This morning I was sitting here just looking at how far God has brought me personally in the past year. This past Monday, May 5th, Dusti and I celebrated our first full year in ministry here at First Assembly. And the first thing that has come to mind this morning is the scripture I’ve sort of been chewin’ on the past few days.

Yet today I want to back up just a bit and give a little more detail:

1 Kings 5:13 - 6:

13 King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men. 14 He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, 16 as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen. 17 At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple. 18 The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.

Chapter 6

1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple. 4 He made narrow clerestory windows in the temple. 5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms. 6 The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits and the third floor seven. He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

I read and I read and I read these verses and each time I see something new. Yesterday he showed me that He wants us to build a temple of beauty on the inside. But today He has shown me the beautiful temple of Ministry.

Like I said, I have been thinking about this year in review, and as this scripture came to my heart, I knew God had something for me.

If you look back into the end of chapter 5, Solomon gathered thousands upon thousands of skilled workers. This was no general work. He wasn’t just putting up a storage shed for his lawn mower. No Solomon got the best of the best to do his work. Then it goes on to say that “they removed from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple.”

Did you see that - quality stone.

Now I told you that God has brought me a long way this past year, but he has also brought our youth group a long way also. When I sit and think about each individual in our group I can tell you that there were days I just wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to lay a foundation, let alone build a youth group. But today I see that God has done an awesome work not only in their lives but in their hearts.

Now back to Solomon - You see in 5:17, Solomon gathered his workers to not only prepare the stone off site (which I talked about yesterday) but he spent time to “dress” them. That word “dressed” meant a lot. And seeing that this is Solomon - who wanted the BEST - he had each stone measured perfectly - all rough edges cut off - and then he “dressed” them. He spent the extra time to adorn them. He made them beautiful. He allowed the workers to skillfully carve a mark of beauty on the surface.

And now as the curtain pulls back. I see that a year ago, even I was just a rock out in the quarry. I was what seemed without purpose. But God had a plan, and he carried me out “dressed” me in His finest and laid a foundation. He has dressed each one of my youth and called them beautiful. And laid a foundation for a temple that will resound in history.

Praise God! Praise God!

Pastor Daniel