Ecclesiastes 7:8 (NKJV) "The end of a thing is better than its beginning;
The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit."
The NLT says,
"Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride."
When you're first starting in ministry, you're excited and raring to go. You set out with an agenda to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. To win souls to Christ. To teach disciples of Christ to mature and grow. To worship in spirit and truth. To develop your inner, middle, and outer circle because you know the measure of people.
A hand full are fully committed to helping you. Other's will only commit but so far, and in the 3rd area, they really don't commit for varying reasons.
One thing you have to remember. People have lives too. They have families, responsibilities, and other commitments that should be honored, so long as those commitments doesn't have a hint of the world in them. What I mean is that you can't "serve two masters."
Over time, the Lord begins to grow the work. You're finally seeing the fruit of your labors. People are growing in their relationship with the Lord.
They're unashamedly sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Prayer and evangelism is the two basic elements that is the foundation of the work.
But more importantly, the people love the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and they love their neighbor as themselves. The local church has a Biblical world view. In other words, they see the corrupt world get more corrupt, but they don't allow what they see in the world faze them.
Romans 5:20-21 (NKJV) "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Forging ahead, their zeal increases each and every day. The opportunities to witness increase. The Lord works through these believers, not to change the world, but to offer the saving grace of the Lord to be saved from the corruption that's in the world.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (NKJV) "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
The place of the church is not to change the world. The job of the church is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to sinners so they would be saved from the wrath of God to come, and to live godly lives that pleases the Lord.
The job of the church is to be salt and light to the world (see Matthew 5:13-14).
Most pastors and teachers say that Jesus is the product. That's false teaching. The Lord is the Head of the Church. "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that God prepared before hand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10.
The world is to see the good works in us that glorify our Father which is in heaven (see Matthew 5:16.
For years, men have built great buildings for people to come to worship the Lord in.
Billions of dollars have been invested to hold services in these places. In some instances, they're necessary tools to help spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one should ever minimize this because the house that houses the church is an important element.
The Lord wouldn't have it any other way.
Isaiah 66:1-2 (NKJV) "Thus says the LORD:
“Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,”
Says the LORD.
“But on this one will I look:
On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word."
The world build their cathedrals, arenas, auditoriums, stadiums, theaters, and at great cost.
They become centers where people congregate, fellowship, and associate. Streaming and television could only do but so much, but these arenas serve a need. It's a place where it becomes a central meeting place to draw people from their homes and worship God.
The house of the Lord is a place of prayer.
Isaiah 56:7 (NKJV) "Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
The physical building is a representation of the true Temple of God.
God dwelling in the human heart of man.
What does this have to do with the "End of a thing?"
Everything.
It was always the Father's will to dwell in man.
2 Corinthians 6:16 - 7:1 (NKJV) "And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”
Therefore
“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
“I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."
The Lord paid the highest price to dwell in man. It cost Him the life of His Son.
The end of a thing?
What is the end of a thing?
Revelation 21:22-27 (NKJV) "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.
The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life."
As it stands now, before "heaven and earth pass away," there's a temple there.
What's in the temple in heaven right now?
If you look at the Temple in the OT, Moses was instructed to make a Tabernacle like what the Lord showed him on the mount.
Hebrews 8:5 (NKJV) "...who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
The Tabernacle of Moses was a "type and shadow" of what's in heaven.
The goal was to give man a glimpse of what's to come. That God will dwell in man.
But first, the heart of man must be changed by the Spirit.
Ezekiel 11:18-20 (NKJV) "And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there.
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,
that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God."
Ezekiel 18:30-32 (NKJV) “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD.
“Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed,
and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!”
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NKJV) "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them."
Israel was to be that example but they've rejected the Lord Jesus and now Gentiles have been brought in to cause Israel to be jealous and repent.
But since they've refused, according to Romans chapters 9 and 10, they will be grafted in again, but it will be during the end times. The final week of Daniel's 70 week prophesy will be the point where everything that the Father had set out to do, will be accomplished.
Daniel 9:24 (NKJV) “Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy."
After the final week, commonly called the "Great Tribulation," the Lord Jesus will reign in Jerusalem in the 4th Temple. You will have to read Ezekiel chapters 37 through 47 and you will see that this coincides with Zechariah chapters 12, 13, and 14, and Revelation chapters 19 through 22.
But after that, heaven and earth will pass away. Including the 4th temple.
And according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, the Lord Jesus will turn over all power back to the Father, and in the end, the beauty of it all will be the final product.
That God will finally dwell with man, making all things new.
Revelation 21:1-5 (NKJV) "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying,
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.
There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
The end of a thing is better than the beginning because when you first start out, there's a lot of work that has to be done.
And when you're finished, it gives you a feeling of satisfaction that the work got done.
But it's with great cost and price.
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