I think if I’m honest with myself, I don’t expect a lot from reading Chronicles. Not just because of the seemingly endless, and sometimes to me pointless — though ALL Scripture is God-breathed and profitable (2Tim. 3:16) — genealogies that occupy its first chapters, but because its about stuff already covered in earlier books. So again, if I’m honest with myself, I too often have too low an anticipation of being “surprised” by anything in this ancient book. But hey, when it comes to the “living and active”, sword-swinging, soul and spirit piercing, thoughts and intentions of the heart discerning word of God (Heb. 4:12), you never know when you’re gonna take one right to the heart.

This morning, it’s an exhortation by David to Solomon which cuts deeply as a command to obey.

Now set your mind and heart to seek the LORD your God. Arise and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for the name of the LORD.”

(1Chronicles 22:19 ESV)

Son, says the aging king, beyond ruling over a great people, you are called to do something only you can do for a great God. So, set your heart and mind to seek the LORD. And what will that look like? It will look like building a sanctuary. It will look like constructing a sacred place. A place that will be holy because it will be where the glory of God dwells. Divinely set apart because it will be intimately and integrally associated with the name of the LORD.

So, my son, arise and build the sanctuary of the LORD God.

And there it is, my command to obey.

“So get moving — build the sacred house of worship to GOD!” (MSG)

Oh, how we have missed the boat when we think about “going” to church. When our framework for gathering with God’s people is about what we “get” from it. When our definition of faithfulness is bound up in our attendance — especially when faithful attendance in our current culture looks like once or twice a month on a Sunday morning where we are in “receive mode.”

But what if that mindset were to shift? That, instead of just attending church, we viewed ourselves as building the church? That instead of going ready to evaluate the songs we sing and the preaching we hear, we went with the idea of being the place where the glory of God dwells? What if we equated setting our mind and heart to seek the LORD with actively building a holy place for the LORD. ‘Cause, you know, that’s what we’re doing.

. . . you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

(Ephesians 2:19b-22 ESV)

We aren’t just church members, we are tabernacle materials, growing into a holy temple in the Lord and being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

“Living stones”, that’s what Peter calls those who have come to Jesus. Because that’s how God sees those who are now “in Him.”

Church isn’t programming to go watch (and then critique); it’s a God-ordained program providing substance and focus for setting our minds and hearts for seeking Him. Church isn’t just a place to go in hope of finding God, it’s a place to arise and build in order to be the house God. Church isn’t something we go and do; it’s a gathering where we become the spiritual temple where Someone dwells.

So, let’s do it. Let’s set our mind and our heart to seek the LORD. Let’s arise and build the sanctuary of the LORD. Let’s be a house built for the name of the LORD.

And that, my friend, is this morning’s “surprise” — a New Testament command from an Old Testament source.

By God’s grace. For God’s glory.