Sin Offering Sparrows Special: $2.99 each or 2 for $5

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭21‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Like visiting the attraction’s gift shop on the way in, not the way out, temple sales were booming but cheapening the worship experience. 

Anything to make a buck broke the very heart of solemn temple worship and left the church indistinguishable from a midtown city marketplace on a Friday afternoon. 

Church is a place to escape distractions of this world.

Church is a space to come as you are to commune with God. 

Church provides a pace of rest to pray and hope with others who also expect God to show up and be glorified. 

Let’s keep it that way.