in you who believe. His spirit is with you who believe. And so when you leave this place today, you need to live with that awareness. Let it do a couple things. Let it make you holy. That God's presence is with you. Let it control your mouth. Don't say that thing. Don't, don't, don't repeat that joke. Don't send that meme. Don't do the things that really are a crime against the Holy Spirit. And also let it produce boldness. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you who believe. Guys, look be like Stephen this week. When you go to work, you need to view your workplace as a place of possibilities that God is bringing you to a people to evangelize, to share Christ with. When you go to, and maybe you're a stay-at-home mom and you're with your children all day long. You need to look at your kids with possibilities. But God has given you this role. So that you could disciple and evangelize the next generation. In fact, I love the generational component of this passage. Don't you? You see, there's generations, Joshua, there's David, there's Solomon. Over time, they lost this idea of a mobile presence of God. We need to generationally step into this role of giving them a high view of God. God has called you to that. Embrace it. Second, we need to loosen our grip on preferences. Is there a box that you're holding on to for dear life? Maybe you have a grip on a way of doing church. Has to happen in a home or in a tent or has to be a small church or it has to be a big church or it's got to have some stained glass somewhere or an organ or lighting or whatever. God is too big for those boxes, and we've got to stop demanding our preferences. Maybe you're hurt by something that's gone. Maybe there's a period of your life where God was working in a mighty way, and you're saying, if we could just get back to that, then God could work. God is far too big for that box. Finally, we need to make sure that we've accepted God's invitation. But you have to do it on his terms. That includes believing the gospel, including what the tent witnessed about. That there's one way to God, his way, that he's holy, that he's entirely holy, that there must be a sacrifice for sin. And we know the rest of the story that Jesus is that sacrifice. And so I want to compel you today. If you are far from God, if you are not trusting in Christ, friends, receive the truth of this passage. Receive the gospel. God is calling you. Your box is too small. You've got to come to God, but it must be on his terms. What are his terms? It is to believe in Jesus Christ, that he has done it all. That there's no work of your hand required. That's called God's grace. He offers you grace and mercy. Grace is the gift that you didn't deserve. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, punishment. And God offers you both through his Son Jesus, who died on the cross and he rose from the dead. And he offers you a relationship. He offers you eternal life. And then what will happen is you'll stop living life on your terms. Now, this is the hardest part. When you become a Christian, when you step into this way of living, you start saying yes to God. And that's what some of you need to do today. Your box has been too small. You've been saying no to God's will. No, Lord, I won't do that ministry. I won't do that evangelism. I won't serve. You're kind of backing off. You're like, Lord, I see those opportunities, but I say no. When you become a Christian, it's an entire life of the Lordship of Christ. It's saying yes where He calls. And is there something that you need to respond to in this service? As the team comes out, I want to have a response time. We do this every week. And I really want this to be a culture of response. I'm going to call forward our response team. We actually bring forth some elders and we bring forth some other individuals. In first service, we have Jonathan Burke and Dick Jacob. And what's going to happen is we're going to have more than them, certainly our elders. We have others coming forward. Go ahead and come on to the front if you're a part of that team and we want to pray with you. Like, I, guys, I really want to do this. I really want us to be the kind of church who comes forward and just says, I'm going to get on my knees and I'm going to pray before the Lord. And I'm going to ask for God's grace. Now, here's one of the things that I didn't talk about in the sermon. Sometimes God calls you to hard things. And some of you may need to response, may need to respond to some of those hard things. Out of your greatest misery may come your greatest ministry. Maybe God has called you to a life of pain. Some hard situations. A job you don't like. A family situation that's just difficult. Maybe God's called you to a life where you're actually struggling through sickness. And you need to pray for God's grace in those seasons. I want us to have a response culture at Central Church where we respond. Okay, you've received the word of God, you respond. And this is an opportunity for you to come forward, pray with someone. If you'll just come forward, they'll take you off to the side here and just have a time just to pray over you. Maybe some counsel, maybe something where God is working. We want to give you a chance to do that. So would you stand right now? I'm gonna pray. And while I pray, you can go ahead and start making your way down. You can pray by yourself at the front. You can pray with a prayer partner at the front. But you come, you respond to the Lord to what God is doing. You who are watching online, I want you to respond too. This is a chance for you to say, where are the boxes that I've made too small? What are the things that I have turned good things into God things? And I've got to repent. What are the things that are our preferences that I've made of God? I've turned into a little box. Would you pray with me? And I want to encourage you, if you need to respond, now's the time. Father, we thank you for this service. We thank you for the opportunity before us. We thank you that even in this service, Lord, your presence is here. You don't dwell in one house or one temple like the Greek gods and what they believed they did. Lord, you are omnipresent. You are in every single place. The heavens cannot contain you. A building cannot contain you. And you're here right now in dwelling we who believe. And so, Lord, I pray on every heart in this room, you would move in a mighty way. That your people in this hour would respond to you. We would lay down idols, we would ask for more mercy. We would ask for more grace in hard situations. Lord, and I pray the people of God would not be ashamed to respond to the word of God. That when the word of God is preached, we would have this culture where we just come and we bow our knee and we pray before you. And we say, Lord, we want your will, not our preferences. So, Lord, we love you. As we sing this song, Lord, we respond in our hearts. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.