But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Even after all the magnificent work creating a temple for the lord, Solomon regarded it insufficient and nothing more than symbolic.

It could only serve to satisfy the human desire for a tangible place to worship an intangible God as if he may do his best work in a temple made by human hands versus within the human heart.

Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Church is not a building.
Church is in the heart of every man.

We were made to worship and to do so with or without four walls around us.

However, God indulges our desire for a place where an invisible God may become visible within the best splendor we can muster, even if it’s only symbolic.

Elaborate temples of gold and riches may be out of fashion these days, but the local church is often the very place many of us experience the majesty and beauty of Jesus for the very first time.

If you build it, they will come.