Preparing To Build - 2

Preparing to Build, Part 2

Choosing the Builder

Last week, we started a brand new series entitled, Preparing to Build, Seeing the Vision, Living the Dream. This series is focused on our vision, our passion for the future. We talked about where we are heading as a church, what we are trusting God to accomplish, and the results we are planning to see through our passion.

Last week, I shared with you a quote from John Maxwell’s book, Talent is Never Enough, that said: “A passionate person with limited talent will outperform a passive person who possesses far greater talent every time. Why? Because passionate people act with boundless enthusiasm, and they just keep on going! Talent plus passion energizes.”

Passion. That is what is going to help us build the church that God wants us to build. That is what is going to help us build His house.

This entire series is about building. Building God’s house. Building you faith. Building your life on the will of God. I shared a verse with you from Isaiah. Is. 66:1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?

God is talking to us. Where is the house you will build me? We are committed to building his house. Last week I asked the question, HOW? We said we are committed to the vision, we said we believe this is what God wants us to do, we said we know this is where we need to go, but HOW?

That is the purpose behind this sermon series. HOW! How do we go from here to where God wants us to be? How do we accomplish the vision for our church? God has called us to fulfill big tasks. He has called us to accomplish great things. We know that it’s just not going to happen, we must make it happen. We began last week by saying that we must prepare.

Prepare the soil. Prepare ourselves. Prepare to see God move. Preparation with Passion.

We took a look at the pile of soil here on stage. We talked about how valuable that soil is. How that we can take that foundation and turn it into a thing of beauty. On that soil, we can build our house.

Today, we continue. We continue our preparation to build. You see, we are all fired up about seeing God do amazing things in the next five years, we so desire it to happen but we’re not quite sure how to get there. Taking the vision, and seeing it happen.

Today, we talk about CHOOSING THE BUILDER. You see, when you are beginning the process of building a house, one of the first things you must do, is decide who is going to build it. And there are so many choices out there. There are so many choices we can make, but there is only one right choice.

Our theme verse for this series is found in 1 Cor. 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

How can you be both steadfast, anchored down, rendered immobile and at the same time abounding? The answer is that while we are anchored firmly in the middle of God’s will for our lives, we simply work. We work hard. We pray hard. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.”

We focus on what God wants us to do. We press on to greater heights, greater visions, and greater service.

We work to the point of exhaustion. Like a runner at the end of the race. We work to finish well! While all along, staying in the midst of God’s will.

Building. Building is what it’s all about. We’ve shared the vision of where God is taking us, and so we build.

2Chr. 14:7 Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.

Building and prospering. In ever aspect of the building process, you watch as new things develop from your hard labor. Daily, you see results. We want to build and prosper.

But before building, we must always make sure we choose the right builder.

Matthew 7:24-27: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”