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Yesterday was a rare day in our family. My wife was able to be in the main adult worship service. On many Sundays she is to be found in one of the KidZones teaching. However, yesterday she actually heard my message and was able to talk with me about it later on in the day.

She told me that when the message started and she began to notice I would be speaking on the “end times” she thought, “Oh, Jeff, Jesus said so many wonderful things, why would you pick that topic?” Well, it’s true. Jesus did say some pretty amazing things, but a large section of Matthew is devoted to this topic, so I thought we should at least address it. I guess the question I have is why Jesus himself thought it was important enough to talk about.

The verse we consider today is one that disturbed a lot of people in Jesus’ day. It was in fact, one of the accusations against Jesus when he stood on trial before the high priest. People were appalled that a Rabbi of Jesus’ caliber would speak ill about the temple and the temple buildings. That didn’t stop him. He clearly predicted the future destruction of the temple.

Why is that important? Simply put, we put much greater emphasis on things, buildings, and locations than God does. God uses things, buildings, and locations in human history to help us relate to him, but there is nothing special about a building in Jerusalem other than the fact that God used if for a time. Jesus, however, says that time is coming to an end.

Here’s the question for us. How much of your spiritual life is connected to things of this world—a building, a location, an object, a song, a book? God uses earthly things to relate to us and to teach us about himself, but we tend to rely on those earthly things. The temple was never important. What was important was the God who chose to use it for a time.

As we consider the topic of spiritual endurance this week, it will benefit us greatly to shift our perspective from earthly things to God himself. He never changes. He is always faithful, and even if heaven and earth pass away, we have nothing to fear if we have him.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Are there objects, musical styles, locations, or other things to which your spiritual life is tied?