Devotion: WHAT HAVE YOU TURNED THE TEMPLE OF GOD INTO?

MORNING DEW: 10/01/2020

THEME: WHAT HAVE YOU TURNED THE TEMPLE OF GOD INTO?

TEXT: MATTHEW 21:12-13

12 Then Jesus went into the Temple, threw out everyone who was selling and buying in the Temple, and overturned the moneychangers tables and the chairs of those who sold doves.

13 He told them, It is written, My house is to be called a house of prayer, but you are turning it into a hideout for bandits!

JESUS WAS NOT HAPPY SEEING THE ROT IN THE TEMPLE

Jesus entered into the Temple, saw the rot which the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the chief priests saw, and did nothing, but Jesus could not control Himself seeing such things. The Temple was turned into market place. The ceremonial items were being bought there by the people for the purposes of business.

People were no longer bringing their own items from their respective homes for the sacrifice, you only needed some good amount of money and you could get whatever you wanted for any sacrifice. This new arrangement was good for the priest and the people. So the Temple became a business centre.

The sacred place became criminals dwellings. A place of prayer became a place of selling and buying.
It was normal as far as the people were concerned. They saw nothing wrong with the new practice. But when Jesus entered the Temple He saw something wrong with the practice. He saw filth.

In fact He saw a hideout place of criminals; armed robbers, thieves, magicians, soothsayers, diviners. These people were in charge of different businesses in the Temple, and instead of God's presence, human presence was in dominance.

Jesus became sad. He became troubled and had to take a drastic action. He whipped them. The doves fled. The rams, sheep, goats, all were gone. The money changers could not have access to their monies. That day a lot of properties were destroyed by Jesus.
People lost huge sums of monies. People businesses collapsed.

GOD'S TRUE TEMPLE

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

Temple is a sacred place. It is a holy place where God resides. God is holy and cannot live in a dirty place. God's Temple should be a place of worship, prayer.

Beloved, you are the true Temple of God. God no longer lives in temples made by hands. God is in you and you are in Him. And God's Temple should be holy. Are you holy?
What have you turned His Temple into?

Somebody says "I own myself and can do whatever I want to do." It's a lie, you don't own yourself anymore. The moment you have come to Christ you don't own yourself anymore. You can't do what you want to do but what He wants you to do.

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Stop using your body as if you own it. Use it the way the owner desires. You can't be sleeping when the owner of your body wants you to be praying at the same time. You can't be watching television when He wants you to be in church. You can't be eating when He wants you to be praying. You should understand that He now directs you.
You can't go to work when He wants you to speak to a soul, no!
Read this.

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

Beloved, please Him (God) alone. You are His true Temple. Let your Temple be holy to accommodate Him.
Don't turn His Temple into a market place.

WHAT HAVE YOU TURNED HIS TEMPLE INTO?

MEMORY VERSE

"He told them, It is written, My house is to be called a house of prayer, but you are turning it into a hideout for bandits!" (Matthew 21:13).

PRAYER

Father, wash my filth and forgive me of all my sins, in Jesus' Name!
Amen!

Rev. John Wundengba
020 9 422 159