WHAT WERE THE SAD SPIRITUAL LESSONS HEROD TAUGHT US?
I. BUILDING A HOUSE OF FAITH IS NOT THE SAME AS LIVING A LIFE OF FAITH.
EXPLANATION
1. Herod began building the Temple in Jerusalem in 20 BC and it was completed in AD 63.
2. It was finished 7 years before its demolition.
3. The project required the labor of 10,000 men for 10 year, just to fashion the retaining walls around the Temple platform.
4. The perimeter walls towered more than 80 ft. high, and at places they were dug as deep as another 70 feet down to their bedrock foundation.
5. These walls encompassed some 1.55 million square feet of space, about 36 acres, making the Herodian Temple the largest manmade platform in the world, spacious enough to contain 24 football fields or six Colosseums.
6. The exterior of the building was designed to astound the mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays. It was also painted with the purest of white.
APPLICATION
HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE OF FAITH?
1. Start with JUSTIFICATION
2. Continue with SANTIFICATION
3. End with GLORIFICATION
II. YEARNING FOR RECOGNITION WILL DESTROY YOUR LIFE, BUT LIVING THE LIFE OF SERVANTHOOD WILL ENHANCE IT DRAMATICALLY.
A. RECOGNITION
1. Yearning for RECOGNITION means we are filled with PRIDE, ARROGRANCE, and great INSECURITY.
2. Yearning for RECOGNITION means we are NOT experiencing the ABUNDANT LIFE.
3. Yearning for RECOGNITION means that we are not interested in God getting the HONOR and GLORY.
B. SERVANTHOOD
1. SERVANTHOOD is BIRTHED in us at SALVATION, but requires SUBMISSION and OBEDIENCE each and every day.
2. SERVANTHOOD LEADS us to live the ABUNDANT LIFE.
3. SERVANTHOOD enables us to JOIN FORCES with God.
III. SEEKING CARNAL PLEASURES WILL DRAIN THE LIFE OUT OF US, BUT GRATITUDE WILL BRING A GODLY HARVEST.
A. HEROD'S CARNAL PLEASURES
1. Herod had an appetite for FAME AND FOOD.
-He had an insatiable desire to care for his every dietary need and whim.
-His food indulgences lead to major health problems and obesity.
-He killed several hundred Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin.
-He killed his wife and then put her in a jar of honey in his bedroom.
-He remodeled the Temple to placate Jews.
-He destroyed records in the Sanhedrin so they could not trace their genealogies.
-Before He died he jailed a couple hundred people and ordered the moment he died to kill Pharisees so there would be crying and grieving the day he died. (The order was not carried out).
2. Herod was married 10 times (Political marriages), divorced 2 and was responsible for the deaths of 3 sons.
-He had 100's of supporters killed.
-He had many relatives killed.
3. Herod wrote 5 different wills and each one naming a different individual or individuals who should be his wills.
B. GODLY GRATITUDE
1. Gratitude moves us AWAY from GREED.
2. Grateful people HEAR God's WHISPERS.
3. Gratitude moves us into PEACEFUL PASSAGES.
4. Gratitude toward God ENABLES us to see others through God's eyes of Grace.
5. Grateful people love to Acknowledge all of God's BENEFITS.
6. Gratitude TENDERIZES every Heart it CAPTURES.
APPLICATION
1. Are you developing a lifestyle like Herod?
2. Are you developing a life with God?
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