Clean the House, Get Ready For Service!
“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
—1 Peter 4:17
We are living in a time when God is cleaning His house and calling His people for service. It is a time of awakening, and God wants “all hands on deck.” You have an important role to play in the end times harvest of souls coming to Jesus. The move of God is here—the question is, are you ready for service?
Recently, I was leading worship for a service at our local church, and I saw in my mind a picture of Jesus walking down a hallway of what looked like an abandoned office building. There was trash on the ground and closed doors on each side of Him. I felt like it represented the neglected places in the body of Christ.
It reminded me of the story of King Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 29.
Leading up to that chapter, King Ahaz had led Judah into idolatry and unfaithfulness to the Lord. The Bible says he shut the doors to the house of God and made places of worship to false gods in every city of Judah (2 Chron. 28:22-25).
The main issue with that is, whoever you worship, you make a dwelling place for. He had shut the doors to the house of God and opened up portals (through false worship) to demonic influence in the land.
The land of praise (Judah) had been polluted with idolatry.
When King Hezekiah takes his place as king, the first thing he does is open the doors to the house of God, tells the priests to sanctify themselves, and commissions them to clean the “rubbish from the holy place.” (2 Chron. 29:5). There was trash in the house of God!
It took them sixteen days to clean out the house of God.
Then they restored Davidic worship with instruments, singing, and the song of the Lord.
But as they began to make animal sacrifices, they came up against an issue—there weren't enough consecrated priests to do the work of the ministry. The problem continues in 2 Chronicles 30, when Hezekiah wanted to restore the Passover feast to Israel. Because of the lack of priests ready for service, they had to delay the Passover an entire month.
What does this have to do with the church today?
Well, God is doing a new thing in the earth and He’s looking for some people to partner with to get the job done.
Here are a few points I’d like to extract from the story that are applicable to our lives today.
1. Deal with the neglect
“My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that you should minister to Him and burn incense.”
—2 Chronicles 29:11
The neglect was seen in at least two ways—personally and corporately.
Corporately, the doors to the house of God were shut! There was rubbish in the holy place!
Surely, when trash piles up in a place—especially in a holy place—it demonstrates there has been an undue amount of neglect.
In this case, it was neglect of the house of God.
In our lives, it can be a neglect of church, a neglect of the things of God, a neglect of the work on God on the earth.
Ahaz had closed the doors of the house of God and in doing so, closed the nation off to the influence of the Presence of God.
But the corporate neglect was really a reflection of a personal neglect. Yes, the king had led the nation astray, but at the end of the day, your actions are your responsibility.
They had to deal with their own negligence. When Hezekiah had called the priests, his admonishment was: do not be negligent now. They had put off what they were called to do. We don’t know what exactly they were doing before this (maybe caught up in idolatry)—but what we do know is that they weren’t serving the Lord.
They did something other than serve God.
They neglected the call of God on their lives.
Paul wrote Timothy in the New Testament:
“Do not neglect the gift that is in you…” (1 Tim. 4:14)
If you’ve neglected your call, it’s time to repent.
Get back on track.
Answer the call of God on your life.
Return to Him, and He’ll return to you.
Many times we want to fix everyone and everything outside of us, but God wants us to start with ourselves.
Consecrate yourself. Sanctify yourself.
Then you’ll be in a better position to minister to others.
Jesus said it like this:
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
…Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
—Matthew 7:3, 5
2. Clean the house
If you are a leader in the body of Christ, then you have a holy responsibility to help clean out the church.
This is where you have to address false doctrines, unhealthy beliefs, sin issues, conflicts in the church, and a whole host of other things that equate to “rubbish” in the house of God.
You have been entrusted to speak the truth in love.
You have been called to confront sin in the church.
You have been delegated the authority to represent Christ on the earth.
What a privilege.
What a responsibility.
If there’s “trash” in the house of God, who’s going to go clean it up?
It will be the people who care about God and His church. If you love Jesus, you’ll take care of His people (John 21:15-17)
When the priests consecrated themselves, they then consecrated the house.
They helped others do the same thing they had already done for themselves.
That’s what ministry is: Sharing with others what Christ has done in you.
3. Minister to the Lord
In verse 11, Hezekiah said to the priests that God had chosen them to stand before Him and minister to Him.
If you keep following the story, King Hezekiah restored Davidic worship.
I believe those two things are connected. We minister to the Lord through our worship.
“And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for thus was the commandment of the Lord by His prophets.”
—2 Chronicles 29:25
(see 2 Chron. 29:25-30)
They restored the kind of worship that David instituted in Israel many years before. In fact, the revivals that happen in Israel subsequent to David’s time all restore his order of worship.
One of the main ways we minister to the Lord is through music and song. In the New Testament, one of the offerings we bring to God is our sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15).
You may think that you don’t have a good voice, or you’re not musically talented, therefore you don’t need to bring the song of praise. But the truth is, God isn’t looking for highly talented singers to bring Him praise. He is looking for hearts who want to connect with Him—regardless of musical talent.
The thing about singing is that it accesses your heart in a way that speaking doesn’t always reach. Singing to the Lord is one of the best ways to experience a heart connection with God. Jesus said that the true worshippers would worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23) and spirit is a word that is synonymous with heart in the Bible.
There is nothing more exhilarating in life than ministering to the Lord in His Presence.
It is our eternal occupation.
Your primary ministry is to minister to God.
Out of that place, God, in His generosity, will minister to you and others around you.
I encourage you, then, to prioritize your ministry to God.
Take time to sing praise to Him.
Take time to sit at His feet.
Take time to pour your love on Jesus.
The only person whom Jesus promised would have a global reputation was a woman who poured out an extravagant offering of worship at His feet (Mark 14:9).
4. Be ready for service
Going back to 2 Chronicles 29—Hezekiah invites Judah to bring animal sacrifices to the Lord.
They brought the sacrifices to the Lord, but there was a problem:
There weren’t enough priests to do the work!
“But the priests were too few…”
—2 Chron. 29:34
The priests, whose job it was to facilitate the sacrifices, weren’t ready for service!
There were people called to service, but didn’t answer the call!
They had something better to do with their time than answer the call of God for their lives!
It’s the same thing that Jesus said in Matthew 9:37—
“Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
What’s more is—in the next chapter, 2 Chronicles 30, Hezekiah issues a call to reinstitute the Passover feast. But they had to delay it an entire month because they didn’t have enough priests to get the job done.
Let me put it differently: A move of God got delayed because of the lack of ministers!
What if a move of God is being delayed in your house, your family, your church, your city—because you weren’t ready for service?
CONCLUSION
What about you?
Have you been neglecting the call of God for your life?
Is there any compromise or sin you need to repent of?
Have you neglected ministering to the Lord?
We are in a time of awakening. People’s hearts are turning to Jesus.
You have an important role to play in the move of God on the earth.
It’s time to jump on board with what God is doing in the earth today.
Are you ready for service?