Is Building Better?

Is Building Better? 3/1/2005

Psalm 127:1

Today our featured ministry is construction. Construction has been a big part of this church from its very beginning in 1976. This church was started with nothing but a few families meeting in homes. Then the property was purchased and the building began. Back in the back where our classrooms and nursery is was the original sanctuary. Then this add on of the new sanctuary with the unfinished basement was added in 1984.

The old sanctuary became the classrooms and then at a latter date the basement was finished, equipped with a full kitchen and two additional bathrooms and a shower area.

Now very few are here now that went through that construction phase and many have came and gone. My first construction entry was digging up a water line on the back of the property, the first time I really remember meeting Jeff Holiday. And I found the water line, after poking a hole in it and it looking like a water foutain, it is a wonder I was ever asked to do anything again.

In 1999 the former pastor along with the members got a vision of adding a gym, a youth sanctuary, as I would call it. After time and prayer, the church voted to start another construction job in spring of 2000

And we could take up the rest of the time telling of the stories and miracles that have occurred during that process. And yet many people who have started the project have came and left, leaving many of the new people to inherit the vision.

And does it stop here when the gym is completed? Can we retire the ministry of construction and make a plaque with the names of those who were the most influential in this project?

Well just as our own homes are in need of continual up keep, construction will always be a part of this church and any other who continues to be alive. And I share the dream of many of someday adding on to our current facilities with a new sanctuary

So this morning I want to spend a little time and try to answer questions and refocus on this ministry of construction by asking the question of is building better and then giving Biblical examples of our answer.

Is building better?

Now before we begin to answer that question, let me first say that it is a two-part answer. Yes and No. Let me explain. Yes, a building church is a church that is alive. It is growing and God is blessing.

I recently attended a pastor’s luncheon and it saddened me to hear of a church that was going to close its doors. I have been in the church and it is a beautiful facility, with room to die for, in a location surrounded with residential housing.

But Satan has a strong hold on the church and its attendance has dwindled to the point that even the utilities cannot be paid. That is sad.

I would rather have the problem of not having enough room then to have the opposite. My Dad in the little town of Rupert, found a Southern Baptist Church whose doors had closed and on the marquee for the last Sunday that they were open read 3 in attendance. Dad reopened the little church and now a little over a year latter, he has had as high as over 100 and is averaging in the 80’s.

What made the difference? Why is building better? In our text it tells us the answer. “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it;”

So to answer the question of is building better, the answer is yes if it is God doing the building. And remember that Jesus was a Carpenter by trade, and He likes to build.

So what is the reason for the answer of question is building better being no? It would be if we were doing it for our glory. Remember what happened when they tried to build the tower to reach the heavens in Genesis? Remember why they did so?

Genesis 11:4, And they said, “Come let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, least we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth”

They were building it for themselves, not because God told them to, not to give God the glory; but they were doing it so that people would look at them and say what a good job they did. Sure shot for failure. God came down and confused their language so the place was called Babel. That is where we get the saying when someone is talking and we don’t understand them, “They are babbling”.